Socket.IO is an event-driven library for real-time

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

s. It enables real-time, bi-directional communication between web clients and servers. It consists of two parts: a

client-side Client-side refers to operations that are performed by the client in a client–server relationship in a computer network. General concepts Typically, a client is a computer application, such as a web browser, that runs on a user's local comp ...

library that runs in the browser, and a

server-side In the client–server model, server-side refers to programs and operations that run on the server. This is in contrast to client-side programs and operations which run on the client. General concepts Typically, a server is a computer applicati ...

library for

Node.js Node.js is an open-source server environment. Node.js is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS. Node.js is a back-end JavaScript runtime environment. Node.js runs on the V8 JavaScript Engine and executes JavaScript code ou ...

. Both components have a nearly identical

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

. Socket.IO primarily uses the

WebSocket WebSocket is a computer communications protocol, providing full-duplex communication channels over a single Transmission Control Protocol, TCP connection. The WebSocket protocol was standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force, IETF as in ...

protocol with polling as a fallback option, while providing the same interface. Although it can be used simply as a wrapper for WebSockets, it provides many more features, including broadcasting to multiple sockets, storing data associated with each client, and

asynchronous I/O In computer science, asynchronous I/O (also non-sequential I/O) is a form of input/output processing that permits other processing to continue before the transmission has finished. A name used for asynchronous I/O in the Windows API is overlap ...

. It can be installed with the Node Package Manager (NPM).

Overview

Socket.IO provides the ability to implement real-time analytics, binary streaming, instant messaging, and document collaboration. Notable users include

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a ma ...

Yammer Yammer () is an enterprise social networking service that is part of the Microsoft 365 family of products. It is used mainly for private communication within organizations but is also used for networks spanning various organizations. Access to a ...

and

Zendesk Zendesk is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides software-as-a-service products related to customer support, sales, and other customer communications. The company was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007. ...

. Socket.IO handles the connection transparently and will automatically upgrade to

if possible. This means that the developer does not need to know how to use the

protocol in order to use Socket.IO. Socket.IO is not a WebSocket library with fallback options to other real-time protocols. It is a custom real-time transport protocol implementation on top of other real-time protocols. A Socket.IO implementing server cannot connect to a non-Socket.IO WebSocket client. A Socket.IO implementing client cannot talk to a non-Socket.IO WebSocket or Long Polling

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma, and sometimes also a Comet ta ...

server. Socket.IO requires using the Socket.IO libraries on both client and server side. As of version 2.0, Socket.IO makes use of WebSockets as the underlying WebSocket library.

References

External links

* * JavaScript libraries Free software programmed in JavaScript Software using the MIT license {{web-software-stub

Overview

See also

References

External links