Using Elixir/Phoenix as a super-charged "process manager"+framework around nodejs processes

[fullofcaffeine]

@hubertlepicki

I experimented with something like that, by putting a Next.js server behind a Phoenix reverse-proxy. So basically a web request hits Phoenix, I use Ecto to load up the data, then use POST to send that data to Next.js handler, and stream the Next.js-generated response back to the client browser connected to Phoenix. This works and is pretty simple, in fact I was surprised how simple it is. But this is still running a Next.js server with all it’s bugs and issues it has, eventually I decided against actually pushing this forward in any way.

Yeah, that’s more or less what I have in mind, but I was wondering if it would be feasible not to use express and just connect at the process level (stdout). Not sure if it would be easier or more performant, still a newbie when it comes to BEAM. Probably it’d be more complex and not worth it? Also not sure if it’d support suspense in a straightforward way.

I think your approach could also align with what I want to do as long as Elixir manages it. Did your Elixir app spawned the Next.JS process? Did you have a pool and did you have any logic to “auto-scale” if needed? Any caching?

If you have the code somewhere, I’d love to take a peek at it!