Real-Time Features
Table of Contents
Overview
Implement real-time bidirectional communication between clients and servers for instant data synchronization and live updates.
When to Use
- Chat and messaging applications
- Live dashboards and analytics
- Collaborative editing (Google Docs-style)
- Real-time notifications
- Live sports scores or stock tickers
- Multiplayer games
- Live auctions or bidding systems
- IoT device monitoring
- Real-time location tracking
Quick Start
Minimal working example:
// server.ts
import WebSocket, { WebSocketServer } from "ws";
import { createServer } from "http";
interface Message {
type: "join" | "message" | "leave" | "typing";
userId: string;
username: string;
content?: string;
timestamp: number;
}
interface Client {
ws: WebSocket;
userId: string;
username: string;
roomId: string;
}
class ChatServer {
private wss: WebSocketServer;
private clients: Map<string, Client> = new Map();
private rooms: Map<string, Set<string>> = new Map();
constructor(port: number) {
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)Reference Guides
Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:
| Guide | Contents |
|---|---|
| WebSocket Server (Node.js) | WebSocket Server (Node.js) |
| WebSocket Client (React) | WebSocket Client (React) |
| Server-Sent Events (SSE) | Server-Sent Events (SSE) |
| Socket.IO (Production-Ready) | Socket.IO (Production-Ready) |
Best Practices
✅ DO
- Implement reconnection logic with exponential backoff
- Use heartbeat/ping-pong to detect dead connections
- Validate and sanitize all messages
- Implement authentication and authorization
- Handle connection limits and rate limiting
- Use compression for large payloads
- Implement proper error handling
- Monitor connection health
- Use rooms/channels for targeted messaging
- Implement graceful shutdown
❌ DON'T
- Send sensitive data without encryption
- Keep connections open indefinitely without cleanup
- Broadcast to all users when targeted messaging suffices
- Ignore connection state management
- Send large payloads frequently
- Skip message validation
- Forget about mobile/unstable connections
- Ignore scaling considerations