Fluid Framework Documentation
What is Fluid Framework?
Fluid Framework is a collection of client libraries for distributing and synchronizing shared
state. These libraries allow multiple clients to simultaneously create and operate on shared
data structures using coding patterns similar to those used to work with local data.
Why Fluid?
Because building low-latency, collaborative experiences is hard!
Fluid Framework offers:
Client-centric application model with data persistence requiring no custom server
code.
Distributed data structures with familiar programming patterns.
Very low latency.
The developers at Microsoft have built collaboration into many applications, but many
required application specific server-side logic to manage the collaborative experience. The
Fluid Framework is the result of Microsoft's investment in reducing the complexity of
creating collaborative applications.
What if you didn't have to invest in server code at all? Imagine if you could use a general
purpose server which was designed to be lightweight and low cost. Imagine if all your
development was focused on the client experience and data sync was handled for you. That is
the promise of Fluid.
Focused on the client developer
Applications built with Fluid Framework require zero custom code on the server to enable
sophisticated data sync scenarios such as real-time typing across text editors. Client
developers can focus on customer experiences while letting Fluid do the work of keeping data
in sync.
Fluid Framework works with your application framework of choice. Whether you prefer
plain JavaScript or a framework like React, Angular, or Vue, Fluid Framework makes
building collaborative experiences simple and flexible.
How Fluid works
Fluid was designed to deliver collaborative experiences with blazing performance. To
achieve this goal, the team kept the server logic as simple and lightweight as possible. This
approach helped ensure virtually instant syncing across clients with very low server costs.
To keep the server simple, each Fluid client is responsible for its own state. While previous
systems keep a source of truth on the server, the Fluid service is responsible for taking in data
operations, sequencing the operations, and returning the sequenced operations to the clients.
Each client is able to use that sequence to independently and accurately produce the current
state regardless of the order it receives operations.
The following is a typical flow.
1. Client code changes data locally.
2. Fluid runtime sends that change to the Fluid service.
3. Fluid service sequences that operation and broadcasts it to all clients.
4. Fluid runtime incorporates that operation into local data and raises a "valueChanged"
event.
5. Client code handles that event (updates view, runs business logic).
Next steps
If you want to learn a lot more about how Fluid works, start with our architecture overview.
If you prefer to get your hands dirty right away, head for our coding tutorial and examples.
But first, get your dev environment set up.
