Foxx

Traditionally, server-side projects have been developed as standalone applications that guide the communication between the client-side frontend and the database backend. This has led to applications that were either developed as single monoliths or that duplicated data access and domain logic across all services that had to access the database. Additionally, tools to abstract away the underlying database calls could incur a lot of network overhead when using remote databases without careful optimization.

ArangoDB allows application developers to write their data access and domain logic as microservices running directly within the database with native access to in-memory data. The Foxx microservice framework makes it easy to extend ArangoDB's own REST API with custom HTTP endpoints using modern JavaScript running on the same V8 engine you know from Node.js and the Google Chrome web browser.

Unlike traditional approaches to storing logic in the database (like stored procedures), these microservices can be written as regular structured JavaScript applications that can be easily distributed and version controlled. Depending on your project's needs Foxx can be used to build anything from optimized REST endpoints performing complex data access to entire standalone applications running directly inside the database.