Remote Function

Remote Function is a library for making remote procedure calls in an intuitive way. Just declare functions on the server and call them from the client, that's it! If the function errors, the error will seamlessly be transferred to the calling client. This is done via JSON RPC 2.0 which makes it possible to use with other clients. It has no dependencies and works by utilizing Proxies that was introduced with ES6.

Install

npm install remote-function

Example

Server

Initiate a server, then just define your function on the server object.

const server = require('remote-function').createServer();

server.divide = (arg1, arg2) => {
    if (arg2 === 0) {
        throw new Error("Can't divide by zero.");
    }
    return arg1 / arg2;
};

Client

Define where the server is located when creating a client. Then you can just call the function that is defined at the server and you get a promise that returns what the server function will return. If you are on >=Node 8.0.0, you can use it with await if you are within an async function.

const remote = require('remote-function').createClient({ host: '127.0.0.1' });

const result = await remote.divide(12, 3);
console.log(result); // 4

If an error is thrown on the server:

try {
    const result = await remote.divide(12, 0);
    console.log(result); // Will not be reached
} catch (error) {
    // Get the error thrown on the server, including stacktrace
}

Options

Server

Option	Default	Description
host	"0.0.0.0"	The host that the server listen on
port	6356	The port that the server listen on
includeStack	true	Should errors include the server stacktrace?

Client

Option	Default	Description
host	"127.0.0.1"	The host that the server listens on
port	6356	The port that the server listens on
headers	{}	Additional request headers
connectTimeout	0	The socket connection timeout
responseTimeout	0	The response wait timeout

createClient also supports options from http.request(). For example, you can set headers to add extra headers to http request, or auth if you need Basic Authentication. You cannot change http request method.