PocketPages

pb() - PocketBase Client

The pb() function returns a configured PocketBase client instance that is ready to communicate with your PocketBase server directly in the JSVM.

Basic Usage

const pb = require('pocketpages').pb()

// Use any PocketBase SDK method
const users = pb.collection('users').getFullList()
const posts = pb.collection('posts').getList(1, 20)

Configuration

The client is automatically configured using your +config.js settings:

// +config.js
export default {
  host: 'http://127.0.0.1:8090', // Default PocketBase URL
}

SDK References

The client uses a special JSVM-compatible version of the PocketBase JS SDK that provides synchronous methods instead of async/await:

Benefits

While using the raw JSVM API might be slightly more efficient, the PocketBase REST API (via the SDK) offers several advantages:

  • Well-documented and widely used API surface
  • Consistent API between frontend and backend code
  • Access to high-level features not easily available in raw JSVM
  • Familiar JavaScript patterns and nomenclature
  • Rich ecosystem of examples and community support

Example Usage

const pb = require('pocketpages').pb()

// Create a record
const post = pb.collection('posts').create({
  title: 'Hello World',
  content: 'This is my first post',
})

// Query with filters
const published = pb.collection('posts').getFullList({
  filter: 'status = "published"',
  sort: '-created',
})

// Update a record
pb.collection('posts').update(post.id, {
  views: post.views + 1,
})

Template Usage

<%
  const pb = require('pocketpages').pb()

  // Get recent posts
  const posts = pb.collection('posts').getFullList({
    sort: '-created',
    filter: 'published = true',
    limit: 5
  })
%>

<% posts.forEach(post => { %>
  <article>
    <h2><%= post.title %></h2>
    <p><%= post.content %></p>
  </article>
<% }) %>

Important Notes

  • All SDK methods are synchronous (no async/await needed)
  • Real-time features are not available in the JSVM version
  • AsyncAuthStore is not supported
  • The client is cached after first initialization

Realtime Events

When using PocketBase in hooks (server-side), you cannot subscribe to realtime events since it runs in an isolated JSVM environment. However, you can send realtime events from hooks to connected clients using the subscriptions broker:

// Send a custom event to specific subscribers
function pushCustomEvent(channel, data, filterFn = (client) => true) {
  const message = new SubscriptionMessage({
    name: channel,
    data: JSON.stringify(data)
  });

  // Get all connected clients
  const clients = $app.subscriptionsBroker().clients();

  // Filter clients that are subscribed to this channel
  const filteredClients = Object.entries(clients).filter(
    ([id, client]) => client.hasSubscription(channel) && filterFn(client)
  );

  // Send message to filtered clients
  filteredClients.forEach(([id, client]) => {
    client.send(message);
  });
}

// Example usage:
pushCustomEvent("rooms/123/delta", {
  type: "update",
  changes: { ... }
});

Note that client-side usage of the PocketBase SDK (in browsers) maintains full realtime subscription capabilities as normal.