
Hapi.js project is reaching its conclusion - kostarelo
https://twitter.com/hapijs/status/1275887984114413569
======
jeremiahlee
From the Hapi Slack:

> eran 6:38 PM

> Over the past few years I have tried many different ways to keep my work on
> the hapi ecosystem sustainable. I was trying to secure enough funds to keep
> the lights on but also to innovate and improve the framework. This has
> worked well for a while but over the past year both commercial licenses and
> sponsorship dropped to an all time low. At the current funding level I can
> only address critical issues and keep things stable. It doesn’t allow me to
> invest in the future of the framework, add meaningful new features, or keep
> up with community support.After 5 years of working outside of a major
> company, I have reached the point where I am no longer finding this work
> rewarding. The resources available do not allow me to spend the kind of
> quality time needed to have a meaningful engagement with this project. I no
> longer believe that this can be fixed or reversed. Go through another round
> of begging people for money in hope of another year or so for project runway
> is not appealing to me.I don’t know exactly how this will unfold. I plan to
> communicate this to the wider hapi community over the next few days to start
> a conversation and see what’s the best way for me to bring this project to
> an appropriate conclusion. This channel is the beginning of this process.
> While I am not expecting others to take over the work, I have not ruled that
> out yet.I want you to know that regardless of how this ends up, I am going
> to keep supporting the project until the end of the year. After that, I am
> going to offer some kind of continued commercial support for at least 2
> years. I still need to work out the plan for what that support looks like
> and make sure that it is priced in a way that allows me to offer it.

~~~
jiofih
This is the death of open-source. This is _not_ open-source software.

And exactly why OSS needs to exist - true community projects that are not
dependent on sponsors or have any strings attached. I hope we find a way back
there.

~~~
jeremiahlee
I hope Hapi and Joi can find a home in the Open JS Foundation.

~~~
detaro
The more important question is: is there a community around it that will
develop and support it? that's what makes or breaks a project, and isn't
something you get by joining a foundation.

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yagodragon
This is very sad. Hapi.js seriously tried to bring some sanity back to node.js
development. Eran Hammer is a rock star. He did an amazing job, brought a
super clean codebase, secure defaults etc but i feel the timing was bad.
Hapi.js was good just for API's. Do you want to use it with a database? Good
luck finding an orm and setting up migrations on your own. Meanwhile, in the
last couple of years golang exploded and the node.js found it's niche in react
server side rendering.

I feel that every node.js MVC backend framework or the MERN stack of the 2015
era will become obsolete. That includes adonis.js , nest.js , meteor etc. I
still haven't found any job description mentioning these frameworks. If you're
looking for a backend language for your next project, look at python, php and
rails and use javascript where it's good at, the front-end.

~~~
claytongulick
This opinion doesn't seem to be backed by much evidence.

The single-thread async-by-default execution model that nodejs shines at is
brilliant for io bound tasks, like REST APIs.

Go is fine and has it's strengths, but is by no means a nodejs killer. It's
another tool in the toolbox.

Reducing one of the most popular and effective modern server-side languages to
"react server side rendering" is inaccurate, at best.

It also ignores node's massive use in the embedded space, desktop (electron,
nwjs, etc...) and emerging data science space.

When I'm looking for a backend for my next project, it would be very hard to
convince me to move backwards to python etc...

Those feel very legacy to me. Slow, apartment threaded model with blocking io,
tons of context thrash from thread switching, bad package management,
difficult environment configuration, etc...

I'll stick with node until there's another truly innovative technology that
comes along.

~~~
yagodragon
Most of the web apps are mostly CRUD at the end of the day and boring stacks
like rails,php,python are perfect for this kind of job. The most popular
node.js framework is express.js and it doesn't even have anything built-in to
parse request bodies. You'll have to reinvent the wheel in every single step
of your app.

Sails.js, adonis.js, nest.js meteor etc are all pretty much dead. They try to
poorly re-implement everything we love about rails/django. Heck, even modern
PHP with type-hints and symphony/laravel is better than full-stack nodejs
these days.

If you're so lucky that your django,rails api can't scale your load, you can
use Go which is also way better than node.js in every single aspect (standard
library, language, tooling, deployment, performance).

That being said though, i'm really excited and curious about graphql servers
and prisma.js and how all these tools could eventually introduce a new way to
build crud apps but for now i'll stick with proven tech and wait.

~~~
agustif
NestJS seems very much alive, although is a little bit bloated for my taste. I
would recommend TS+GraphQL-Modules+GQL-Codegen instead.

Apollo is a must too both server and client.

GraphQL Subscriptions = WebSockets = Real Time bi-directional channel.

Lots of cool stuff on TypeScript/GraphQL being done. Nothing wrong with one
framework fading off

~~~
nesarkvechnep
Yes, because GraphQL is a fix for everything.

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rodinia
This hurts. I've been using Hapi professionally for 5 years now, and it is a
joi (hehe) to work with. Modules in the hapi ecosystem, ie boom, joi, and lab,
are baked into my servers from top to bottom.

Much thanks to the devs that made this possible over the years. It is a
shining example of what a JavaScript tool should be like. I wish it could be
given the money and time it deserves.

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gedy
This was originally from Walmart Labs, no? Anyone know why they stopped being
the corporate sponsor?

~~~
thegoleffect
Most of the devs quit WalmartLabs a long time ago (including myself, Eran,
etc). Sponsored in the sense that WalmartLabs paid us to use it to build their
services and we developed hapi.js/joi to support our jobs.

~~~
tootie
I'm genuinely curious if anything produced by Walmart Labs had any sort of
"commercial" success or was even adopted within the main Walmart ecosystem.
I've certainly heard of hapi, but don't know if it ever gained all that much
adoption. Or was it mostly a recruiting tool to make Walmart attractive to a
better class of devs?

~~~
thegoleffect
While I was there, hapi.js was extensively used by the Global eCommerce
department and was responsible for fronting the entire mobile API. You can
check Eran's blog for stories of how it handled all of Walmart's mobile API
traffic especially during the massive thundering herd of Black Friday traffic.
It was used on many other projects including some "big name" projects,
however, I don't know if hapi's involvement was made public for those so can't
name them directly.

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kschiffer
Terrible news. This framework needs a future!

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snowoutside
This is really sad :( I hope there is more communication soon about the
timeline.

~~~
kostarelo
I would also like to hear more about this decision. Could probably be a
financial decision?

