Is loopback ready for building real apps on top of it?

[Alexei Antipov]

After working with loopback for about 2 months I've faced some difficulties, that raised a doubt if loopback really ready for building apps.

I think that loopback's code is not stable and is very versatile, so it is not suit for building real apps.

What is your mention on it?

[Raymond Feng]

Hi, Alexei.

Sorry to hear that you ran into some difficulties with LoopBack. Can you summarize the major pain points? We would love to hear your use cases and make sure common issues are addressed.

Thanks,

---

Raymond Feng

Co-Founder and Architect @ StrongLoop, Inc.

StrongLoop makes it easy to develop APIs in Node, plus get DevOps capabilities like monitoring, debugging and clustering.

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[Al Tsang]

Do please share whatever details you have, Alexei.  We feel that LoopBack is not only ready for building apps, but it currently is being used by large and small companies alike.  We're *finally* getting ready to put up our customer and testimonials page.

We're constantly evolving the framework based on customer feedback and requirements and no doubt the velocity of changes is higher than what we desire but we hope the changes are for the better.  This isn't an excuse but I think a fair characterization of the the framework and our company in hyper growth mode.  We're also devoting more resources in our 2015 plan to help with maintenance and as always are making an appeal to call for contributors and maintainers.  Thanks again for the feedback!

-a-

[Alexei Antipov]

Hi Raymond, Al

Thanks for your responses.

Firstly I should say that loopback has really cool features and I like how it do much of it's work.

And may be my mention about loopback's readiness for real apps is wrong and it is because I have only little experience with loopback.

But here are some issues that have confused me:

1. How to get currently authenticated user in your custom remote method? 

I think it is a basic feature, but the way to do it was only recently added and described at the bottom of the page with title "Using current context" - not obvious.

As for me, the suggested way to get user's data seems like a workaround of a problem.

Also this method began to work for me only after updating to version 2.10.1-2.10.2

2. How to set defaults for model properties?

I think this is one of basic features too, but I've not find in documentation a simple solution for this simple question.

I tried to set default value in `beforeValidate` model's hook, but it doesn't work (https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/1036).

Finally I implemented it via `beforeRemote` model hook, but it's seems like a workaround.

3. Today I added a property of Date type to my model, but I haven't found a solution how to set it's value via api method call. All my attempts were rejected.

4. Another case: I set a 'required' restriction on property of Date type, but if I pass some invalid data for this property via api call, then loopback returns 200 & the property's value become null.

https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/1035

There are were other cases that I also have been got stuck on.

I see that the product evolves quite quickly & may be it is good, but for building real apps I want loopback let me fulfill basic simple actions in a simple & predictable way and this actions should really work.

[Raymond Feng]

Hi, Alexei.

Thank you for sharing the list of issues with us. Please see my responses inline.

---

Raymond Feng

Co-Founder and Architect @ StrongLoop, Inc.

StrongLoop makes it easy to develop APIs in Node, plus get DevOps capabilities like monitoring, debugging and clustering.

On Jan 21, 2015, at 1:49 PM, Alexei Antipov <antipov...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Raymond, Al

Thanks for your responses.

Firstly I should say that loopback has really cool features and I like how it do much of it's work.

And may be my mention about loopback's readiness for real apps is wrong and it is because I have only little experience with loopback.

But here are some issues that have confused me:

1. How to get currently authenticated user in your custom remote method? 

I think it is a basic feature, but the way to do it was only recently added and described at the bottom of the page with title "Using current context" - not obvious.

As for me, the suggested way to get user's data seems like a workaround of a problem.

Also this method began to work for me only after updating to version 2.10.1-2.10.2

Do you take it as a documentation issue? For the inconvenience, we could probably enhance the token middleware so that it will have an option to set the current user object into the context. 

As a framework, we anticipate that users want LoopBack to have a good balance of built-in capabilities with options to turn on/off and flexibility to extend/customize/replace. For most features, we try to stick with this principle. And you see sometimes a struggle between opinionated and less-opinionated :-). The community feedback definitely help us reach the ideal position.

2. How to set defaults for model properties?

I think this is one of basic features too, but I've not find in documentation a simple solution for this simple question.

I tried to set default value in `beforeValidate` model's hook, but it doesn't work (https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/1036).

Finally I implemented it via `beforeRemote` model hook, but it's seems like a workaround.

There are three types of property defaults:

• static defaults, you can use the ‘default’ property to specify the value in the model definition.
• dynamic defaults, there is a proposal to support a notion in the JSON file to reference a registered function. The runtime already allows that. See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/loopbackjs/tIlPMxVZXwE and https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/292. BTW, I also commented in https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/1036.
• database defaults - https://github.com/strongloop/loopback-connector-postgresql/pull/54

 

3. Today I added a property of Date type to my model, but I haven't found a solution how to set it's value via api method call. All my attempts were rejected.

Did you create a github issue? We can investigate.

4. Another case: I set a 'required' restriction on property of Date type, but if I pass some invalid data for this property via api call, then loopback returns 200 & the property's value become null.

https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/1035

See my comment in https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/issues/1035.