Websocket Laravel 9: A Comprehensive Guide

Websockets are a key component of modern web applications, allowing real-time communication between the client and server. Laravel, the popular PHP framework, has built-in support for websockets starting from version 8. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the new features of Laravel 9 related to websockets and how to use them effectively.

What are Websockets?

Websockets are a protocol that enables bidirectional communication between the client and server over a single TCP connection. This means that the server can push data to the client without the client having to constantly poll the server for updates. This results in faster and more efficient communication between the client and server, making websockets ideal for real-time applications like chat applications, stock tickers, and sports scores.

Websockets in Laravel 9

With Laravel 9, websockets are now even easier to use. Laravel Echo Server, a popular Node.js package for real-time broadcasting, has been integrated directly into Laravel 9. This means that you no longer need to configure a separate server to handle your websockets.

Installation

To get started with websockets in Laravel 9, you first need to install the necessary packages. You can do this using Composer:

composer require beyondcode/laravel-websockets

This will install Laravel Websockets, the package that provides the integration with Laravel Echo Server. Once the package is installed, you can publish the configuration files using the following command:

php artisan vendor:publish –provider=”BeyondCode\LaravelWebSockets\WebSocketsServiceProvider” –tag=”config”

Now that you have the necessary packages and configuration files installed, you can move on to the next step.

Configuring Laravel Websockets

Laravel Websockets provides a simple configuration file that you can modify to suit your needs. This file is located at config/websockets.php. Here, you can configure things like the host and port that your websockets server will run on, the maximum number of connections allowed, and the SSL certificate to use (if any).

One important thing to note is that Laravel Websockets uses Redis as a message broker. This means that you will need to have Redis installed and configured on your server in order to use Laravel Websockets.

Starting the Websockets Server

Now that you have Laravel Websockets configured, you can start the websockets server using the following command:

php artisan websockets:serve

This will start the Laravel Echo Server and your websockets server will be up and running. You can now use websockets in your Laravel application.

Using Websockets in Laravel 9

Now that you have the websockets server up and running, you can start using websockets in your Laravel application. Here’s how:

Creating a Websocket Channel

The first step in using websockets in Laravel is to create a channel. A channel is a unique identifier for a group of clients that are interested in the same data. For example, if you have a chat application, you might create a channel for each chat room.

To create a channel, you can use the following code:

use BeyondCode\LaravelWebSockets\Facades\WebSocketsRouter;

WebSocketsRouter::channel(‘chat.{roomId}’, function ($user, $roomId) {return $user->belongsToRoom($roomId);});

This code creates a channel called chat.{roomId}, where {roomId} is a placeholder for the ID of the chat room. The second parameter to the callback function is the ID of the chat room that the user belongs to. You can modify the callback function to suit your needs.

Listening for Websocket Events

Now that you have a channel, you can listen for events on that channel. An event is a message that is sent over the websocket connection. To listen for events, you can use the following code:

use BeyondCode\LaravelWebSockets\Facades\WebSocketsRouter;

WebSocketsRouter::channel(‘chat.{roomId}’, function ($user, $roomId) {$user->belongsToRoom($roomId);

$user->on(‘message’, function ($message) use ($roomId) {WebSockets::broadcastToChannel(‘chat.’.$roomId, $message);});});

This code listens for the message event on the chat.{roomId} channel. When a message is received, it is broadcast to all users in the channel using the broadcastToChannel method.

Sending Websocket Events

Now that you’re listening for events, you can send events over the websocket connection. To do this, you can use the broadcast method provided by Laravel Echo:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Broadcast;

Broadcast::channel(‘chat.{roomId}’, function ($user, $roomId) {return $user->belongsToRoom($roomId);});

Broadcast::event(‘message’, function ($message) {return $message;});

This code creates a chat.{roomId} channel and listens for the message event. When the event is received, it is broadcast to all users in the channel.

Conclusion

Websockets are a powerful tool for creating real-time applications. With Laravel 9, using websockets has never been easier. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can quickly and easily add websockets to your Laravel application.

FAQ

1. What is Laravel?

   Laravel is a PHP web application framework designed to make it easier to develop web applications. It provides a powerful set of tools and features that make it easy to build web applications quickly and efficiently.

2. What is a websocket?

   A websocket is a protocol that enables bidirectional communication between the client and server over a single TCP connection. This means that the server can push data to the client without the client having to constantly poll the server for updates.

3. What is Laravel Echo?

   Laravel Echo is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to work with websockets in Laravel applications. It provides a simple and consistent API for subscribing to channels and listening for events.

4. What is Redis?

   Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache, and message broker. It is often used in web applications to store frequently accessed data and to handle messaging between different parts of the application.