Netflix / Falcor Router
Programming Languages
Falcor Router 
Developer Preview
This release is a developer preview. We are looking for community help to track down and fix bugs. We are also looking for help porting the Router to other platforms.
You can check out a working example server for a Netflix-like application here right now. Alternately you can go through this short tutorial:
Getting Started
Let's use the Falcor Router to build a Virtual JSON resource on an app server and host it at /model.json. The JSON resource will contain the following contents:
{
"greeting": "Hello World"
}
Normally Routers retrieve the data for their Virtual JSON resource from backend data stores or other web services on-demand. However in this simple tutorial the Router will simply return static data for a single key.
Creating a Virtual JSON Resource with a Falcor Router
First we create a folder for our application server.
mkdir falcor-app-server && cd !$
npm init
Now we install the Falcor Router.
npm i falcor-router -S
Then install express and falcor-express.
npm i express falcor-express -S
Support for Restify is also available (including a demo):
npm i restify falcor-restify -S—as is support for Hapi:npm i hapi falcor-hapi -S.
Now we create an index.js file with the following contents:
// index.js
var falcorExpress = require('falcor-express');
var Router = require('falcor-router');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.use('/model.json', falcorExpress.dataSourceRoute(function (req, res) {
// create a Virtual JSON resource with single key ("greeting")
return new Router([
{
// match a request for the key "greeting"
route: "greeting",
// respond with a PathValue with the value of "Hello World."
get: function() {
return {path:["greeting"], value: "Hello World"};
}
}
]);
}));
// statically host all files in current directory
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/'));
var server = app.listen(3000);
Now we run the server, which will listen on port 3000 for requests for /model.json.
node index.js
Retrieving Data from the Virtual JSON resource
Now that we've built a simple virtual JSON document with a single read-only key "greeting", we will create a test web page and retrieve this key from the server.
Now create an index.html file with the following contents:
<!-- index.html -->
<html>
<head>
<!-- Do _not_ rely on this URL in production. Use only during development. -->
<script src="//netflix.github.io/falcor/build/falcor.browser.js"></script>
<script>
var model = new falcor.Model({source: new falcor.HttpDataSource('/model.json') });
// retrieve the "greeting" key from the root of the Virtual JSON resource
model.
get("greeting").
then(function(response) {
document.write(response.json.greeting);
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Now visit http://localhost:3000/index.html and you should see the message retrieved from the server:
Hello World
More Information
For an example of a Router built for a Netflix-like application, see this repository.
For in-depth information on the Falcor Router, see the Router Guide in the Falcor Website.
For discussion please use Stack Overflow.