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Version: 4.x

Integrating Socket.IO

Socket.IO is composed of two parts:

  • A server that integrates with (or mounts on) the Node.JS HTTP Server (the socket.io package)
  • A client library that loads on the browser side (the socket.io-client package)

During development, socket.io serves the client automatically for us, as we’ll see, so for now we only have to install one module:

npm install socket.io

That will install the module and add the dependency to package.json. Now let’s edit index.js to add it:

const express = require('express');
const { createServer } = require('node:http');
const { join } = require('node:path');
const { Server } = require('socket.io');

const app = express();
const server = createServer(app);
const io = new Server(server);

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(join(__dirname, 'index.html'));
});

io.on('connection', (socket) => {
console.log('a user connected');
});

server.listen(3000, () => {
console.log('server running at http://localhost:3000');
});

Notice that I initialize a new instance of socket.io by passing the server (the HTTP server) object. Then I listen on the connection event for incoming sockets and log it to the console.

Now in index.html add the following snippet before the </body> (end body tag):

<script src="/socket.io/socket.io.js"></script>
<script>
const socket = io();
</script>

That’s all it takes to load the socket.io-client, which exposes an io global (and the endpoint GET /socket.io/socket.io.js), and then connect.

If you would like to use the local version of the client-side JS file, you can find it at node_modules/socket.io/client-dist/socket.io.js.

tip

You can also use a CDN instead of the local files (e.g. <script src="https://cdn.socket.io/4.7.5/socket.io.min.js"></script>).

Notice that I’m not specifying any URL when I call io(), since it defaults to trying to connect to the host that serves the page.

note

If you're behind a reverse proxy such as apache or nginx please take a look at the documentation for it.

If you're hosting your app in a folder that is not the root of your website (e.g., https://example.com/chatapp) then you also need to specify the path in both the server and the client.

If you now restart the process (by hitting Control+C and running node index.js again) and then refresh the webpage you should see the console print “a user connected”.

Try opening several tabs, and you’ll see several messages.

A console displaying several messages, indicating that some users have connected

Each socket also fires a special disconnect event:

io.on('connection', (socket) => {
console.log('a user connected');
socket.on('disconnect', () => {
console.log('user disconnected');
});
});

Then if you refresh a tab several times you can see it in action.

A console displaying several messages, indicating that some users have connected and disconnected
info

You can run this example directly in your browser on: