Building a Front-end

So far in this chapter we created a REST and real-time API to send messages including authentication and user management. We also added a static login and signup HTML page. Now it is time to use that API in a frontend. Feathers works great with any client that can connect through HTTP(S) or websockets to a REST API. For more details on what commands to send and listen to, follow up in the client use chapter. Sometimes it is just a few lines of code to make an existing front-end turn real-time.

Feathers is also universally usable and provides a JavaScript client that works in the Browser, React Native and other NodeJS servers. This makes it very easy to integrate with most JavaScript libraries and client side frameworks. In the frameworks section we've put together a growing list of integration guides to build real-time front-ends for the chat API we created in this chapter:

• jQuery Feathers Chat
• React Feathers Chat
• Vue.js Feathers Chat
• Feathers and Angular 2
• Feathers and Choo

If you don't see your favourite framework, do not despair! We have more information on how to use a Feathers API on the client in the Client Use chapter and we're always open for suggestions and questions. If you think you can help write a guide, we'd love to hear from you!