# Rust Framework Research Notes

**Started**: 2026-02-14
**Status**: In Progress

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## Actix Web - Initial Notes

### Performance
- Known for being one of the fastest web frameworks
- Uses actor model for request handling
- Good concurrency characteristics

### Architecture
- Based on Actix actor framework
- Actor model can be complex but powerful
- Extractors system for request processing

### Ecosystem
- actix-web: Core web framework
- actix-cors: CORS middleware
- actix-web-httpauth: Authentication
- actix-rt: Runtime (based on Tokio)
- actix-multipart: File uploads
- actix-files: Static files

### Authentication
- actix-web-httpauth: HTTP auth headers
- actix-web-actors: WebSocket support
- Need to research JWT middleware options

### Database
- Diesel ORM has actix support
- Can use any async database driver
- Connection pooling typically with deadpool or r2d2

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## Axum - Initial Notes

### Performance
- Also very fast, comparable to Actix
- Built on Tokio async runtime
- Tower-based middleware

### Architecture
- Router-based, no actor model
- Extractors for request data (similar concept to Actix)
- State management via extensions

### Ecosystem (Tower)
- tower: Core middleware abstractions
- tower-http: HTTP-specific middleware
- tower-compat: Compatibility layer
- axum-extra: Additional extractors and utilities
- axum-client-ip: IP extraction
- axum-server: Server implementation

### Authentication
- tower-auth: Authentication services
- tower-oauth: OAuth support
- axum-extra: JWT extractors
- Need to verify JWT middleware quality

### Database
- Works with any async database driver
- sqlx: Popular SQL toolkit
- sea-orm: Async ORM
- mongodb: Official async driver

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## Key Differences to Investigate

### 1. Async Model
- Actix: Actor-based with message passing
- Axum: Future-based with Tower middleware

### 2. Middleware
- Actix: Custom middleware system
- Axum: Tower ecosystem (shared across projects)

### 3. Routing
- Actix: Macro-based routing
- Axum: Builder pattern routing

### 4. State Management
- Actix: Application state
- Axum: Extension layers

### 5. WebSocket
- Actix: Built-in via actix-web-actors
- Axum: Via axum-extra/tower-websocket

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## Research Log

### 2026-02-14
- Created research framework and questions
- Identified key decision criteria for Normogen
- Listed research tasks and sources

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## Questions Requiring Answers

1. **Performance**: Is there a significant performance difference?
2. **Middleware**: Is Tower middleware mature enough for production?
3. **MongoDB**: Which framework integrates better with MongoDB?
4. **Authentication**: What are the JWT middleware options?
5. **WebSocket**: Which implementation is more stable?
6. **Learning Curve**: How complex is Actix's actor model?
7. **Ecosystem**: Which has better third-party crate support?
8. **Testing**: How do testing approaches compare?
9. **Error Handling**: Which is more ergonomic?
10. **Community**: Which is more active and responsive?

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## Experiences to Look For

- Production deployments in healthcare/medical field
- Real-time data processing applications
- Large-scale API deployments
- Projects with WebSocket requirements
- Projects with MongoDB
- Projects with complex authentication

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## External Research Needed

1. **Performance Benchmarks**
   - TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks
   - Custom benchmarks for JSON APIs
   - Memory usage comparisons
   - WebSocket throughput

2. **Community Feedback**
   - Reddit r/rust discussions
   - Rust Discord server
   - Stack Overflow trends
   - GitHub issue analysis

3. **Security Analysis**
   - CVE search for both frameworks
   - Security audit results
   - Memory safety guarantees
   - Reports of vulnerabilities

4. **Case Studies**
   - Companies using Actix in production
   - Companies using Axum in production
   - Migration stories (Actix → Axum or vice versa)
   - Framework comparison blog posts