Recently I've announced that GNU Artanis has entered a new phase—the plugin era. With this update, Artanis now supports a powerful plugin mechanism that lets you extend its core functionality in a modular, flexible way. Whether you’re enhancing your routing logic, integrating AI services, or bridging industrial protocols, plugins in Artanis make it easier than ever to build robust web applications in Scheme.
What Are Artanis Plugins?
Since version 1.2.2, GNU Artanis has embraced a plugin architecture that enables developers to add custom code without modifying the core framework. A plugin is essentially a Scheme module that follows a defined interface. It receives a value (passed via a route option), along with details such as the route rule and any URL keys, and then returns a customized result. Once you register your plugin in the configuration file, Artanis automatically generates a keyword (like #:hello) for use in your route definitions.
For example, our simplest “hello” plugin demonstrates how you can have a route like this:
(get "/hello" #:hello #t
(lambda (rc)
(:hello rc)))
Depending on the value passed (for instance, #t or a symbol like 'world), the plugin can return a generic greeting or a custom message.
Introducing the MQTT-over-WebSocket Plugin
In addition to our earlier plugins, we’re proud to present the MQTT-over-WebSocket plugin for GNU Artanis. This plugin provides a simple way to integrate MQTT over WebSocket into your Artanis applications. Here’s what makes it stand out:
- Simple Integration: With this plugin, you can easily bridge MQTT and WebSocket communication in Artanis.
- Built on guile-mqtt: The implementation is based on the guile-mqtt library, leveraging GNU Guile’s powerful FFI capabilities.
- Non-blocking I/O: Designed to work with Artanis’s asynchronous, non-blocking server core, the plugin ensures that your controllers remain responsive while handling real-time MQTT messaging.
- Cloud and IIoT Ready: By enabling MQTT-over-WebSocket, your Artanis-powered application can efficiently connect IoT devices and cloud services, allowing for modern real-time web applications.
The architecture works like this: a WebSocket client (running in a browser or another endpoint) sends a query or subscribes to topics. The Artanis backend receives these WebSocket messages and, using the MQTT-over-WebSocket plugin, communicates with an MQTT broker (or directly implements MQTT messaging) via guile-mqtt. The result is a seamless integration between web-based interfaces and MQTT messaging services.
The LLM Plugin: A Glimpse into the Future
Our journey into the plugin era doesn’t stop there. We also introduced the LLM plugin, which provides a simple interface to integrate large language models into your Artanis applications. Instead of performing heavy inference directly in Guile, the plugin acts as a gateway to RESTful APIs offered by leading LLM vendors—keeping your server’s asynchronous flow unblocked while unlocking AI capabilities.
Why Plugins Matter in Artanis
The new plugin mechanism isn’t just an add-on; it represents a paradigm shift for GNU Artanis:
- Modularity: Developers can extend functionality without altering the core framework.
- Innovation: Experiment with new features (like MQTT-over-WebSocket or LLM integration) and share them with the community.
- Future-Proofing: By keeping plugins separate, we ensure that Artanis can evolve and remain compatible with emerging web technologies.
Getting Started
Check out our detailed guides:
And don’t forget to explore our new MQTT-over-WebSocket plugin to bring real-time, IoT-grade messaging to your web applications.
Happy hacking!