If you've ever built a large Node.js application, you've probably felt the pain of tightly-coupled code. As features grow, modules become a tangled mess of direct function calls. Modifying one part of the system often creates a cascade of bugs in another. It’s a maintenance nightmare. For years, I've admired the elegant solution used by the WordPress community: the Hooks system. It’s a simple yet incredibly powerful pattern of Actions and Filters that allows for a level of decoupling and extensibility that is the envy of many ecosystems. Hooks system Actions Filters I wanted that power in my Node.js projects. So, I built node-hooker. node-hooker node-hooker is a zero-dependency, open-source library that faithfully implements the WordPress Hooks API, allowing you to build applications with a clean, extensible, plugin-like architecture. node-hooker What's the Big Deal About Hooks? Instead of having your modules call each other directly, they can communicate through a central dispatcher. Actions are like announcements. A piece of your code can say, "Hey, user_just_logged_in!" without needing to know or care who is listening. Other modules can then "hook" into that announcement to perform tasks, like sending an email or logging analytics. Filters are chainable modifications. A function can pass a piece of data (like a string or an object) into a filter, and other hooked functions can modify that data in sequence before it's returned. Actions are like announcements. A piece of your code can say, "Hey, user_just_logged_in!" without needing to know or care who is listening. Other modules can then "hook" into that announcement to perform tasks, like sending an email or logging analytics. Actions user_just_logged_in Filters are chainable modifications. A function can pass a piece of data (like a string or an object) into a filter, and other hooked functions can modify that data in sequence before it's returned. Filters This pattern is the secret sauce behind the vast WordPress plugin ecosystem, and it’s a game-changer for writing maintainable code. Introducing node-hooker node-hooker node-hooker brings this entire battle-tested system to Node.js (and the browser!) with a familiar API. node-hooker Key Features: Key Features: Full API Parity: All the functions you know from WordPress are here: add_action, do_action, apply_filters, remove_action, did_action, etc. Zero Dependencies: It's a tiny, focused library that won't bloat your node_modules. Browser Support: A UMD bundle is included, so you can use the exact same event system on the client-side. Clean Architecture: Build modular systems where components are truly independent. Full API Parity: All the functions you know from WordPress are here: add_action, do_action, apply_filters, remove_action, did_action, etc. Full API Parity: add_action do_action apply_filters remove_action did_action Zero Dependencies: It's a tiny, focused library that won't bloat your node_modules. Zero Dependencies: node_modules Browser Support: A UMD bundle is included, so you can use the exact same event system on the client-side. Browser Support: Clean Architecture: Build modular systems where components are truly independent. Clean Architecture: Show Me the Code Let's look at a practical example. Imagine you have a user registration function that needs to trigger several unrelated actions. Before node-hooker (The Tangled Mess): Before node-hooker // user.js import { sendWelcomeEmail } from './email'; import { addToCRM } from './crm'; import { logAnalytics } from './analytics'; function registerUser(userData) { // ... save user to database ... // Now, call everything directly sendWelcomeEmail(userData.email); addToCRM(userData); logAnalytics('new_user_signup'); return true; } // user.js import { sendWelcomeEmail } from './email'; import { addToCRM } from './crm'; import { logAnalytics } from './analytics'; function registerUser(userData) { // ... save user to database ... // Now, call everything directly sendWelcomeEmail(userData.email); addToCRM(userData); logAnalytics('new_user_signup'); return true; } This is fragile. What if you want to add another action? You have to modify the core registerUser function every single time. registerUser After node-hooker (Clean and Decoupled): After node-hooker // user.js import hooker from 'node-hooker'; function registerUser(userData) { // ... save user to database ... // Just announce that a user has been created. hooker.do_action('user_registered', userData); return true; } // --- In other files, completely separate from user.js --- // email.js import hooker from 'node-hooker'; hooker.add_action('user_registered', (userData) => { // send welcome email... }); // crm.js import hooker from 'node-hooker'; hooker.add_action('user_registered', (userData) => { // add user to CRM... }); // user.js import hooker from 'node-hooker'; function registerUser(userData) { // ... save user to database ... // Just announce that a user has been created. hooker.do_action('user_registered', userData); return true; } // --- In other files, completely separate from user.js --- // email.js import hooker from 'node-hooker'; hooker.add_action('user_registered', (userData) => { // send welcome email... }); // crm.js import hooker from 'node-hooker'; hooker.add_action('user_registered', (userData) => { // add user to CRM... }); Now, the user.js module has no idea that emails or CRMs even exist. You can add, remove, or change listeners for the user_registered event without ever touching the original function. That's the power of decoupling. user.js user_registered Give It a Try I built node-hooker to solve a problem I was facing, and I hope it can help other developers write cleaner, more maintainable code. The project is fully open-source and available on npm. node-hooker I'd love for you to check it out, read the documentation, and maybe even give it a star on GitHub if you find it useful. GitHub Repository: https://github.com/mamedul/node-hooker NPM Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-hooker GitHub Repository: https://github.com/mamedul/node-hooker GitHub Repository: https://github.com/mamedul/node-hooker NPM Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-hooker NPM Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-hooker Thanks for reading!
