Hello Developers, I hope you are doing good. Today we will look at what WebSocket is and how we can implement node.js websocket server? You may have heard about real-time data during your learning process or work. Real-Time data is delivered immediately after collection. There is no delay in the transmission of the data. Real-time data is often used for navigation, tracking, gaming, communications etc., where your user interface does not refresh frequently.
When there is communication between the two systems, we follow some protocols. The protocol is a set of rules that allow two or more entities or machines of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. It defines the syntaxes, rules, semantics and synchronization of communication and effective error recovery techniques.
There are many types of protocols we can follow for communication between two or more systems. The most used communication protocol is the HTTPS protocol. But if you want real-time & quick data transfer, HTTPS is not recommended.
The WebSockets protocol is completely different from the HTTP or HTTPS protocol. After the initial handshake occurs over HTTP, there is no more notion of HTTP related things, for example, cookies.
The major con of HTTPS for real-time data transfer is that HTTPS is unidirectional. That means, when you have to do communication, it always opens the connection, does its processing, and returns with some response by closing the connection. For real-time data, it is too much processing. To avoid this, we can go with WebSockets.
The WebSocket connection is a persistent connection between a client app and the server. The server can send messages to the client, and the client sends its response back with the same connection, which is created initially. It allows the server and client to communicate in an asynchronous way. The server and client can communicate and acknowledge or exchange the data at the same time. WebSocket helps to create real-time communication between web servers and clients.
There are many ways out of these we prefer to go with “ socket.io.” It is a library that allows us to do real-time, bidirectional, and event-based communication between the browser and the server, which is based on Node.js and a Javascript client library for the browser. It is the wrapper around the WebSocket API.
The best part of socket.io library is –
const io = require('socket.io')(3000);
io.on('connect', socket => {
// either with send()
socket.send('Hello!');
// or with emit() and custom event names
socket.emit('greetings', 'Hey!', { 'dr': 'anna' }, Buffer.from([4, 3, 3, 1]));
// handle the event sent with socket.send()
socket.on('message', (data) => {
console.log(data);
});
// handle the event sent with socket.emit()
socket.on('salutations', (elem1, elem2, elem3) => {
console.log(elem1, elem2, elem3);
});
});const socket = io('ws://localhost:3000');
socket.on('connect', () => {
// either with send()
socket.send('Hello!');
// or with emit() and custom event names
socket.emit('salutations', 'Hello!', { 'dr': 'jordan' }, Uint8Array.from([1, 2, 3, 4]));
});
// handle the event sent with socket.send()
socket.on('message', data => {
console.log(data);
});
// handle the event sent with socket.emit()
socket.on('greetings', (elem1, elem2, elem3) => {
console.log(elem1, elem2, elem3);
});Advantages of using ‘socket.io’ library
For more details, what is better than official documentation!
Find code for above demo at – Click Here
The WebSocket is an advanced technology that makes it possible to open a Bidirectional communication session between the user’s browser and a server. With this, you can send messages to a server and receive event-driven responses without having to poll the server for a reply.
The team at Mindbowser was highly professional, patient, and collaborative throughout our engagement. They struck the right balance between offering guidance and taking direction, which made the development process smooth. Although our project wasn’t related to healthcare, we clearly benefited...
Founder, Texas Ranch Security
Mindbowser played a crucial role in helping us bring everything together into a unified, cohesive product. Their commitment to industry-standard coding practices made an enormous difference, allowing developers to seamlessly transition in and out of the project without any confusion....
CEO, MarketsAI
I'm thrilled to be partnering with Mindbowser on our journey with TravelRite. The collaboration has been exceptional, and I’m truly grateful for the dedication and expertise the team has brought to the development process. Their commitment to our mission is...
Founder & CEO, TravelRite
The Mindbowser team's professionalism consistently impressed me. Their commitment to quality shone through in every aspect of the project. They truly went the extra mile, ensuring they understood our needs perfectly and were always willing to invest the time to...
CTO, New Day Therapeutics
I collaborated with Mindbowser for several years on a complex SaaS platform project. They took over a partially completed project and successfully transformed it into a fully functional and robust platform. Throughout the entire process, the quality of their work...
President, E.B. Carlson
Mindbowser and team are professional, talented and very responsive. They got us through a challenging situation with our IOT product successfully. They will be our go to dev team going forward.
Founder, Cascada
Amazing team to work with. Very responsive and very skilled in both front and backend engineering. Looking forward to our next project together.
Co-Founder, Emerge
The team is great to work with. Very professional, on task, and efficient.
Founder, PeriopMD
I can not express enough how pleased we are with the whole team. From the first call and meeting, they took our vision and ran with it. Communication was easy and everyone was flexible to our schedule. I’m excited to...
Founder, Seeke
We had very close go live timeline and Mindbowser team got us live a month before.
CEO, BuyNow WorldWide
If you want a team of great developers, I recommend them for the next project.
Founder, Teach Reach
Mindbowser built both iOS and Android apps for Mindworks, that have stood the test of time. 5 years later they still function quite beautifully. Their team always met their objectives and I'm very happy with the end result. Thank you!
Founder, Mindworks
Mindbowser has delivered a much better quality product than our previous tech vendors. Our product is stable and passed Well Architected Framework Review from AWS.
CEO, PurpleAnt
I am happy to share that we got USD 10k in cloud credits courtesy of our friends at Mindbowser. Thank you Pravin and Ayush, this means a lot to us.
CTO, Shortlist
Mindbowser is one of the reasons that our app is successful. These guys have been a great team.
Founder & CEO, MangoMirror
Kudos for all your hard work and diligence on the Telehealth platform project. You made it possible.
CEO, ThriveHealth
Mindbowser helped us build an awesome iOS app to bring balance to people’s lives.
CEO, SMILINGMIND
They were a very responsive team! Extremely easy to communicate and work with!
Founder & CEO, TotTech
We’ve had very little-to-no hiccups at all—it’s been a really pleasurable experience.
Co-Founder, TEAM8s
Mindbowser was very helpful with explaining the development process and started quickly on the project.
Executive Director of Product Development, Innovation Lab
The greatest benefit we got from Mindbowser is the expertise. Their team has developed apps in all different industries with all types of social proofs.
Co-Founder, Vesica
Mindbowser is professional, efficient and thorough.
Consultant, XPRIZE
Very committed, they create beautiful apps and are very benevolent. They have brilliant Ideas.
Founder, S.T.A.R.S of Wellness
Mindbowser was great; they listened to us a lot and helped us hone in on the actual idea of the app. They had put together fantastic wireframes for us.
Co-Founder, Flat Earth
Ayush was responsive and paired me with the best team member possible, to complete my complex vision and project. Could not be happier.
Founder, Child Life On Call
The team from Mindbowser stayed on task, asked the right questions, and completed the required tasks in a timely fashion! Strong work team!
CEO, SDOH2Health LLC
Mindbowser was easy to work with and hit the ground running, immediately feeling like part of our team.
CEO, Stealth Startup
Mindbowser was an excellent partner in developing my fitness app. They were patient, attentive, & understood my business needs. The end product exceeded my expectations. Thrilled to share it globally.
Owner, Phalanx
Mindbowser's expertise in tech, process & mobile development made them our choice for our app. The team was dedicated to the process & delivered high-quality features on time. They also gave valuable industry advice. Highly recommend them for app development...
Co-Founder, Fox&Fork
