actionhero/docs/_includes/home/overview.html

actionhero.js is a multi-transport API Server with integrated cluster capabilities and delayed tasks

<section class="bs-docs-section">
  <h1 id="overview" class="page-header">Who is the ActionHero?</h1>

  <blockquote>
    ActionHero is a multi-transport Node.JS API Server with integrated cluster capabilities and delayed tasks.
  </blockquote>

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  </div>

  <hr />

  <h2 id="actions">Actions</h2>
  <p>In ActionHero, you make actions which respond to client requests.</p>

  {% highlight javascript %}
// actionhero generate action --name=randomNumber
// File: actions/randomNumber.js

exports.randomNumber = {
  name: 'randomNumber',
  description: 'I am an API method which will generate a random number',
  outputExample: {
    randomNumber: 0.123
  },

  run: function(api, data, next){
    data.response.randomNumber = Math.random();
    next();
  }

};
  {% endhighlight %}

  <p>These actions don't just work for the web, they work for all sorts of clients!</p>

  <div class="alert alert-success" role="alert">HTTP</div>
  {% highlight bash %}
> curl localhost:8080/api/randomNumber

{
  "randomNumber": 0.8158452461939305
}
  {% endhighlight %}

  <div class="alert alert-success" role="alert">TCP Socket</div>
  {% highlight bash %}
> telnet localhost 5000
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
{"welcome":"Hello! Welcome to the actionhero api","context":"api"}
randomNumber
{"randomNumber":0.7903316407464445,"context":"response","messageCount":1}
  {% endhighlight %}

  <div class="alert alert-success" role="alert">Web Socket</div>
  {% highlight javascript %}
var client = new ActionheroClient;
client.connect(function(error, details){
    client.action("randomNumber", function(data){
        alert(data.randomNumber);
    });
});
  {% endhighlight %}

  <h2 id="tasks">Tasks</h2>

  <p>ActionHero also lets you perform tasks in the background...</p>

  {% highlight javascript %}
// actionhero generate action --name=sendEmail
// File: tasks/sendEmail.js
exports.task = {
    name:        'sendEmail',
    description: 'send an email to users after they sign up'
    queue:       'default',
    frequency:    0,
    run: function(api, params, next){
        // email sending stub
        api.users.sendEmail(params.userId, function(error, done){
            next(error);
        });
    });
};
  {% endhighlight %}

  <p>... and you can invoke the task from anywhere in the framework, including actions.</p>

  {% highlight javascript %}
// api.tasks.enqueue(nameOfTask, args, queue, callback)
api.tasks.enqueue("sendEmail", {to: 'evan@evantahler.com'}, 'default', function(error, toRun){
  // enqueued!
});
  {% endhighlight %}

  <h2 id="chat">Chat</h2>

  <p>ActionHero enables clients to talk to each other.</p>

  {% highlight javascript %}
// client 1
var client1 = new ActionheroClient;
client1.connect(function(error, details){
    client1.roomAdd("myChatRoom", function(error){
        client1.say('myChatRoom', 'hello from client 1');
    });
});

// client 2
var client2 = new ActionheroClient;
client2.connect(function(error, details){
    client2.roomAdd("myChatRoom", function(error){
        client2.on('say', function(message){
            console.log(message);
        });
    });
});
  {% endhighlight %}

  <h2 id="cluster">Cluster-Aware</h2>

  <p>ActionHero can do all of this, and it can work on one server or hundreds (ActionHero is cluster-ready from the get-go).</p>

{% highlight bash %}
# start 1 instance
./node_modules/.bin/actionhero start
# start a cluster
./node_modules/.bin/actionhero start cluster
{% endhighlight %}
</section>