B4J Question What about web development in 2026 under B4J?

[Giu]

Hi all,

Just curious. If I need to create some API with a web interface, what's the idiomatic/mature/standard way to do it in B4J? If possible would like to avoid to create a "normal" UI with HTML and JS files, would like to do it all from B4 project.

 

[aeric]

I suggest you take a look on my Pakai Server project template.

[Project Template] [Web] Pakai Server v6

Pakai Server Version 6.99 rev1 Pakai Server is a full-stack B4J project template for building modern web applications and REST APIs. It generates all HTML server-side using B4X code (no client-side rendering), leverages HTMX for dynamic interactions without custom JavaScript, and includes both...

www.b4x.com

or Pakai Casual

[Project Template] [Web] Pakai Casual

Pakai Casual Version 6.90 A basic web application template derived from Pakai Server. This template only depends on EndsMeet library compares to Pakai Server which depends on libraries like MiniORMUtils, MiniHtml and WebApiUtils. GitHub: https://github.com/pyhoon/pakai-casual-b4j Template...

www.b4x.com

 

[hatzisn]

Hi all,

Just curious. If I need to create some API with a web interface, what's the idiomatic/mature/standard way to do it in B4J? If possible would like to avoid to create a "normal" UI with HTML and JS files, would like to do it all from B4 project.

APIs are handled by handlers. F.e. if you post a JSON string of a map to a handler then you can get it back in the handler with the following code:

Dim b() As Byte = Bit.InputStreamToBytes(req.InputStream)
Dim sJSON As String = BytesToString(b, 0, b.Length, "UTF-8")
Dim mMap As Map = sJSON.As(JSON).ToMap

 

[Cableguy]

For webapp, fully developed in b4x, ABMaterial hands down

 

[Giu]

For webapp, fully developed in brh, ABMaterial hands down

Shouldn't be BANano? AFAIK BANano is the succesor and ABMAterial doesn't looks updated

 

[alwaysbusy]

BANano is not the successor of ABMaterial. It is a complete different framework. ABMaterial is jserver based, BANano is a B4J to html/css/Javascript transpiler. ABMaterial is very mature and doesn't need updates for quite some time. It was made open source so anyone can make changes if they think they are needed. It is still within our company used a lot. Together with our BANano transpiler to make PWAs.

 

[alwaysbusy]

What I could suggest is using ABMaterial for your API (or just jserver if you don't need an interface) and BANano to make a user PWA that calls those rest APIs. This is what we do.

 

[Giu]

What I could suggest is using ABMaterial for your API (or just jserver if you don't need an interface) and BANano to make a user PWA that calls those rest APIs. This is what we do.

Will take a look at the documentation, thanks.

 

[deliriousw]

I suggest you take a look on my Pakai Server project template.

[Project Template] [Web] Pakai Server v6

Pakai Server Version 6.99 rev1 Pakai Server is a full-stack B4J project template for building modern web applications and REST APIs. It generates all HTML server-side using B4X code (no client-side rendering), leverages HTMX for dynamic interactions without custom JavaScript, and includes both...

www.b4x.com

or Pakai Casual

[Project Template] [Web] Pakai Casual

Pakai Casual Version 6.90 A basic web application template derived from Pakai Server. This template only depends on EndsMeet library compares to Pakai Server which depends on libraries like MiniORMUtils, MiniHtml and WebApiUtils. GitHub: https://github.com/pyhoon/pakai-casual-b4j Template...

www.b4x.com

hollow knight

Thanks for sharing these templates. Pakai Server looks particularly useful for building web apps