React WebSockets: Tutorial

May 30, 2024 Roberto Magalhães

Create a real-time web communication system with our WebSockets for React tutorial.

React WebSockets is an incredibly powerful tool for web developers. They provide a way to create real-time communication between server and client. This can be used to create a wide variety of applications, from chat rooms to multiplayer games. With React WebSockets, developers can implement a wide range of features in their projects, such as notification systems, updates, and real-time data.

In this article, we will discuss the basics of React WebSockets and how to implement them in your projects. So whether you're part of a professional React development services team or a solopreneur, you'll know how to set up the server and client and how to show how real-time message transmission via WebSockets works. We'll also discuss why you should use React WebSockets, how connections work, and the differences in other communication protocol options. With the information in this article, you can start creating amazing projects with React WebSockets in no time.

What are WebSockets?

With current advancements in web communication, it is standard to introduce two-way or two-way communication between a server and a client. React WebSockets are protocols that facilitate full-duplex, real-time communication between the user's browser and the server. WebSockets act as a thin communication layer above the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) to ensure there is no friction.

The way WebSockets works is by sending a handshake request, which comes from a browser to the server to update the communication. Once the server and client accept the handshake, they send and receive data at will with less overhead. React WebSockets handshake requests include a header to ensure that the server does not respond to previous WebSocket exchanges.

Once the handshake is complete, the server and client enter into a binary connection that does not conform to the HTTP protocol. As for the server communicating with multiple WebSocket connections, it can communicate individually with each of them until the other side closes the session. React WebSockets fills the gap from your typical HTTP request-response system by providing fast, real-time web communication.

WebSockets, HTTP polling, HTTP streaming, and server-sent events: what's the difference?

When you think of React WebSockets as real-time communication protocols, you can't help but wonder about the other methods that offer a similar purpose of creating two-way communication between the client and the server. Although WebSockets and HTTP are communication protocols, the difference between them is night and day. HTTP is a one-way protocol that uses the request-response system, while WebSockets are two-way protocols.

Before WebSockets, if someone needed to create web applications, finding and using loopholes in the HTTP protocol was the only way to introduce full-duplex data transfer. Although methods like HTTP polling, HTTP streaming, and Server Sent Events (SSE) served their purpose, they all had their restrictions. Here are the disadvantages of using other protocols instead of React WebSockets.

HTTP Search

The first method for real-time communication for a web application over the HTTP protocol is to poll the server regularly. Here is the HTTP polling lifecycle and complications you can avoid using React WebSockets:

To communicate with the server, the client sends a request. After that, the client must wait for the server's response.
The server suspends the client's request until it times out or makes a change or update as per the request. The client waits until the server has something to return for that request.
After any update or change, the server finally sends a response to the client.
The long cycle continues as the client sends a new search request and waits for the response.
Except for slow communication, there are also various flaws in HTTP search such as timeouts, caching, included header overhead, and latency. React WebSockets removes all these flaws.

HTTP transmission

After using the HTTP polling method, anyone can see its flaws. Without a choice of other methods, the only reasonable response is to address some major flaws to improve the experience. This is where HTTP streaming shines. It is a real-time web communication method that deals with latency in HTTP search.

The main cause of latency in HTTP lookup is when the server closes the request after providing a response. This causes the client to create a new connection every time a new request is sent. In HTTP streaming, the initial request sent by the client remains open even after the server responds and sends data to the client. The HTTP streaming lifecycle has the same three starting points as an HTTP polling lifecycle.

This brings the server and client into almost complete real-time web communication when the request is open indefinitely, and the server sends a response to the client whenever there is a change or update. However, you can skip these complications with React WebSockets and create a latency-free connection.

Events sent by the server

The main disadvantage of using the SSE method to create real-time communication between the client and the server is its inefficiency and complexity. The person who will implement these methods is the software developer. The SSE method is not difficult, but it increases the effort level of the developer as he has to exhaust all his efforts to bring the code to life.

In this method, the server sends data to the client using an SSE system. While it appears that SSE is better than HTTP search and streaming, it is not ideal for a web chat or gaming application. One of the applications that make ideal use of SSE is Facebook. Whenever new uploads arrive on Facebook's news feed, the server sends them to the timeline. Server-sent events also impose restrictions on the number of open connections.

