Boosting Rocket.Chat App Development with Hot Reload

This is a short story about how I boosted my Google Summer of Code (GSoC) development this year, where I worked on a Rocket project.Chat App Engine to build a Quick Reply Feature. Although Rocket.Chat App Engine is a fantastic framework with many features, one thing it was missing was a hot reload feature. This meant that every time you made a change to your app, you had to update it, which was quite slow and frustrating manually. and we have a safe.dev server from where we can access a few AI APIs by creating an exclusive account from a link that later that account can be used to deploy the app.

The Problem

Rocket.Chat App Engine didn’t have a hot reload feature, so developers had to restart their app manually after every file change. This made the development process slow and cumbersome. I wanted to find a way to make this process faster and more efficient.

The Solution: Booster

To tackle this issue, I created a tool called Booster. Booster automates the deployment process and introduces hot reload functionality.

Here’s how I approached the project:

File Watching with Chokidar:

I used the Chokidar library to watch for changes in the project directory. Chokidar detects file changes and triggers deployment commands automatically.

Debouncing to Avoid Overload:

Frequent file saves can cause multiple deployment processes to start at once. To handle this, I added a debouncing feature that waits 3 seconds before adding another deployment Process to the queue. This helps avoid adding too many processes at once in the queue.

Limiting Processes:

To prevent the system from getting overloaded, I set a limit on the number of deployment processes in the queue. Only 4 processes can exist at max, which helps keep everything running smoothly.

User-Friendly Setup:

I made Booster easy to use by adding prompts for users to enter the directory to watch, your Rocket.chat server URL, username, and password. This makes the tool accessible to anyone who wants to use it.

How It Works

Here’s a simple overview of Booster:

1. Setup: Clone the Booster repository and install the dependencies.
2. Configuration: Run the script and provide the directory to watch, server URL, username, and password when prompted.
3. Monitoring: Booster monitors the directory for changes. It waits for 2 seconds after a change is detected to avoid processing too many changes at once.
4. Deployment: The tool runs the deployment command with a limit of 4 processes in the queue and gives real-time updates on the status.

Conclusion

Booster is designed to make Rocket.Chat app development is faster and easier by automating the deployment process and adding hot reload functionality. By using file watching, debouncing, and process limiting, I aimed to improve productivity and streamline the development workflow. I hope Booster makes a positive impact on the Rocket.Chat community.

Check out the Booster GitHub repository to try it out and contribute if you have any ideas for improvement!