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Caldera is a server-side execution environment for React. Think of it as the Node.js analog to Phoenix LiveView — all of the application logic (including rendering) runs on the server, and DOM updates are sent to the client in real-time.
This allows developers to rapidly build interactive and multiplayer applications without developing boilerplate around RPC layers (REST/GraphQL/gRPC) and messaging primitives (WebSockets/subscriptions/etc).
Because it's built on top of the React reconciler, it's compatible with (currently, a reasonably useful subset of) the existing React API. See what's currently included and what's to come for updates.
Installation
Run npm install caldera to install Caldera.
Examples
A simple example (chat room) to get started:
import React, { useState } from "react";
import { renderCalderaApp, makeSharedResource, useSharedState } from "caldera";
import fs from "fs";
const DATA_PATH = "messages.json";
const messagesResource = makeSharedResource(
// Load initial messages
fs.existsSync(DATA_PATH)
? JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(DATA_PATH, "utf-8"))
: []
);
const usePersistedMessages = () => {
// Basic shared state, synced with all clients
const [messages, setMessages] = useSharedState(messagesResource);
return [
messages,
// Persist to disk (in prod, use a database)
(newMessages) => {
setMessages(newMessages);
fs.writeFileSync(DATA_PATH, JSON.stringify(newMessages));
},
];
};
const App = () => {
const [messages, setMessages] = usePersistedMessages();
// local state, persisted across client reconnects
const [draftMsg, setDraftMsg] = useState("");
return (
<>
<h1>Chat Room!</h1>
{messages.map((message, i) => (
<div key={i}>{message}</div>
))}
<form
onSubmit={(e) => {
e.preventDefault();
setMessages([...messages, draftMsg]);
setDraftMsg("");
}}
>
<input
type="text"
value={draftMsg}
onChange={(e) => setDraftMsg(e.target.value)}
/>
<button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>
</>
);
};
renderCalderaApp(<App />, { port: 4000 });
Install Babel by running npm install @babel/core @babel/node @babel/preset-react.
Then, run the app using babel-node --presets @babel/preset-react index.jsx. For a runnable version, check the basic-example folder.
A few other examples here demonstrate features like shared state, database usage, and session persistence.
API/Documentation
[Work in progress]
The caldera package provides the following top-level exports:
Head: A React component that renders its children into the page's<head />renderCalderaApp: A function that takes in a React element, and runs the Caldera server on port 8080makeSharedResource: Creates a shared resource suitable for use inuseSharedStateanduseSharedReduceruseSharedState/useSharedReducer: Shared equivalents to theuseStateanduseReducerhooks that are initialized with the current value of the passed in resource, and trigger rerenders in all other call sites upon updatinguseHistory/useLocation- hooks that enable routing functionality
What works
- Basic form inputs (text fields/areas, checkboxes, selects, radio buttons)
- Basic event listeners (onclick/onchange/onsubmit/onfocus/onblur/keyevents)
- CSS and other head tags (via
<Head />) - Basic input reconciliation (currently implemented via debounce)
- Shared state and reducer hooks
- State serialization and restore + state "forking" whenever a user opens a new client
What's being worked on
- More events (ondragstart, intersection observers)
<input type="file">support- Better, diff-based input reconciliation
Future plans
- Proper versioning for state serialization
- This will allow support for upgrading the server in-place, while retaining certain parts of the client state
- Support for selectively rendering arbitrary React components on the client