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DriftDB

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DriftDB is a real-time data backend that runs on the edge. Clients
connect to it directly over a WebSocket. It supports a number of
messaging primitives, including:

  * Publisher / subscriber channels (PubSub)
  * Key/value storage with subscriptions
  * Ordered streams

As an example of what it's capable of, here's a multiplayer voxel
editor in under 200 lines of code.

DriftDB is MIT-licensed Rust code. A client library is provided for
JavaScript, as well as ergonomic React bindings.

We also provide free hosted DriftDB instances at Jamsocket Live.
These docs are applicable both to self-hosted and Jamsocket Live
instances.

Use cases 

As a general rule, DriftDB is useful any time you wish you could
connect directly from one browser to another, or from a
non-web-connected backend (e.g. background task) to a browser.
Examples include:

  * Backend for state synchronization in real-time collaborative apps
    (e.g. a whiteboard or casual multiplayer game)
  * Streaming build logs in real time in a CI/CD system
  * WebRTC signaling

Live Demos 

  * Shared State (code)
  * Counter (code)
  * Tic Tac Toe (code)
  * Voxel Editor (code)
  * Shared Canvas (code)

React example 

Here's an example of DriftDB-React in action to synchronize a slider
element across multiple clients:

import { DriftDBProvider, useSharedState } from 'driftdb-react'

function StateDemo() {
    // useSharedState is like useState, but synchronized with other clients.
    const [slider, setSlider] = useSharedState("slider", 0)

    return <div>
        <input
            type="range"
            value={slider}
            onChange={e => setSlider(parseInt(e.target.value))}
        />
    </div>
}

export default function SliderDemo() {
    /*  TODO: fill with a key from jamsocket.live,
        or your own hosted DriftDB instance. */
    const dbUrl = "https://api.jamsocket.live/db/FILL_ME_IN"
    return <div>
        <DriftDBProvider api={dbUrl}>
            <StateDemo />
        </DriftDBProvider>
    </div>
}

All messages in DriftDB belong to a room, and have a subject. Rooms
and subjects are both represented by strings. Rooms are represented
by a unique generated string of characters. Subjects are chosen by
the developer and usually have a meaning in the context of the
application. In the example above, slider is the name of the subject
used for synchronizing the state of the range slider input.

The room in the example above depends on whether the user visits the
page directly or via a link that includes a room ID. If the user
visits the page directly, a new room ID is generated and inserted
into the URL. If another user opens the same URL, they will be
connected to the same room, and instantly be sharing state. This is
not behavior of DriftDB itself, but of the DriftDBProvider React
component used as a client.

A connection with the server is scoped to a room. Messages to
multiple subjects (within the same room) are multiplexed over one
connection.

For more details on DriftDB-React, see the React docs or this
four-minute tutorial video.

Limitations 

DriftDB is intended for use cases where a relatively small number of
clients need to share some state over a relatively short period of
time. For example, it could be used to build a shared whiteboard, or
act as a signaling server for WebRTC. It does not currently support
persisted state.

DriftDB has a very basic trust model: if you have the room ID, you
have write access to all data in the room. This is useful for
applications whose multiplayer functionality can be siloed into
rooms, where access to each room can be limited to a set of people
trusted by the room's creator.

If you want to run arbitrary server-side code for persistence or
access control, consider using Plane instead.

Learn more 

  * Read more about the React interface
  * Learn the API

  * Use cases
  * Live Demos
  * React example
  * Limitations
  * Learn more

Docs

  * React Quickstart

Community

  * Discord
  * Twitter
  * GitHub

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