Preface
This project demonstrates a modern full-stack application on IBM i, featuring a Feathers.js backend and a Vite-powered SPA frontend. I also used this project to test my custom Knex adapter for DB2 on i, knex-ibmi. The frontend and backend communicate via WebSockets for real-time updates.
Technical Decisions
Backend The backend uses TypeScript and Feathers.js—a toolkit for creating applications with authentication, WebSockets (Socket.io), and REST APIs (Koa). It interacts with the DB2 database using Knex, a powerful SQL query builder that works well with TypeScript.
To connect Knex with DB2 for i, I developed the knex-ibmi package. This configuration allows us to scaffold services and hooks via the CLI, enabling modern real-time applications directly on IBM i.
Frontend The frontend is a Single Page Application (SPA) built with TypeScript, Vite, and React. Since Server-Side Rendering (SSR) wasn’t required, I chose Vite for bundling. The UI uses shadcn/ui, combining Tailwind CSS for styling and Radix UI for accessible components.
Development The frontend and backend reside in separate directories for easier management. During development, I run their respective dev servers in separate terminal windows.