Platform Proxies

Overview

Platform proxies are a way of abstracting platform-specific code away through a common interface from your common code.

With platform proxies, you can:

• Define a common interface to abstract loader-specific code into common-accessible code
• Provide implementations for your interface on each loader subproject individually
• Have Balm automatically load the appropriate implementation when accessing your proxy

Usage

// Define implementations for each platform
MyInterface instance = Balm.platformProxy()
    .withFabric("com.example.mymod.fabric.FabricImplementation")
    .withForge("com.example.mymod.forge.ForgeImplementation") 
    .withNeoForge("com.example.mymod.neoforge.NeoForgeImplementation")
    .build();

Requirements for Proxy Classes

Implementation classes loaded through the platform proxy system must:

• Implement the interface you're proxying
• Have a public no-argument constructor

Platform Detection

For the rare case where you need to handle some mod logic differently on one platform without needing to access loader-specific code, Balm also provides the current platform through Balm.platform().name() and its supported platforms in the LoaderPlatforms class.

if (Balm.platform().name().equals(LoaderPlatforms.FABRIC)) {
    // Do something that only happens on Fabric (but obviously, without having access to Fabric APIs since you're in common code)
}

Comparison with Other Proxy Types

Balm also provides other proxy types:

• Mod Proxies: For mod-specific code (e.g. abstracting away different currency mods)
• Sided Proxies: For client vs dedicated server code (only rarely needed nowadays)