Compatibility

Node.js 10.18 or later is required, matching the engines field in the package’s package.json.

Install

npm install thrift 

Thrift Compiler

You can compile IDL sources for Node.js with the following command:

thrift --gen js:node thrift_file

Cassandra Client Example:

Here is a Cassandra example:

var thrift = require('thrift'),
    Cassandra = require('./gen-nodejs/Cassandra')
    ttypes = require('./gen-nodejs/cassandra_types');

var connection = thrift.createConnection("localhost", 9160),
    client = thrift.createClient(Cassandra, connection);

connection.on('error', function(err) {
  console.error(err);
});

client.get_slice("Keyspace", "key", new ttypes.ColumnParent({column_family: "ExampleCF"}), new ttypes.SlicePredicate({slice_range: new ttypes.SliceRange({start: '', finish: ''})}), ttypes.ConsistencyLevel.ONE, function(err, data) {
  if (err) {
    // handle err
  } else {
    // data == [ttypes.ColumnOrSuperColumn, ...]
  }
  connection.end();
});

Int64

Since JavaScript represents all numbers as doubles, int64 values cannot be accurately represented naturally. By default, both the protocol layer (TBinaryProtocol.readI64() etc.) and generated struct fields surface int64 values as broofa/node-int64 Thrift.Int64 objects. See BigInt mode below for the opt-in alternative — which changes only the generated-code field type and keeps the protocol layer unchanged.

BigInt mode (js:bigint, opt-in)

Native BigInt has been available since Node 10.4, so every supported runtime can use it. Pass bigint alongside node in the generator option list to emit BigInt-aware code instead of node-int64:

thrift --gen js:node MyService.thrift           # default — node-int64 output
thrift --gen js:node,bigint MyService.thrift    # opt-in — native BigInt output

When the bigint flag is set, code generated by --gen js:node (and the ts, es6, esm variants):

• Emits native bigint literals (e.g. 42n, 9223372036854775807n) for int64 constants instead of new Int64(42).
• Drops the require('node-int64') / import Int64 from 'node-int64' preamble.
• Declares int64 fields as bigint in .d.ts files instead of Int64.
• Wraps readI64() calls with thrift.toBigInt(...) so deserialized fields land in the generated struct as bigint, and writeI64(...) calls with thrift.fromBigInt(...) so consumers can pass plain bigint values into their structs.

The flag is only meaningful when node is in the option list; passing bigint to plain --gen js (browser JS) is silently ignored.

TBinaryProtocol itself is unchanged — readI64 still returns a Thrift.Int64 and writeI64 still expects one. The BigInt boundary lives entirely in the JS layer, in the two helpers exported from the thrift package:

const thrift = require("thrift");

const big = thrift.toBigInt(prot.readI64());      // Int64  -> bigint
prot.writeI64(thrift.fromBigInt(big));            // bigint -> Int64

thrift.fromBigInt wraps values to the signed 64-bit range (BigInt.asIntN(64, ...)) and accepts bigint, decimal-string, or number input. Existing code that imports Thrift.Int64 or calls prot.readI64() directly keeps working with no changes.

Client and server examples

Several example clients and servers are included in the thrift/lib/nodejs/examples folder and the cross language tutorial thrift/tutorial/nodejs folder.

Use on browsers

You can use code generated with js:node on browsers with Webpack. Here is an example.

thrift –gen js:node,ts,es6,with_ns

import * as thrift from 'thrift';
import { MyServiceClient } from '../gen-nodejs/MyService';

let host = window.location.hostname;
let port = 443;
let opts = {
  transport: thrift.TBufferedTransport,
  protocol: thrift.TJSONProtocol, 
    headers: {
     'Content-Type': 'application/vnd.apache.thrift.json',
    },
    https: true,
    path: '/url/path',
    useCORS: true,
};

let connection = thrift.createXHRConnection(host, port, opts);
let thriftClient = thrift.createXHRClient(MyServiceClient, connection);

connection.on('error', (err) => {
  console.error(err);
});

thriftClient.myService(param)
  .then((result) => {
    console.log(result);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    ....
  });

Bundlers, like webpack, will use thrift/browser.js by default because of the "browser": "./lib/nodejs/lib/thrift/browser.js" field in package.json.

Browser example with WebSocket, BufferedTransport and BinaryProtocol

import thrift from 'thrift';
import { MyServiceClient } from '../gen-nodejs/MyService';

const host = window.location.hostname;
const port = 9090;
const opts = {
  transport: thrift.TBufferedTransport,
  protocol: thrift.TBinaryProtocol
}
const connection = thrift.createWSConnection(host, port, opts);
connection.open();
const thriftClient = thrift.createWSClient(MyServiceClient, connection);

connection.on('error', (err) => {
  console.error(err);
});

thriftClient.myService(param)
  .then((result) => {
    console.log(result);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    ....
  });

This page was generated by Apache Thrift's source tree docs: lib/nodejs/README.md