Feathers is a real-time, micro-service web framework for NodeJS that gives you control over your data via RESTful resources, sockets and flexible plug-ins.
You can build your first real-time API in just 4 commands:
$ npm install -g yo generator-feathers
$ mkdir my-new-app
$ cd my-new-app/
$ yo feathers
$ npm startTo learn more about Feathers visit the website at feathersjs.com or jump right into the Feathers docs.
Here is all the code you need to create a RESTful, real-time message API that uses an in memory data store:
// app.js
var feathers = require('feathers');
var rest = require('feathers-rest');
var socketio = require('feathers-socketio');
var memory = require('feathers-memory');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var handler = require('feathers-errors/handler');
// A Feathers app is the same as an Express app
var app = feathers();
// Add REST API support
app.configure(rest());
// Configure Socket.io real-time APIs
app.configure(socketio());
// Parse HTTP JSON bodies
app.use(bodyParser.json());
// Parse URL-encoded params
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
// Register our memory "messages" service
app.use('/messages', memory());
// Register a nicer error handler than the default Express one
app.use(handler());
// Start the server
app.listen(3000);Then run
npm install feathers feathers-rest feathers-socketio feathers-errors feathers-memory body-parser
node app
and go to http://localhost:3000/messages. That's it! There's a lot more you can do with Feathers including; using a real database, authentication, authorization, clustering and more! Head on over to the Feathers docs to see just how easy it is to build scalable real-time apps.
The Feathers docs are loaded with awesome stuff and tell you every thing you need to know about using and configuring Feathers.
Each plugin has it's own minimal example in the repo. To see some more complex examples go to feathersjs/feathers-demos.