// the find
floodfx/liveviewjs
LiveView-based library for reactive app development in NodeJS and Deno
LiveViewJS ports Elixir's Phoenix LiveView pattern to Node.js and Deno — server-rendered HTML with WebSocket-driven updates, no client-side framework required. It's for TypeScript developers who want the LiveView programming model without learning Elixir. The core idea is sound: write server-side state machines, send diff patches over WebSockets, skip the React/Vue layer entirely.
The diff patching implementation is solid — it tracks statics vs dynamics in templates so only changed parts go over the wire, which is the whole point of LiveView. TypeScript support is first-class, not bolted on. The changeset system (borrowed from Ecto) gives you validation with error tracking that flows naturally into form rendering. File upload handling, pub/sub for multiplayer features, and JS commands for client-side DOM manipulation without round-trips are all there — it's not a toy.
Last commit was August 2023 — nearly three years of silence is not a good sign for a framework you're betting production work on. The pub/sub is single-process only in the core package, which means horizontal scaling requires external infrastructure with no documented path for doing it. Only 22 forks for a framework-sized project suggests the community never materialized, so you're largely on your own when you hit edge cases. And the elephant in the room: Phoenix LiveView itself keeps evolving, so this port is chasing a moving target with no active maintainer.