Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module • Hacker News Board

Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#1

Post by slact » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 6:06 PM UTC

Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module
nchan.slact.net

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#2

Post by slact » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 6:09 PM UTC

This is a huge refactoring of an old project of mine -- the Nginx HTTP Push Module. I'm wondering if anyone here has used it.

Most importantly, I want feedback on the documentation. Did I overcomplicate things? Does it need more examples? Does it need more live code? Is it too long? Too short? Etc.

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#3

Post by userbinator » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 6:37 PM UTC

Is the description just a rather roundabout way of saying it can be used as an anonymous messageboard? The name certainly evokes that.

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#4

Post by slact » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 6:46 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #3

Is the description just a rather roundabout way of saying it can be used as an anonymous messageboard? The name certainly evokes that.

Well, it would be very easy to make a realtime 4chan-like thing with Nchan, but it's far from the only use case. It's a general-purpose server and pubsub proxy.

The name is a play on nginx and channels. I got tired of saying "nginx http push module" all the time and renamed it.

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#5

Post by Beltiras » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 6:57 PM UTC

Interesting project. I've up till now used Twisted or Tornado (actually swampdragon.net). My choice would be dependent on scalability and performance.

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#6

Post by ktt » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 6:58 PM UTC

Wow, excellent! I've been looking for lightweight websockets pubsub and had to create something simple in Node to achieve it but this would've sufficed.

I can't wait to give it a try.

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#7

Post by slact » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 7:00 PM UTC

Beltiras wrote: post #5

Interesting project. I've up till now used Twisted or Tornado (actually swampdragon.net). My choice would be dependent on scalability and performance.

I consider those two and socket.io my main competition. Nchan is built to scale, but of course you'd need some numbers to back that up. I plan on doing benchmarks once I iron out the documentation, although I realize it would be a great selling point to have the numbers ready right away.

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#8

Post by uyoakaoma » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

Is this different from the other module nginx push stream which offers websockets, long polling etc

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#9

Post by Raed667 » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 7:18 PM UTC

How does this compare to MQTT ?

Re: Show HN: Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module

#10

Post by jkarneges » Sun, Dec 06, 2015, 7:23 PM UTC

slact wrote: post #2

This is a huge refactoring of an old project of mine -- the Nginx HTTP Push Module. I'm wondering if anyone here has used it. Most importantly, I want feedback on the documentation. Did I overcomplicate things? Does it need more examples? Does it need more live code? Is it too long? Too short? Etc.

I love the clean client API, e.g. the use of ETags with long-polling.

In some ways it reminds me of our LiveResource protocol (http://liveresource.org). It's still a work in progress, but maybe we can consolidate ideas. It'd be cool if an LR client could be pointed at an Nchan resource.