Microsoft has officially launched Azure Fluid Relay, a managed cloud service designed to help web developers create enterprise-grade collaborative applications with the Fluid Framework. The service, which became generally available on August 1, aims to streamline the development of real-time, low-latency collaborative tools, allowing developers to focus on building the user experience rather than managing the complexities of collaboration features.
At the core of Azure Fluid Relay is the Fluid Framework, an open-source collection of client libraries tailored for real-time collaboration. These libraries enable multiple users to work on shared data structures simultaneously, while leveraging programming patterns that feel similar to working with local data. This makes it easier for developers to integrate real-time collaboration into their applications without needing to reinvent the wheel.
Azure Fluid Relay simplifies the technical challenges associated with collaboration by handling the backend replication, data synchronization, and coauthoring details. It offers key features such as real-time state replication across connected JavaScript clients, built-in functionality for managing collaboration, and seamless integration with cloud-native Azure storage. The service is designed to be scalable, reliable, and secure, meeting the needs of businesses with demanding legal and regulatory requirements.
Applications built with Fluid Framework can run with minimal server-side code, enabling data synchronization scenarios like real-time typing or collaborative text editing with ease. Fluid can be used with plain JavaScript or popular JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue. Developers can connect their Fluid applications to Azure Fluid Relay by provisioning a Fluid Relay server resource within their Azure account and using the AzureClient from the fluidframework/azure-client package to link their app to the service. This reduces the complexity of building collaborative features and enhances the performance of real-time interactions in enterprise applications.