5 ms·

Hapi, new Node.js framework (a prologue)

77 points by webista 14y ago

peter_l_downs 14y ago
This looks fantastic. The link to the framework itself is https://github.com/walmartlabs/hapi https://github.com/walmartlabs/hapi. In particular, I'm excited about the way endpoints are registered: // Define the route var hello = { handler: function (request) { request.reply({ greeting: 'hello world' }); } }; // Add the route server.addRoute({ method: 'GET', path: '/hello', config: hello }); This makes it extremely easy to expose API endpoints to internal modules. Let's say your company has a module related to simple math operations -- exposing this externally is as simple as adding a 'handler' method. var SimpleMath = new function() { var module = this; module.divide = function(a, b) { return a / b; }; module.multiply = function(a, b) { return a * b; }; // Now add the external handler. module.handler = function(request) { // somehow access two variables, a and b request.reply({ product: module.multiply(a, b); quotient: module.divide(a, b); }); }
- javajosh 14y ago
  Doing this would be a mistake. You do not want to add web-aware code to a module that is concerned with doing math.
  - adamnemecek 14y ago
    I believe that peter_l_downs was using this exotic literary device called an "example". When you read about class inheritance, was your first reaction "This is useless, why would I ever want to have a Dog class which is based on an Animal class"?
    - randallsquared 14y ago
      Having an internal module know how to interact with a request seems to me to be the point of the example, and I also disagree with it, as a rule.
      - flaviojuvenal 14y ago
        The module doesn't know how to interact with a request. Only with integer variables.
- account_taken 14y ago
  // Add the route server.addRoute({ method: 'GET', path: '/hello', config: hello }); I'm sorry but how is that different than app.get('/hello', require('simplemath')); where simplemath is module.exports = function(req, res) { ... }
  - account_taken 14y ago
    nm. I didn't see the example was returning two properties. Still, that is relatively easy to do. I have a middleware that does that and it's very short not yet another framework.
c4urself 14y ago
Wow this looks really nice -- great work! Like the built-in monitor functionality.
fyou 14y ago
Yet another one....
fyou 14y ago
Yet another one???
javajosh 14y ago
This certainly looks like the best "traditional style" webapp framework yet for node - e.g. something that reminds me strongly of a well-apportioned SpringMVC setup. That said, I'm a huge fan of Meteor. It is (almost) totally non-traditional, but granted it does not give you the fine-grained control of this framework. I can see Hapi being the correct choice if either a) your developers are uncomfortable with large paradigm shifts (and seriously, who can blame them?) or b) you have to conform to a pre-existing API that requires low-level control (which is, of course, a total bummer). Very nice work - and from my skimming of your docs, very nice documentation. Lots of good info in there without a lot of fluff, and I like that it's all on one page. Kudos. I'll definitely try Hapi instead of Connect next time I need something like this.
benatkin 14y ago
> We also looked at Restify, Tako, and a few others. With the long list of things checked out, I doubt they gave the "few others" a close look. Which is too bad, because Geddy may have been just the ticket.
franze 14y ago
will definitely try thi over express for my next weekend project, an example in the doc on how to plug in socket.io into hapi would be nice.
tbrock 14y ago
While I know multitudes of new frameworks are usually unwelcome wheel reinventions, this seems very well done. Kudos to the team. Releasing software like this makes me wonder what other kind of amazing things are going on at Walmart Labs. They have an incredible amount of data about shopping behavior.
anthem001 14y ago
Played with it a bit last night. Initial impression is it has a much lighter feeling than other frameworks I've tried. Will be diving in deeper for sure. Thanks for releasing this guys!
joelcox 14y ago
One of the guys who is working on this is Eran Hammer, who also co-authored several OAuth specs. He's working on OAuth alternative called Oz (https://github.com/hueniverse/oz https://github.com/hueniverse/oz).
nateweiss 14y ago
Looks very helpful. Batch mode in particular is a great feature. Thank you.
dgem 14y ago
any comments on how it compares with say Restify (http://mcavage.github.com/node-restify/ http://mcavage.github.com/node-restify/) from folks who have used both ?

