dartrpc 0.3.0

Framework to transparently run code on the server via client-side proxies over web sockets Given the methodology of "same language on server and client", it is my belief that it should be possible to [...]

Introduction

Framework to transparently run code on the server via client-side proxies over web sockets

Given the methodology of "same language on server and client", it is my belief that it should be possible to interact with server-side code using regular language constructs (method invocations).

Dartrpc aims to accomplish this goal.

Usage

While no efforts were spared to minimize need for boiler-plate, limitations of dart language got in the way of completely boiler-plate free implementation

Domain and Service

Create domain and service classes as you normally would

You MUST add mirrors import with @MirrorsUsed annotation listing all your domain and service classes as certain optimizations had to be applied which strip mirrored access of everything not explictely stated in such annotations (see: https://code.google.com/p/dart/issues/detail?id=15344)

@MirrorsUsed(targets: '<your service>, <domain class 1>, <domain class 2> ...', override: '*')
import "dart:mirrors";

Server

Create a server with a web socket endpoint that invokes 'process' library function.

Example below uses dartrs:

library server_example;

import "package:dartrs/dartrs.dart";
import 'package:dartrpc/transport.dart';
import '<your doman and service classes>.dart'; //  dart doesn't have "context scan/load all from dir"

void main() {
  RestfulServer.bind().then((server) {
    server
      ..isolates = 16
      ..isolateInit = new ModelInit();
  });
}

class ModelInit {
  call(RestfulServer server) {
    server
      ..onWs("/models", (data) {
        return process(data);
      });
  }
}

Client

Use runRemote to create a proxy on service objects and then make calls as you normally would. Note the proxy object returns Futures for all invocations.

import 'package:dartrpc/remote_client.dart';

var service = runRemote(ModelProvider, "ws://127.0.0.1:8080/models");
service.getModels().then((response) {
  //... do something with response
});

Example

See web/models

Performance

Quite acceptable, and hopefully will continue to improve as dart and dart2js is improved On my machine, provided example takes between 16 and ~50 ms.

Framework Integration

The intent was to figure out a way to integrate such proxying with Angular-dart and Polymer. Sadly, both rely heavily on mirrors and don't seem to provide a facility of "here's the domain object but uses this other instance when you need to make calls".

If anybody has any ideas on how this might be accomplished, it would be greatly apreciated.