Beams

Beams is a long-polling Node.js server extension and client library.

Quick Start

Install beams in your project:

npm install --save beams

Then here's a simple chat server and client:

var server = require('express')();
server.listen(80);
var beams = require('beams');
beams.setServer(server);
var messages = [];
beams
  .connect(function (beam) {
    beam.emit('messages', messages);
  })
  .on('message', function (text) {
    var message = {from: this.id, text: data};
    messages.push(message);
    beams.emit('messages', [message]);
  });

<script src="http://localhost/beams-client.min.js"></script>
<script>
Beams()
  .on('messages', function (data) {
    console.log(data);
    beam.emit('my other event', { my: 'data' });
  });
</script>

API

beams.setServer(Server server)

Pass an Express-like server to setServer, and it will create a Beams server on top of the server. route on any assets that you'd like to route via server.get

beams.connect(function callback)

Run a callback when a client connects.

beams.on(string name, function callback)

When a message with a given name is received, run a callback on each client. The callback takes a data argument, and its this context is the client on which it is being run.

beams.handle(string name, function callback)

Remove any existing handlers for the specified message name, and replace with a single callback, like calling beams.on only once. This is useful for frameworks that reload modules in dev mode rather than restarting the server.

beams.emit(string name, object data)

Send a named message with some data to every client.

beams.each(callback)

Run a callback on each client. The callback takes a client argument.

Array beams.clients

A list of the clients that are connected.

Object beams.handlers

Arrays of message handlers keyed by message name.

number beams.pollTimeout

How long (in milliseconds) to wait before forcing clients to reconnect.

zerious/beams