Split feathers transports into their own modules

[ekryski]

We should do this so that people don't need to include compile engine.io when they don't need to. It also helps with our mantra of keeping things small and modular.

Modules that should be created:

• feathers-rest
• feathers-socketio
• feathers-primus

[ahdinosaur]

this would be awesome. 👍

[ahdinosaur]

i reckon it'd be even more magical if these modules also contained their respective client transport functionality in feathers-client, specified using the browser field. 🌸

[daffl]

@ahdinosaur What do you mean? I would think since the client adapters are so small (e.g. https://github.com/feathersjs/feathers-client/blob/master/src/sockets/base.js is the code for websocket clients) we probably don't need to split those up.

Status of this is that I already split out the server side REST API provider at feathers-rest with the other ones to follow very quickly.

[ahdinosaur]

@daffl let's say i'm using the mythical feathers-primus, then i only want the code you linked, not the code for the rest client adapters. similarly, if i'm using feathers-rest then i only want the code for the rest adapters (you could even split these up, but eh). so i think it'd be pretty sweet to combine the server and the client code into the same module, also because i'm interested in isomorphic feathers (removing feathers-client entirely). 😄

[ekryski]

Hmm. @ahdinosaur I sort of get what you're going after but not really... ha ha.

feathers-client is isomorphic and can be used both server and client side. @daffl is currently in the process of splitting out the purely server side pieces into feathers-rest, feathers-socketio, and feathers-primus so that you don't have install them if you aren't going to use them (it's rare that you need socketio and primus at the same time).

So were you thinking that you wanted to use the server side stuff client side as well? Maybe you didn't know that feathers-client is isomorphic?

[ahdinosaur]

hmm, yeah i messed up my comment about isomorphism. i guess the question on my mind is what it'd mean for feathers to provide an interface like multilevel, multiplex-rpc, or muxrpc.

so here's a more concrete strawman proposal, to throw some more spaghetti on the wall and see if anything sticks 🍝

• feathers
  • require('feathers') in node returns the same as it does now
  • require('feathers/client) in node returns what is now feathers-client (except without the transports)
  • require('feathers') in browser returns what is now feathers-client (except without the transports)
• feathers-rest
  • require('feathers-rest') in node returns the same as it does now
  • require('feathers-rest/client) in node returns what is now require('feathers-client/lib/rest')
  • require('feathers-rest') in browser returns what is now require('feathers-client/lib/rest')
• feathers-primus
  • require('feathers-primus') in node returns the same as we'd expect now
  • require('feathers-primus/client) in node returns what is now require('feathers-client/lib/sockets/base')
  • require('feathers-primus') in browser returns what is now require('feathers-client/lib/sockets/base')
• feathers-socketio
  • require('feathers-socketio') in node returns the same as we'd expect now
  • require('feathers-socketio/client) in node returns what is now require('feathers-client/lib/sockets').socketio
  • require('feathers-socketio') in browser returns what is now require('feathers-client/lib/sockets').socketio

[daffl]

I like it. We'd just make Feathers v2 depend on feathers-client and pull out the transports for the client into the respective server provider module (feathers-rest, feathers-socketio and feathers-primus). Everything else is just mapping it correctly in the browser field.

Could you maybe create a small example app we can test it with?

[ekryski]

👍 to all of that. I'd also like to see a quick example app that would be sweet.

If it would be a quick change and we can squeeze it into the 2.0 release then I'm down with that, otherwise maybe a fast follow 3.0 release? We have a lot of stuff into this 2.0 release and I'd really like to get a new version out in early January.

[ahdinosaur]

sweet. :)

Could you maybe create a small example app we can test it with?

yep, here's a quick example i just threw together that demonstrates the three different use cases (node server, node client, browser client) of using feathers with the rest transport. hope that helps, not sure exactly what kind of example is most helpful.

[ekryski]

As I was showering this morning I had a thought that we'll need to make sure that it still works in React Native as well because it's not a Node runtime and it's not a browser so sometimes things get a bit quirky.

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