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https://github.com/rethinkdb/horizon

Horizon is a realtime, open-source backend for JavaScript apps.
https://github.com/rethinkdb/horizon

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Horizon is a realtime, open-source backend for JavaScript apps.

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README 

        



# Horizon



[Official Repository](https://github.com/rethinkdb/horizon)



## What is Horizon?



Horizon is an open-source developer platform for building sophisticated realtime

apps. It provides a complete backend that makes it dramatically simpler to

build, deploy, manage, and scale engaging JavaScript web and mobile apps.

Horizon is extensible, integrates with the Node.js stack, and allows building

modern, arbitrarily complex applications.



Horizon is built on top of [RethinkDB](https://www.rethinkdb.com) and consists of

four components:



- [__Horizon server__](/server) -- a middleware server that connects to/is built on

  top of RethinkDB, and exposes a simple API/protocol to front-end

  applications.

- [__Horizon client library__](/client) -- a JavaScript client library that wraps

  Horizon server's protocol in a convenient API for front-end

  developers.

- [__Horizon CLI - `hz`__](/cli) -- a command-line tool aiding in scaffolding, development, and deployment

- [__GraphQL support__](https://github.com/rethinkdb/horizon/issues/125) -- the server will have a GraphQL adapter so anyone can get started building React/Relay apps without writing any backend code at the beginning. This will not ship in v1, but we'll follow up with a GraphQL adapter quickly after launch.



Horizon currently has all the following services available to developers:



- ✅ __Subscribe__ -- a streaming API for building realtime apps directly from the

  browser without writing any backend code.

- ✅ __Auth__ -- an authentication API that connects to common auth providers

  (e.g. Facebook, Google, GitHub).

- ✅ __Identity__ -- an API for listing and manipulating user accounts.

- ✅ __Permissions__ -- a security model that allows the developer to protect

   data from unauthorized access.



Upcoming versions of Horizon will likely expose the following

additional services:



- __Session management__ -- manage browser session and session

  information.

- __Geolocation__ -- an API that makes it very easy to build

  location-aware apps.

- __Presence__ -- an API for detecting presence information for a given

  user and sharing it with others.

- __Plugins__ -- a system for extending Horizon with user-defined services

  in a consistent, discoverable way.

- __Backend__ -- an API/protocol to integrate custom backend code with

  Horizon server/client-libraries.



## Why Horizon?



While technologies like [RethinkDB](http://www.rethinkdb.com) and

[WebSocket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket) make it possible to build

engaging realtime apps, empirically there is still too much friction for most

developers. Building realtime apps now requires understanding and manually

orchestrating multiple systems across the software stack, understanding

distributed stream processing, and learning how to deploy and scale realtime systems. The

learning curve is quite steep, and most of the initial work involves boilerplate

code that is far removed from the primary task of building a realtime app.



Horizon sets out to solve this problem. Developers can start building

apps using their favorite front-end framework using Horizon's APIs

without having to write any backend code.



Since Horizon stores data in RethinkDB, once the app gets sufficiently

complex to need custom business logic on the backend, developers can

incrementally add backend code at any time in the development cycle of

their app.



## Get Involved



We'd love for you to help us build Horizon. If you'd like to be a contributor,

check out our [Contributing guide](/CONTRIBUTING.md).



Also, to stay up-to-date on all Horizon related news and the community you should

definitely [join us on Slack](http://slack.rethinkdb.com) or [follow us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/horizonjs).



![](/assets/Lets-go.png)



## FAQ



Check out our FAQ at [horizon.io/faq](https://horizon.io/faq/)



### How will Horizon be licensed?



The Horizon server, client and cli are available under the MIT license