Node.js Framework LoopBack Graduates to At-Large Project at OpenJS Foundation

LoopBack fans will be happy to hear that the project has graduated from the Incubation stage at OpenJS Foundation! 

LoopBack is a popular Node.js framework for API creation and a platform to build large-scale Node.js applications. It uses proven patterns with TypeScript and gives support for SOAP and enterprise databases. It is a flexible developer-centric middleware that is being used in industries such as finance and insurance. 

Graduating is an important milestone that helps solidify LoopBack’s position as a vendor-neutral, community-driven open-source project. In June 2021, StrongLoop, an IBM company, contributed LoopBack to the OpenJS Foundation with the goal of growing the community’s active core of developers. Graduating to At-Large stage is a major step forward! They now have maintainers and Technical Steering Committee (TSC) members from different organizations worldwide. 

“We’re thrilled to have LoopBack as part of the OpenJS Foundation family of JavaScript projects. LoopBack is a great example of how open source communities flourish over time with open governance and sustained structural support,” said Robin Ginn, OpenJS Foundation executive director. “Congratulations to all the LoopBack contributors.”

LoopBack is one of 40 projects officially hosted under the OpenJS umbrella–joining platinum members Google, IBM, Joyent, and Microsoft.

“We’re excited that LoopBack has graduated from incubation and is officially joining the OpenJS Foundation’s hosted projects. Over the years, we’ve been moving towards a more open governance model–from actively recruiting maintainers outside of IBM to establishing a Technical Steering Committee made up of maintainers from different professional backgrounds. So joining the OpenJS Foundation is definitely a major milestone for LoopBack,” said Diana Lau, a maintainer and TSC member who has worked on the project since it was with IBM and is currently the senior development manager for API Connect Cloud at IBM.

Lead maintainer and TSC member Rifa Achrinza commented, “I’ve been heartened by the many contributions and support driven by the LoopBack community through channels such as GitHub and our ever-growing Slack channels. This steady community growth shows an increasing desire for a stable framework like LoopBack in the Node.js ecosystem.”

The project has also been working to develop open governance in line with OpenJS Foundation standards and with LoopBack’s new distributed maintenance model.
Project TSC member and maintainer Raymond Feng added, “The project has become much more community-driven under the OpenJS Foundation. I’m very happy to see LoopBack graduating from the incubation. It’s a great validation that LoopBack can be further maintained and developed by the community with a diverse pool of maintainers and contributors.” Raymond Feng was a co-creator of LoopBack and is currently Co-Founder and CTO of Abridged, Inc.

OpenJS Foundation’s Node.js CPC chairperson and voting member Joe Sepi Crane-Messina commented, “I joined IBM through StrongLoop and spent years working on and advocating for LoopBack. I couldn’t be happier to see it move into the foundation where it can grow and flourish.”

Recent LoopBack activity stats show that adoption in the community is growing. LoopBack has reached 4.1k GitHub stars and close to 216,000 npm downloads. Their Slack community has grown over 40% since incubating with the OpenJS Foundation and now has 1300 members. Additionally, LoopBack’s growth has been documented through quite a few user testimonials.

In the fast-paced Node.js ecosystem, the stability of LoopBack and the Juggler ORM has proven invaluable to those who demand a stable, complete solution while benefiting from the flexibility and simplicity of JavaScript.

The project has a few near-term goals. First, they have consolidated their blog and documentation site into the LoopBack website, where they plan to highlight the project’s maintainers and the journey to adopt LoopBack in their day job. In addition, they have planned security-related work including adopting OpenSSF Best Practices, publishing advisories in machine-consumable formats, and enhancing the vulnerability disclosure program. These goals aim to open new ways to interact with the community and strengthen LoopBack’s development focus on security.

This graduation signals a new major milestone for the framework as we continue to support the future of LoopBack in the ever-growing Node.js ecosystem. The OpenJS Foundation is proud to welcome them!