Retool Embed SDK

Easily embed Retool apps into your existing web applications to extend their functionality.

If your Retool applications don't require authentication, you can generate a public link for your source URL. You can also authenticate users into embedded Retool apps by integrating Retool with your identity provider, or generating a secure embed URL through the Retool API.

Installation

Install the SDK via npm:

npm -i --save-dev @tryretool/retool-embed

Quickstart

Embedding a Retool app

To embed a Retool app, use the createRetoolEmbed function.

createRetoolEmbed({
    src: 'https://example.retool.com/embedded/public/5a34f0e4-1e19-45bd-9d0f-9612d42eed17',
});

Configuration options

Argument	Type	Description
src	string (required)	URL of the Retool app
style	string (optional)	A valid style parameter
data	Object (optional)	Object to pass from the parent app into Retool. Within your Retool app, use a Parent Window Query to reference keys in the data object.
onData	function (optional)	Callback executed with data when the embedded Retool application calls parent.postMessage(data) from a JavaScript Query.

Examples

Public link

const container = document.createElement('div')
app.appendChild(container)

const publicAppUrl = 'https://example.retool.com/embedded/public/5a34f0e4-1e19-45bd-9d0f-9612d42eed17'

embeddedRetool = createRetoolEmbed({
    src: publicAppUrl,
    style: "border: 1px solid blue; height: 100%; width: 100%;",
    data: {dataValue: false},
    onData: (data) => {
        mockFunction(data)
    }
});
container.appendChild(embeddedRetool)

Authenticated Embed URL

const container = document.createElement('div')
app.appendChild(container)

// Client calls your backend, which makes request to Retool for the embed URL.
const getEmbedUrl = async () => {...}

getEmbedUrl().then((retoolEmbedUrl) => {
    embeddedRetool = createRetoolEmbed({
        src: retoolEmbedUrl,
        style: "border: 1px solid blue; height: 100%; width: 100%;",
        data: {dataValue: false},
        onData: (data) => {
            mockFunction(data)
        }
    });
    container.appendChild(embeddedRetool)
});

Full example: Two-way communication between Retool and the embedding application

import { createRetoolEmbed } from "@tryretool/retool-embed";

let embeddedRetool

const advancedRetool = (value) => {
    embeddedRetool.data = {advancedUser: value}
}

let app = document.querySelector('#app')

// advanced user toggle 
const advancedCheckbox = document.createElement('input')
advancedCheckbox.type = 'checkbox'
advancedCheckbox.onclick = () => advancedRetool(advancedCheckbox.checked)
const advancedLabel = document.createElement('label')
advancedLabel.innerText = 'Advanced User'
app.appendChild(advancedCheckbox)
app.appendChild(advancedLabel)

const eventContainer = document.createElement('div')
eventContainer.className = 'eventContainer'
app.appendChild(eventContainer)

// iframe container
let container = document.createElement('div')
container.className = 'iframeContainer'
app.appendChild(container)

// handle event from retool
const handleRetoolClick = (data) => {
    eventContainer.classList.add('active')
    eventContainer.innerText = data
}

// set up retool
const getEmbedUrl = async () => {
    const res = await fetch('http://localhost:8000/generateEmbeddedRetoolURL', 
        {
            method: 'POST',
            headers: {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
            body: JSON.stringify({
                username: 'specialuser',
            }),
        }
    ) 
    return (await res.json()).embedUrl;
}

getEmbedUrl().then((retoolEmbedUrl) => {
    embeddedRetool = createRetoolEmbed({
        src: retoolEmbedUrl,
        style: "border: 1px solid blue; height: 98%; width: 100%;",
        data: {advancedUser: false},
        onData: (data) => {
            handleRetoolClick(data)
        }
    });
    container.appendChild(embeddedRetool)
});

Generating an embed URL

Ensure you generate the embed URL on a secure, authenticated backend server. Follow our documentation for detailed instructions.