[undertow-dev] Using JavaScript with Undertow

[Stuart Douglas]

Hi all,

There has been some discussion about supporting JavaScript in Wildfly/Undertow for a while now, and as a result I have come up with a simple proof of concept of the form I think this support could take. 

The form that this is taking is undertow.js, which is a jar file that you can include in your apps and allows you to register JavaScript based handlers. These handlers can be mapped to URL's, and inject container resources such as CDI beans and JNDI data sources. It also provide some simple JavaScript wrappers to make some EE objects easier to use from scripts.

Injection support is pluggable, and this can be used programatically from embedded Undertow. 

At the moment handlers are mainly useful as REST endpoints, although if there is interest I am planning on adding template engine support as well. 

When using Wildfly upstream's new external resources feature this allows for changes in your script files to be immediately visible, without even needing to copy to an exploded deployment. 

I envisage the main use of this will not be creating node.js like apps that are pure javascript, but rather to allow simpler parts of the of a mostly Java app to be written in JavaScript, providing a hybrid approach and this avoiding the compile+redeploy cycle for the javascript parts.

Full details are here: https://github.com/undertow-io/undertow.js

I have an example of the Kitchen Sink Wildfly quickstart that has been re-done to use this here:

https://github.com/wildfly/quickstart/compare/master...stuartwdouglas:js#diff-598449fd216b3768c251e297895211deR1

At this stage I am really not sure how this will evolve, or if it will go anywhere, I am just putting it out there to get some feedback.

Stuart