Data Syncing

Set up bidirectional synchronization between your local Routier data store and remote servers. This guide walks through a complete example using the PouchDB plugin, which provides robust sync capabilities out of the box.

Overview

The PouchDB plugin for Routier includes built-in synchronization that works with CouchDB and other CouchDB-compatible backends. When configured, it automatically:

• Syncs changes bidirectionally between local and remote databases
• Handles conflicts when data is modified in multiple places
• Retries failed sync operations with exponential backoff
• Provides real-time updates through live synchronization

Quick Start

Enable syncing by configuring the sync option when creating your PouchDB plugin:

import { PouchDbPlugin } from "@routier/pouchdb-plugin";

const plugin = new PouchDbPlugin("myapp", {
  sync: {
    remoteDb: "http://127.0.0.1:5984/myapp",
  },
});

Complete Example

Here’s a full example showing pull-only sync with filtering and custom document processing:

sync: {
  remoteDb: "http://127.0.0.1:5984/myapp",
  onComplete: (schemas, event) => {
    console.log("Sync completed:", event);
  }
}

This example demonstrates:

1. Pull-only sync: push: false means changes only flow from remote to local
2. Document filtering: Only syncs documents from specific collections (item and category)
3. Custom processing: The onChange callback groups documents by collection and processes them through schema subscriptions
4. Live synchronization: live: true keeps data up-to-date in real-time

Setting Up a CouchDB Server

To test this example, you’ll need a CouchDB-compatible server. You can use express-pouchdb to run a local server:

>

import PouchDB from "pouchdb";
import express from "express";
import expressPouchDB from "express-pouchdb";
import cors from "cors";

const app = express();

// Enable CORS for browser connections
app.use(
  cors({
    origin: true,
    credentials: true,
  })
);

// Mount PouchDB at root
app.use(expressPouchDB(PouchDB));

app.listen(5984, () => {
  console.log("CouchDB server running on http://127.0.0.1:5984");
});