Overview

Orb is an HTML‑over‑the‑wire web framework that is native to the Jade Platform. It enables you to create rich web‑based applications and provides the features of a modern web framework such as session handling and templating.

You can design and create HTML layouts and style sheets outside of Jade. The Orb web framework then renders that HTML to web clients after populating it with data from objects or collections in your Jade system.

Web applications using this framework can contain live elements that automatically update based on changes to objects or collections in your Jade system.

Orb uses Direct HTTP only; there is no need to configure Internet Information Server (IIS). Orb applications use the HTTP/1.1 communication protocol, which allows a greater degree of freedom for the deployment of Orb applications and it also reduces the system requirements for the development of Orb applications.

You must import the Orb class and methods into your schema from the JadeOrbPackage. For details, see "Installing Orb", elsewhere in this document.

The methods provided by the Orb class define the behavior of the Orb web framework through the following components.

HTML Templates, which control the layout and what is displayed in your web pages
Routing Engine, which directs web pages to the location of specified assets
Orb Interfaces, which control the views, error handling, dynamic templates, and actioning web requests

For details about the methods provided by the Orb class, see "Orb Class" and "Orb Methods", elsewhere in this document.

The Orb web framework release 1.0.01 is compatible with Jade releases 2025.0.01 and higher.