Quiver.js Documentation

Introduction

Quiver.js is a server-side component system for creating large-scale Node.js applications. In Quiver, instead of organizing code as classes or functions, you write interconnected Quiver Components to form a complex component graph.

Quiver components are very easy to use and can be built in three simple steps. First you define plain functions with one of the few standard component signatures in Quiver. Next you write component definitions in a JSON-like Quiver DSL that is made of plain Javascript constructs. Lastly simply export the components as an array from your Node modules. The Quiver Component System will then take care of the rest for you and connect all your components together.

As an example here is a simple hello world handler component:

var helloHandlerBuilder = function(config, callback) {
  var handler = function(args, callback) {
    callback(null, 'Hello World!')
  }

  callback(null, handler)
}

var quiverComponents = [
  {
    name: 'my hello handler',
    type: 'simple handler',
    inputType: 'void',
    outputType: 'text',
    middlewares: [
      'my permission filter',
      'my cache filter'
    ],
    handleables: [
      'my cloud services handler'
    ],
    handlerBuilder: helloHandlerBuilder
  }
]

module.exports = {
  quiverComponents: quiverComponents
}

Demo and Tutorial

Simple demos and tutorials are written for quick introduction to Quiver.js.

1. Hello User demonstrates the way to write a set of Quiver components to serve different users in different ways.

Why Quiver?

Quiver is for you if:

• You want to write better code

Quiver is at its bare minimum a collection of design patterns for writing scalable and modular applications. It is at about the same level as object-oriented programming and act as an alternative to classical OOP patterns. You may even learn from Quiver and apply its design patterns to other programming languages that support higher order functions.

• You prefer the power and expressiveness of frameworks, but also want total control of how your application behaves

Quiver has a minimal opinion on how application-specific code should be written. For instance it does not say how you should define your data models or which templating language you should use. With Quiver you can write very few lines of code by reusing Quiver components contributed by others. At the same time you can have full control of your application behavior by simply re-arranging the Quiver component graphs.

• You want to build frameworks or platforms that are more interoperable with other projects

Quiver allows anyone to build their own opinionated subsystems on top of it. For example you can write your own user authentication module as quiver components for others to use. Further up you may also write full systems like blogging platform as a graph of Quiver components. Users of your systems don't need to fully agree with you on how the system should behave, because they can easily reconfigure the component graph to suit their own needs.

Core Concepts

Quiver.js is made of the following core concepts, with each built on top of the previous ones.

1. Stream
2. Streamable
3. Handler
4. Handler builder
5. Filter
6. Middleware
7. Handleable
8. Component
9. Module

FAQ

Quiver vs Flow Based Programming

Status for Beginners

Quiver is currently not recommended for beginners or developers who want to quickly build simple applications. Writing applications on Quiver is right now as time-consuming as writing applications on bare Node without a framework.

Writing applications on Quiver will be much easier in the near future, when there are more user-contributed Quiver components available. For now we welcome core contributors to write and share their Quiver components with the community.

Libraries

A list of available Quiver.js libraries can be found at the project GitHub organization page.

Status

Quiver.js is currently at its final stage of private development. The library will soon have its beta release by February 2014.

If you are interested to learn more about the project, please contact the author Soares Chen at soares.chen@gmail.com.

Acknowledgement

I'd like to thank my company DoReMIR Music Research AB for giving me chance to make use of Quiver.js in the company's backend development. Quiver.js currently runs on the production backend server of ScoreCloud. (P.S. and we are hiring!)