@feathersjs/feathers

What is @feathersjs/feathers?

@feathersjs/feathers is a lightweight web framework for building real-time applications and REST APIs using JavaScript or TypeScript. It provides a flexible architecture for creating services that can be used on the client and server, making it easy to build scalable and maintainable applications.

What are @feathersjs/feathers's main functionalities?

Service Creation

This code demonstrates how to create a basic service in FeathersJS. The service has methods for finding, getting, and creating messages. The service is then registered with the Feathers application and used to create a new message.

const feathers = require('@feathersjs/feathers');
const app = feathers();

// A simple service that logs and returns the message
class MessageService {
  async find() {
    return [];
  }

  async get(id) {
    return { id, text: `A new message with ID: ${id}` };
  }

  async create(data) {
    return data;
  }
}

app.use('messages', new MessageService());

app.service('messages').create({ text: 'Hello Feathers' }).then(message => {
  console.log('Created message', message);
});

Hooks

This code shows how to use hooks in FeathersJS. Hooks are middleware functions that can be run before or after a service method. In this example, a 'before' hook is used to log the data before a message is created.

const feathers = require('@feathersjs/feathers');
const app = feathers();

// A simple service
class MessageService {
  async create(data) {
    return data;
  }
}

app.use('messages', new MessageService());

// A hook that logs the data before creating a message
app.service('messages').hooks({
  before: {
    create: async context => {
      console.log('Creating message', context.data);
    }
  }
});

app.service('messages').create({ text: 'Hello Feathers' });

Real-time Functionality

This code demonstrates how to add real-time functionality to a FeathersJS application using Socket.io. The application is configured to use Socket.io, and a service is created that publishes events to all connected clients whenever a new message is created.

const feathers = require('@feathersjs/feathers');
const socketio = require('@feathersjs/socketio');
const app = feathers();

app.configure(socketio());

// A simple service
class MessageService {
  async create(data) {
    return data;
  }
}

app.use('messages', new MessageService());

app.on('connection', connection =>
  app.channel('everybody').join(connection)
);

app.publish(data => app.channel('everybody'));

app.service('messages').create({ text: 'Hello Feathers' });

Other packages similar to @feathersjs/feathers

express

Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications. While Express is more general-purpose and widely used for building web servers and APIs, FeathersJS builds on top of Express to provide additional real-time and service-oriented features.

hapi

Hapi is a rich framework for building applications and services in Node.js. It is known for its powerful plugin system and configuration-driven approach. Compared to FeathersJS, Hapi offers more built-in features for building complex applications but may require more setup for real-time capabilities.

koa

Koa is a new web framework designed by the team behind Express, aiming to be a smaller, more expressive, and more robust foundation for web applications and APIs. Koa uses async functions to eliminate callback hell and improve error handling. Unlike FeathersJS, Koa does not have built-in real-time features but provides a more modern approach to middleware.

README

The API and real-time application framework

Feathers is a lightweight web-framework for creating APIs and real-time applications using TypeScript or JavaScript.

Feathers can interact with any backend technology, supports many databases out of the box and works with any frontend technology like React, VueJS, Angular, React Native, Android or iOS.

Getting started

You can build your first real-time and REST API in just 4 commands:

$ npm create feathers my-new-app
$ cd my-new-app
$ npm start

Documentation

To learn more about Feathers visit the website at feathersjs.com or jump right into the Feathers guides.

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Feathers contributors

Licensed under the MIT license.

Changelog

5.0.32 (2025-02-01)

Bug Fixes

• generators: Add FeathersGeneratorError (#3556) (2a81a20)