@fluidframework/tinylicious-client

The tinylicious-client package provides a simple and powerful way to consume collaborative Fluid data with the Tinylicious service.

Using tinylicious-client

The tinylicious-client package has a default TinyliciousClient class that allows you to interact with Fluid.

import { TinyliciousClient } from "@fluidframework/tinylicious-client";

Instantiating TinyliciousClient

Fluid requires a backing service to enable collaborative communication. The TinyliciousClient instance will be instantitated against the Tinylicious service.

In the example below we are connecting to a locally running instance of our Tinylicious service running on port 7070 by filling out the optional port parameter in TinyliciousConnectionConfig.

import { TinyliciousClient, TinyliciousConnectionConfig } from "@fluidframework/tinylicious-client";

const clientProps = { connection: { port: 7070 } };
const tinyliciousClient = new TinyliciousClient(clientProps);

Fluid Containers

A Container instance is a organizational unit within Fluid. Each Container instance has a connection to the defined Fluid Service and contains an independent collection of collaborative objects.

Containers are created and identified by unique ids. Management and storage of these ideas are the responsibility of the developer.

Defining Fluid Containers

Fluid Containers are defined by a schema. The schema includes initial properties of the Container as well as what collaborative objects can be dynamically created.

See ContainerSchema in ./src/types/ts for details about the specific properties.

const schema = {
    initialObjects: {
        /* ... */
    },
    dynamicObjectTypes: [ /*...*/ ],
}
const tinyliciousClient = new TinyliciousClient();
const { container, services } = await tinyliciousClient.createContainer(schema);

// Set any default data on the container's `initialObjects` before attaching
// Returned ID can be used to fetch the container via `getContainer` below
const id = await container.attach();

Using Fluid Containers

Using the default TinyliciousClient object the developer can create and get Fluid containers. Because Fluid needs to be connected to a server containers need to be created and retrieved asynchronously.

import { TinyliciousClient } from "@fluidframework/tinylicious-client";

const tinyliciousClient = new TinyliciousClient(props);
const { container, services } = await tinyliciousClient.getContainer("_unique-id_", schema);

Using initial objects

The most common way to use Fluid is through initial collaborative objects that are created when the Container is created.

Note: Collaborative objects are referred to as LoadableObjects within Fluid. LoadableObjects are specific to Fluid and expose a collaborative interface. DistributedDataStructures and DataObjects are types of LoadableObjects.

initialObjects are loaded into memory when the Container is loaded and the developer can access them off the Container via the initialObjects property. The initialObjects property has the same signature as the Container schema.

const schema = {
    initialObjects: {
        map1: SharedMap,
        text1: SharedString,
    }
}
const tinyliciousClient = new TinyliciousClient();
const { container, services } = await tinyliciousClient.getContainer("_unique-id_", schema);

const initialObjects = container.initialObjects;
const map1 = initialObjects.map1;
const text1 = initialObjects["text1"];

Using dynamic objects

LoadableObjects can also be created dynamically during runtime. Dynamic object types need to be defined in the dynamicObjectTypes property of the ContainerSchema.

The Container has a create method that will create a new instance of the provided type. This instance will be local to the user until attached to another loadable object. Dynamic objects created this way should be stored in initialObjects, which are attached when the Container is created. When storing a loadable object you must store a reference to the object and not the object itself. To do this use the handle property on the loadable object.

Dynamic objects are loaded on-demand to optimize for data virtualization. To get the loadable object, first get the stored handle then resolve that handle.

const schema = {
    initialObjects: {
        map1: SharedMap,
    },
    dynamicObjectTypes: [ SharedString ],
}
const tinyliciousClient = new TinyliciousClient();
const { container, services } = await tinyliciousClient.getContainer("_unique-id_", schema);
const map1 = container.initialObjects.map1;

const newText = await container.create(SharedString);
map1.set("text-unique-id", newText.handle);

// ...

const textHandle = map1.get("text-unique-id"); // Get the handle
const text = await map1.get(); // Resolve the handle to get the object

// or

const text = await map1.get("text-unique-id").get();

See GitHub for more details on the Fluid Framework and packages within.