Feathers Client

One of the most notable features of Feathers is that it can also be used as the client. In contrast with most other frameworks, it isn't a separate library; instead you get the exact same functionality with a client and on a server. This means you can use services and hooks and configure plugins. By default, a Feathers client automatically creates services that talk to a Feathers server.

In order to connect to a Feathers server, a client creates Services that use a REST or websocket connection to relay method calls and - for a real-time transport like Socket.io - allow listening to events on the server. This means the Feathers application instance is usable the exact same way as on the server.

Modules most relevant on the client are:

• @feathersjs/feathers to initialize a new Feathers application
• @feathersjs/rest-client to connect to services through REST HTTP provided by Koa or Express.
• @feathersjs/socketio-client to connect to services through Socket.io.
• @feathersjs/authentication-client to authenticate a client

Important

You do not have to use Feathers on the client to connect to a Feathers server. The client REST client and Socket.io client chapters also describe how to use the connection directly without Feathers on the client side.

This chapter describes how to set up Feathers as the client in Node, React Native and in the browser with a module loader like Webpack or Parcel or through a <script> tag. The examples are using the Socket.io client. For other connection methods see the chapters linked above.

Typed client

A Feathers application generated with Feathers v5 or later now exports a client file, including the types you defined in schemas on the server. For more information see the CLI guide

Node

To connect to a Feathers server in NodeJS, install the desired client connection library (here, socket.io-client), alongside the Feathers core library, and the connection-specific library:

npm install @feathersjs/feathers @feathersjs/socketio-client socket.io-client --save

Then initialize like this:

import io from 'socket.io-client'
import { feathers } from '@feathersjs/feathers'
import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio-client'

const socket = io('http://api.my-feathers-server.com')
const client = feathers()

client.configure(socketio(socket))

const messageService = client.service('messages')

messageService.on('created', (message: Message) => console.log('Created a message', message))

// Use the messages service from the server
messageService.create({
  text: 'Message from client'
})

React Native

React Native usage is the same as for the Node client. Install the required packages into your React Native project.

npm install @feathersjs/feathers @feathersjs/socketio-client socket.io-client

Then in the main application file:

import io from 'socket.io-client'
import { AsyncStorage } from 'react-native'
import { feathers } from '@feathersjs/feathers'
import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio-client'
import authentication from '@feathersjs/authentication-client'

const socket = io('http://api.my-feathers-server.com', {
  transports: ['websocket'],
  forceNew: true
})
const client = feathers()

client.configure(socketio(socket))
client.configure(
  authentication({
    storage: AsyncStorage
  })
)

const messageService = client.service('messages')

messageService.on('created', (message: Message) => console.log('Created a message', message))

// Use the messages service from the server
messageService.create({
  text: 'Message from client'
})

Since React Native for Android doesn't handle timeouts exceeding one minute, consider setting lower values for pingInterval and pingTimeout of Socket.io on your server. This will stop warnings related to this issue. For example:

import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio'

const app = feathers()

app.configure(
  socketio({
    pingInterval: 10000,
    pingTimeout: 50000
  })
)

Module loaders

Feathers client libraries work with the out-of-the-box configuration of all modern module loaders like Webpack, Parcel, Vite etc.

Webpack

No additional setup should be necessary to use the Feathers client modules in a standard configuration with Webpack.

create-react-app

create-react-app uses Webpack and also no longer requires additional setup to load the individual Feathers client modules.

Others

For non-CommonJS formats (like AMD) version of Feathers and its client modules the @feathersjs/client module can be used.

@feathersjs/client

npm install @feathersjs/client --save

@feathersjs/client is a module that bundles the separate Feathers client-side modules into one file which can be loaded directly in the browser through a <script> tag and in most other JavaScript runtimes.

Important

If you are using a module loader like Webpack, Parcel etc., create-react-app and in React Native and Node you should not use @feathersjs/client. Use the individual client modules instead. This will give you the most modern builds and reduce bundle size and build/load time. See the REST client and Socket.io client chapters for invidual module use.

Here is a table of which Feathers client module is included:

Feathers module	@feathersjs/client
@feathersjs/feathers	feathers (default)
@feathersjs/errors	feathers.errors
@feathersjs/rest-client	feathers.rest
@feathersjs/socketio-client	feathers.socketio
@feathersjs/authentication-client	feathers.authentication

When you are loading @feathersjs/client you do not have to install or load any of the other modules listed in the table above.

When to use

@feathersjs/client can be used directly in the browser using a <script> tag without a module loader as well as module loaders that do not support CommonJS (like RequireJS).

Load from CDN with <script>

Below is an example of the scripts you would use to load @feathersjs/client from unpkg.com.

<script src="//unpkg.com/@feathersjs/client@^5.0.0/dist/feathers.js"></script>
<script src="//unpkg.com/socket.io-client@^4.0.0/dist/socket.io.js"></script>
<script>
  // Socket.io is exposed as the `io` global.
  const socket = io('http://localhost:3030')
  // @feathersjs/client is exposed as the `feathers` global.
  const app = feathers()

  app.configure(feathers.socketio(socket))
  app.configure(feathers.authentication())

  app.service('messages').create({
    text: 'A new message'
  })

  // feathers.errors is an object with all of the custom error types.
</script>