Show HN: Node-android – Run Node.js on Android (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

70 pointssequoiar68687y ago28 comments

28 comments

Serious question: what sorts of things would a person do with this?

Not throwing rocks, this is a question based in my own ignorance. I know what Node is, but I don't use it and I'm not an Android dev. Thanks!

m_mueller7y ago

What I’d do is running a full blown database application on the device. Couchbase Lite can do that as an example - replicate to a Couchbase server and allow offline access to data and indices. If your server part is Node.js based you should be able to have the whole thing running offline on devices.

Why? I’m Swiss. We drive a lot of trains and they enter a lot of tunnels. Or on the plane. Or on a mountain. Imagine you can just keep on editing all your business data and sync the delta once you get a connection.

fareesh7y ago

In the past I've used PouchDB inside a webview for this use-case.

jayd167y ago

This is pretty much what Firebase is. https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/

stephengillie7y ago

You may be interested in a new way to develop web applications that I have been developing. An entire site is represented in JSON, and pages are built by Javascript in the browser. This greatly reduces server calls, making it much faster as well as largely working offline.

The site is in late alpha: https://www.sparational.com/

(If you goto the Login screen and enter an unused username and password, it will create an account for you.)

2 more replies

meiraleal7y ago

I don't know about others, but developing react native apps I sometimes have the necessity to use some NPM modules that can't be used directly into react native. For example, I'm developing a 1-person chatbot platform and I want to run botkit processes inside the app so I don't need a backend. It can't be done with React Native but could be done using node-android or nodejs-mobile.

8note7y ago

I was working on making a reddit auto repost detector bot based on opencv that I was going to leave running on an old phone.

I got node running on it without this though, but funemployment ended before getting the proper drivers running on it

mikece7y ago

If the purpose is to just run JavaScript code on Android outside of a browser context, React Native and NativeScript have been doing this for a while.

If the purpose is to run JavaScript functions as background services this is somewhat implemented via Service Workers in Progressive Web Apps.

I don't think there is any way (currently) to register a JavaScript function/library as an always-on server process. I don't see why this would be unsafe or particularly undesirable unless there is something computationally intensive happening.

lai7y ago

This is cool, but Termux gives you this and more.

rhacker7y ago

This looks like a NodeJS implementation written in Java (I'm guessing from a dead-push to make Java's JS VM capable of running NodeJS APIs - and note that its compatible with Node 0.10.x - very oldish) Still would likely fill a niche where previously not possible.

andrewguenther7y ago

"Run Node.js on Android by rewrite Node.js in Java"

It also hasn't been meaningfully updated in two years. I don't think that this is really useable.

antoniuschan997y ago

I was able to get Node running on both Android and iOS using this library: https://github.com/janeasystems/nodejs-mobile

Here's the writeup:

https://medium.com/@tuffluver/control-an-industrial-robot-wi...

jimpick7y ago

Very nice! I've been playing with https://github.com/janeasystems/nodejs-mobile to get the Dat project to run on Android and iOS. This might be another way to do the same thing on Android!

Hydraulix9897y ago

Your linked project makes a lot more sense since it is a native NDK port instead of a complete rewrite/re-implementation in another programming language.

hyperpallium7y ago

termux (on android) has nodejs

  $ apt search nodejs
  nodejs/stable 8.11.2 arm
    Platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

disclaimer: I haven't used it

bitwize7y ago

Great hack, but what does it give me that Node under Termux doesn't?

z3t47y ago

You could probably packages a Node.JS app with this and release it as an Android app. I think this project need some examples.

JosephRedfern7y ago

I'm probably being blind here, but why would you need to re-write node.js in Java in order to be able to run it under Android? Why couldn't this be achieved through JNI (or similar)?

naoru7y ago

I used an old Android phone with Linux Deploy to run Node with MongoDB around 3 years ago. Now Termux allows to do basically the same.

sequoiar6868OP7y ago

the initial purpose is to run http over udp with nodejs on Android for p2p web service. I have spent years of effort on it, but I feel tired now. anyone interested in it, can fork and continue on it. thanks.

EGreg7y ago

Do we have one for iOS?

I would like to run my own web servers in Cordova!!

samschooler7y ago

https://github.com/janeasystems/nodejs-mobile Is the most promising project right now! Secure Scuttle Butt is using it to get running on mobile.

augbog7y ago

Why link to a fork?

philliphaydon7y ago

Now we just need android phones with 32gb of ram.

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