77 points by webista 14y ago

This looks fantastic. The link to the framework itself is https://github.com/walmartlabs/hapi https://github.com/walmartlabs/hapi. In particular, I'm excited about the way endpoints are registered: // Define the route var hello = { handler: function (request) { request.reply({ greeting: 'hello world' }); } }; // Add the route server.addRoute({ method: 'GET', path: '/hello', config: hello }); This makes it extremely easy to expose API endpoints to internal modules. Let's say your company has a module related to simple math operations -- exposing this externally is as simple as adding a 'handler' method. var SimpleMath = new function() { var module = this; module.divide = function(a, b) { return a / b; }; module.multiply = function(a, b) { return a * b; }; // Now add the external handler. module.handler = function(request) { // somehow access two variables, a and b request.reply({ product: module.multiply(a, b); quotient: module.divide(a, b); }); }

javajosh 14y ago
Doing this would be a mistake. You do not want to add web-aware code to a module that is concerned with doing math.
- adamnemecek 14y ago
  I believe that peter_l_downs was using this exotic literary device called an "example". When you read about class inheritance, was your first reaction "This is useless, why would I ever want to have a Dog class which is based on an Animal class"?
  - randallsquared 14y ago
    Having an internal module know how to interact with a request seems to me to be the point of the example, and I also disagree with it, as a rule.
    - flaviojuvenal 14y ago
      The module doesn't know how to interact with a request. Only with integer variables.
account_taken 14y ago
// Add the route server.addRoute({ method: 'GET', path: '/hello', config: hello }); I'm sorry but how is that different than app.get('/hello', require('simplemath')); where simplemath is module.exports = function(req, res) { ... }
- account_taken 14y ago
  nm. I didn't see the example was returning two properties. Still, that is relatively easy to do. I have a middleware that does that and it's very short not yet another framework.

c4urself 14y ago

Wow this looks really nice -- great work! Like the built-in monitor functionality.

fyou 14y ago

Yet another one....

fyou 14y ago

Yet another one???

javajosh 14y ago

This certainly looks like the best "traditional style" webapp framework yet for node - e.g. something that reminds me strongly of a well-apportioned SpringMVC setup. That said, I'm a huge fan of Meteor. It is (almost) totally non-traditional, but granted it does not give you the fine-grained control of this framework. I can see Hapi being the correct choice if either a) your developers are uncomfortable with large paradigm shifts (and seriously, who can blame them?) or b) you have to conform to a pre-existing API that requires low-level control (which is, of course, a total bummer). Very nice work - and from my skimming of your docs, very nice documentation. Lots of good info in there without a lot of fluff, and I like that it's all on one page. Kudos. I'll definitely try Hapi instead of Connect next time I need something like this.

benatkin 14y ago

> We also looked at Restify, Tako, and a few others. With the long list of things checked out, I doubt they gave the "few others" a close look. Which is too bad, because Geddy may have been just the ticket.

franze 14y ago

will definitely try thi over express for my next weekend project, an example in the doc on how to plug in socket.io into hapi would be nice.

tbrock 14y ago

While I know multitudes of new frameworks are usually unwelcome wheel reinventions, this seems very well done. Kudos to the team. Releasing software like this makes me wonder what other kind of amazing things are going on at Walmart Labs. They have an incredible amount of data about shopping behavior.

anthem001 14y ago

Played with it a bit last night. Initial impression is it has a much lighter feeling than other frameworks I've tried. Will be diving in deeper for sure. Thanks for releasing this guys!

joelcox 14y ago

One of the guys who is working on this is Eran Hammer, who also co-authored several OAuth specs. He's working on OAuth alternative called Oz (https://github.com/hueniverse/oz https://github.com/hueniverse/oz).

nateweiss 14y ago

Looks very helpful. Batch mode in particular is a great feature. Thank you.

dgem 14y ago

any comments on how it compares with say Restify (http://mcavage.github.com/node-restify/ http://mcavage.github.com/node-restify/) from folks who have used both ?