How WebSocket connections work

WebSocket connections are an easy way to transfer message-based data with the efficiency of TCP in a similar concept to UDP. Like other connection protocols, React WebSockets uses HTTP as the initial transport module. The main difference is that the TCP connection is never closed. This gives the client and server a more reliable way to respond to requests and send messages. With WebSocket connections, you can integrate a better real-time web communication system to create applications without long polling or HTTP streaming.

Why use WebSockets for real-time communication?

The following points will prove why React WebSockets are best for real-time communication and creating games or chat applications.

With WebSockets, you get real-time updates and essential communication channels for gaming applications.
Most web browsers support WebSockets because they comply with HTML5 and can work with content from earlier versions of HTML.
WebSockets are excellent cross-platform protocols that offer the same efficiency when working across iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and web applications.
In terms of security and reliability, WebSockets can transmit data through various firewalls and proxies.
WebSockets are easy to use and easy to incorporate for first-time developers. The reason is open source resources and tutorials that teach you how to introduce WebSockets into applications like the Socket.io JavaScript library.
A single server can open many WebSocket connections simultaneously. It also allows scalability by creating multiple connections to the same client.

How to use React WebSockets

Web development has come a long way compared to the early days. Now, we have multiple options to establish bidirectional or full-duplex web communication between the server and the client. However, among the methods we have available, the most efficient and reliable is the use of React WebSockets. WebSockets was introduced with the sole purpose of allowing the user and server to create a flawless real-time web communication system using a TCP socket connection. When using WebSockets, you should keep two goals in mind:

Establish a handshake between the client and the server.
Facilitate data flow with less overhead.

Once you complete these two objectives, you can create a web application with a built-in real-time communications system that transfers data with low overhead. See how you can use WebSockets.

Server-level handshaking

STEP 1: You only need a single port to start the HTTP server and WebSockets server.

 const HTTP = required('http');

 const webSocketServerPort = 8000;

 const webSocketServerPort = require('websocket').server;

 // Setting up the http websocket server

 const server = http.createServer;

 server.listen(webSocketServerPort);

 const wsServer = new webSockerServer({

 httpServer:server

 })

STEP 2: After the HTTP server and WebSocket server configuration is complete, the next step is to accept the handshake request. When accepting the handshake from your server, you need to create an object for each connected client that sends a request using a user ID.

 // All the active connections in this object

 const clients = {};

 // Create a specific user id for each user.

 const generateUniqueID = => {

 const s4 = => Math.floor((1+ Math.random ) * 0x1000).toString(16).substring(1);

 return s4 + '-' + s4 + '-' + s4 ;

 };

 wsServer.on('request', function(request) {
 
var userID = generateUniqueID ;

 console.log((new Date + ' Received a new connection from origin ' + request.origin + '.');

 });

 const connection = request.accept(null, request.origin);

 clients(userID) = connection;

 console.log('connected: ' + userID)

When clients send a request, they also pass a security key to WebSockets in the request header. This establishes a connection that prevents requests from the same origin from mixing. The server encodes the security key and is referred to as a predefined GUID. The request header field tells users whether the server accepted the request. Accepted requests have updated header fields, while rejected requests do not.

Real-time message transmission

To show how real-time message transmission through WebSockets works, creating a basic application will give you a better insight. Here is the code for an application that allows users to join and edit a single document. There are the two main activities of this application.

From the user

A user can sign in and out at any time while editing the document. Whenever a user logs in, each connected client receives a notification. The same happens when a user leaves.

Content changes

When a user modifies the content of documents, each client receives a notification about the changes.

The following application code was taken from GitHub by Avanthika Meenakshi .

Conclusion

React WebSockets are a powerful tool for creating real-time communication between server and client. They can be used to create a variety of applications, including multiplayer games and live updates. These applications are powered by WebSockets, which are a reliable and faster communication protocol compared to other options such as HTTP streaming or SSE. They are easy to implement and can be used to create amazing features like real-time messaging. If you're interested in building high-quality real-time communications applications, React WebSockets is for you.

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