Marble.js

Marble.js is a functional reactive Node.js framework for building server-side applications, based on TypeScript and RxJS.

Philosophy

The core concept of Marble.js assumes that almost everything is a stream. The main building block of the whole framework is an Effect, which is just a function that returns a stream of events. With the big popularity of RxJS Observable, you can create a referential transparent program specification made up of functions that may produce side effects like network, logging, database access, etc. Using its monadic nature we can map I/O operations over effects and flat them to bring in other sequences of operations. RxJS is used as a hammer for expressing asynchronous flow with monadic manner.

Marble.js doesn't operate only over basic HTTP protocol but can be used also for general MDA (Message-Driven Architecture) solutions, including WebSocket, microservices or CQRS, where the multi-event nature fits best. Don't be scared of the complexity and abstractions — Marble.js framework, in general, is incredibly simple. For more details about its specifics, please visit the next chapters that will guide you through the framework environment and implementation details.

For those who are curious about the framework name - it comes from a popular way of visually expressing the time-based behavior of event streams, aka marble diagrams. This kind of domain-specific language is a popular way of testing asynchronous streams, especially in RxJS environments.

👉 If you have ever worked with libraries like Redux Observable, @ngrx/effects or other libraries that leverage functional reactive paradigm, you will feel at home.

👉 If you don't have any experience with functional reactive programming, we strongly recommend to gain some basic overview first with ReactiveX intro or with The introduction to Reactive Programming you've been missing written by @andrestaltz.

Previous articles

Announcing Marble.js 3.0 — a marbellous evolutionMedium

Marble.js 2.0 🔥 — reactive, better, functional, strongerMedium

Marble.js 🔥— when Node.js meets RxJSMedium

Examples

If you would like to get a quick glimpse of a simple RESTful API built with Marble.js, visit the following link:

How does it glue together?