TasksJS

TasksJS is a framework for developing modular web APIs. It's a wrapper on top of ExpressJS and Socket.io. With TasksJS, instead of creating a server with many endpoints, you can simply export objects from the server to the client application. Basically any objects added to a TasksJS Service can be loaded and used by a TasksJS Client.

TasksJS comes with the following objects that are used for web API development:

const { 
    App,
    Service,
    Client,
    LoadBalancer,
 } = require("sht-tasks");

Call require("sht-tasks") and de-concatenate from the object it returns. The main abstractions used for client-to-server interactions are the following:

• Service - Used to create and host objects that can be loaded and used by a TasksJS Client.
• Client - Used in a client application to load a Service, which contains all the objects added to the Service.
• App - Provides a modular interface and lifecycle methods for asynchronously creating and loading Services.

Find the full API Documentation here.

Quick Start

Service.ServerModule(name, constructor [,options])

Use the Service.ServerModule(name, constructor/object) method to register an object to be hosted by a TasksJS Service. This will allows you to load an instance of that object onto a client application, and call any methods on that object remotely.

const { Service } = require("sht-tasks");

const Users = {};

Users.add = function (data, callback){
    console.log(data);
    callback(null, { message:"You have successfully called the Users.add method" });
}

Service.ServerModule("Users", Users)

In the code above we assigned an object to the variable Users and gave it an add method. The Service.ServerModule(name, constructor/object) function takes the name assigned to the object as the first argument and the object itself as the second argument.

Alternatively, you can use a constructor function instead of an object as the second argument. In the example below we create another ServerModule called "Orders".

const { Service } = require("sht-tasks");

const Users = {};

Users.add = function (data, callback){
    console.log(data);
    callback(null, { message:"You have successfully called the Users.add method" });
}

Service.ServerModule("Users", Users)

Service.ServerModule("Orders", function(){
   const Orders = this;
   
   Orders.find = function (arg1, arg2, callback){
      console.log(data);
      callback(null, { message:"You have successfully called the Orders.find method" });
   }
})

In the ServerModule constructor function above, the this value is the initial instance of the ServerModule object. Every method added to the this value will be accessible when the object is loaded by a TasksJS Client. Notice that the method we created, Orders.find = function(arg1, arg2, callback)..., has 3 parameters including a callback function as the last argument. By defualt all ServerModule methods will recieve a callback function as its last argument. Use the first parameter of the callback function to respond with an error, and the second parameter to send a success response. Note: ServerModule methods can be configured to work with synchronous return values instead of asynchronous callbacks (read more about Service configuration here).

Service.startService(options)

Before we can access the objects hosted by this Service from a client application, we need to call the Service.startService(options) function. This will start an ExpressJS Server and a Socket.io WebSocket Server, and set up routing for the Service. In the example below we added the Service.startService(options) function at the bottom, but the order does not matter.

const { Service } = require("sht-tasks");

const Users = {};

Users.add = function (data, callback){
    console.log(data);
    callback(null, { message:"You have successfully called the Users.add method" });
}

Service.ServerModule("Users", Users)

Service.ServerModule("Orders", function(){
   const Orders = this;
   
   Orders.find = function (arg1, arg2, callback){
      console.log(data);
      callback(null, { message:"You have successfully called the Orders.find method" });
   }
})

Service.startService({ route:"test/service", port: "4400", host:"localhost" })

Now lets see how these objects can be loaded into a client application.

Client.loadService(url, [options])

The Client.loadService(url) function can be used to load a TasksJS Service. This method requires the url (string) of the Service you want to load as the first argument, and will return a promise that will resolve into an object that containing all the modules hosted by that service. See below. NOTE: You must be within an async function in order to use the await keyword when returning a promise.

   const { Client } = require("sht-tasks");
   
   const { Users, Orders } = await Client.loadService("http://localhost:4400/test/service");
   
   console.log(Users, Orders);

Now that we've loaded the Service that we created in the previous example, and have a handle on the Users and Orders objects hosted by the Service, we can now call any method on those objects. In the example below, we demonstrate that when a methods for the ServerModule objects is called from the client, it can optionally take a callback as the last argument or, if a callback is not used, it will return a promise. With the Users.add(data, callback) method we used a callback, but with the Orders.find(arg1, arg2, callback) method we left out the callback function and used the await keyword to return a promise.

   const { Client } = require("sht-tasks");
   
   const { Users, Orders } = await Client.loadService("http://localhost:4400/test/service");
   
   console.log(Users, Orders);;
   
   Users.add({ message:"Users.add Test" }, function(err, results){
        if(err) console.log(err)
        else console.log(results)
   })
   
   const response = await Orders.find("hello", "world");
   
   console.log(response) 

Sending and Receiving Websocket Events

We can also receive WebSocket events emitted from the remote objects we've loaded using the Client.loadService(url) function. In the example below we're using the Users.on(event_name, callback) method to listen for events coming from the "Users" ServerModule.

   const { Client } = require("sht-tasks");
   
   const { Users, Orders } = await Client.loadService("http://localhost:4400/test/service");
   
   console.log(Users, Orders);
   
   Users.add({ message:"Users.add Test" }, function(err, results){
        if(err) console.log(err)
        else console.log(results)
   })
   
   Users.on("new_user", function(event){
        console.log(event);
   })
   
   const response = await Orders.find("hello", "world");
   
   console.log(response)

Now let's go to our server application and call the Users.emit(event_name, data) method to emit a websocket event that can be received by its corresponding Clients. Below, notice that we've added Users.emit("new_user", { message:"new_user event test" }) at the end of the Users.add method, so the new_user event will be emitted every time this method is called.

const { Service } = require("sht-tasks");

const Users = {};

Users.add = function (data, callback){
    console.log(data);
    callback(null, { message:"You have successfully called the Users.add method" });
    Users.emit("new_user", { message:"new_user event test" });
}

Service.ServerModule("Users", Users)

Service.ServerModule("Orders", function(){
   const Orders = this;
   
   Orders.find = function (arg1, arg2, callback){
      console.log(data);
      callback(null, { message:"You have successfully called the Orders.find method" });
   }
})

Service.startService({ route:"test/service", port: "4400", host:"localhost" })