Raxx - Interface for HTTP webservers, frameworks and clients (1.0 now released!)

[tmbb]

It seems like it would be cool to integrate with my Vampyre package when it’s done for even faster templates

[Crowdhailer]

Have a link?

[josevalim]

@michalmuskala

I generally consider the fact that plugs are compile-time the biggest design flaw for plug - it’s often very limiting and annoying. The counter-argument is that it’s better for performance, but I’m not really sure it’s such a huge difference. I could easily see a setup, where plugs are initialized once on server start instead of compile-time.

Plugs are not really compile time. The Plug.Builder DSL is compile-time but not Plug themselves. For example, if you need to dynamically initialize a Plug, you can easily invoke that Plug at runtime. If you want to have a builder that works fully at runtime, that should be possible too.

EDIT: Although we should probably move this discussion elsewhere so we don’t sidetrack the Raxx discussion.

[tmbb]

It’s an experimental library I’m writing. You can find a description (and link to the repo here). But on further thought, It might be too tailored to Plug applications. But the main template compiler could be used with Raxx. I’ll look into it when I’ve completed the Phoenix implementation.

[Crowdhailer]

@tmbb It looks interesting. I need to spend some more time to dive in to the entirety of that thread I think.

(although Vampyre depends on phoneix_html for some utilities for escaping HTML and other things).

I don’t know if GitHub - CrowdHailer/eex_html: Extension to Embedded Elixir (EEx), that allows content to be safely embedded into HTML. might be of use to use. I pulled out some general HTML things there because I was only using a fraction of phoenix_html.

[tmbb]

The main optimization is the fact that I turn some complex HTML widgets into macros that are aggressively optimized at compile-time. You don’t seem to have any HTML helpers, so speed benefits might be minimal… For a highly dynamic template, like one that uses form_for/4 I get impressive speed benefits, but if the “Raxx way” is to write all your HTML explicitly (no HTML helpers), then there might be no benefits.

[Crowdhailer]

@tmbb

You don’t seem to have any HTML helpers

No I just meant that EExHTML might be a useful dependency, instead of phoenix_html, as it contains just the HTML utilities. Are you relying on phoenix_html’s implementation of form_for?

@tmbb

but if the “Raxx way”

There is no “Raxx way”. But in my current work I don’t make much use of form helpers

[Crowdhailer]

Middleware added, supports compile-time or run-time configuration

raxx

Raxx now contains the following:

• Raxx.Middleware behaviour for implementing middleware
• Raxx.Stack composing middleware and servers/controllers/actions
• Raxx.Router apply middleware to specific routes in an application

[Crowdhailer]

0.17.4 Dialyzer warnings in Raxx.Router fixed.

The new middleware capable router module generated code that resulted in dialyzer warnings when using the section macro.

Thanks to @Adzz for raising this issue.

[Crowdhailer]

Roadmap to 1.0

The next goal for Raxx is to make a 1.0 release. This reflects the success that has been had using it in production. Once the tasks on this tracking issue are finished a 1.0 release should follow.

Extract parts of the project that should be separate extensions

[Crowdhailer]

0.17.5 released

Extracts the Raxx.Logger module to it’s own project.

Add {:raxx_logger, "~> 0.1.0} to you mix.exs file for a backwards compatible update

[Crowdhailer]

0.17.6 Add shared context to middleware to handle more use-cases.

Raxx.Context added

A structured place to keep information between middleware and actions.
For example an authentication middleware can add user data to the context.

See documentation

Raxx.View and Raxx.Layout extracted

Extracts the Raxx.View and Raxx.Layout module to it’s own project.

Add {:raxx_view "~> 0.1.0} to you mix.exs file for a backwards compatible update

[Crowdhailer]

Core library streamlined

From 0.18.0 the core raxx library is focusing on being an interface.
This is in preparation for a stable 1.0 release. This focus allows extensions such as session and cores can continue to be iterated upon.

When upgrading it is advised to upgrade to 0.17.6 and handle warnings before moving to 0.18.0

See CHANGELOG for details

[Crowdhailer]

1.0.0 release candidate 3

Latest release candidate for Raxx 1.0 is available on hex.
Try it in your application with {:raxx, "~> 1.0.0-rc.3", override: true}. This version is compatible with 0.18.x.

Discussion the release can be found on the github issue.
Comments invited.

[Crowdhailer]

This release ships with no new exciting features, hooray!
All deprecation warnings from 0.x versions have been removed.

For conversations pre 1.0 see this thread.

Simple web tookit

Raxx is a toolkit to make web application with Elixir simple.
It is designed to get out of the way and let you develop any kind of application.

GitHub - CrowdHailer/raxx: Interface for HTTP webservers, frameworks and clients

Thanks

To everyone who is using Raxx and taken the time to give feedback, thanks.
If you want to join in, check the slack channel.

Extra special thanks to all contributors.

Next

With the core stabilised priorities can now shift.

Ecosystem

The Raxx ecosystem already has support for logging, static files, cors, sessions and more.
Each of these extensions to the core library can now drive towards their own 1.0 release.

Documentation

This is something that can always be improved,
however now the core API is stable efforts documentation and guides will be accurate for much longer.

Getting started

Raxx.Kit is the quickest way to get started with raxx projects.
I want to work on this to increase it’s utility and get newcomers moving even faster.

Further integrations

Finally I hope to spend some time on some more ambitious experiments;

An integration with Absinthe would be interesting as Raxx is great when just building an API service.
Drab and Texas are also libraries that I would like to try out.

Perhaps the most ambitious, because I don’t know what the endpoint looks like, is to try and do more with GenBrowser. The idea of actors on the client and server is a very appealing prospect.

Help wanted

I won’t be able to do all of the next steps on my own.
Contributions are always welcome and now is a great time to get involved.

Documentation is always a good place to start or maybe you have a particular integration that you need.

I am very happy to help you if you want to get started contributing.

Updating

To use 1.0 update any dependent libraries that you need, to the following versions.
These are all non-breaking changes with respect to their previous versions.

# mix.exs

defp deps do
  [
    {:ace, "~> 0.18.6"}
    {:raxx_logger, "~> 0.2.2"}
    {:raxx_view, "~> 0.1.4"}
    {:raxx_static, "~> 0.8.3"}
    {:raxx_method_override, "~> 0.4.1"}
  ]
end

Otherwise you can use {:raxx, "~> 1.0", override: true}.