NowHs

Call server-side Haskell from client browsers over Websockets.

Or: Let your browsers talk to a backend, the awesomely safe way.

Calling a server side function

On the server:

sum_rpc :: Int -> Int -> NowHs () Int
sum_rpc a b = return (a + b)

In the browser:

var server = new NowHs("localhost", 8888, function () {

  server.sum_rpc(1, 2, function(res) { console.log(res); });

});

The remote function call is "as typesafe as Javascript allows": Calling server.sum_rpc("1", 2, ...) will result in an error message like

Mismatching types: sum_rpc: Argument 0 was 'String', expected 'Int'

Note that this type check is done in Javascript, based on schemas auto-generated from the function's type signature, and can also be used manually, e.g. for user input validation.

When you've worked on browser-server-interfaces before, e.g. in Python or Node.js, this might be the thing for you.

Working with data types

NowHs can automatically convert your custom data types to JSON.

data User = User { name :: String, age :: Int }

$(deriveJSON id ''User)
$(deriveSchema ''User)

authenticated_rpc :: User -> NowHs () Bool
authenticated_rpc user = return $ age user >= 18

firstUser_rpc :: NowHs () User
firstUser_rpc = return $ User { name = "John", age = 17 }