@nestjs/websockets

What is @nestjs/websockets?

@nestjs/websockets is a module for the NestJS framework that provides WebSocket capabilities. It allows developers to create real-time, event-driven applications using WebSockets, which are essential for applications requiring instant data updates, such as chat applications, live notifications, and online gaming.

What are @nestjs/websockets's main functionalities?

WebSocket Gateway

This feature allows you to create a WebSocket gateway that listens for incoming WebSocket connections and messages. The `@WebSocketGateway` decorator is used to define a WebSocket gateway, and the `@SubscribeMessage` decorator is used to handle specific message events.

```typescript
import { WebSocketGateway, WebSocketServer, SubscribeMessage, MessageBody } from '@nestjs/websockets';
import { Server } from 'socket.io';

@WebSocketGateway()
export class ChatGateway {
  @WebSocketServer()
  server: Server;

  @SubscribeMessage('message')
  handleMessage(@MessageBody() message: string): void {
    this.server.emit('message', message);
  }
}
```

WebSocket Client

This feature allows you to create a WebSocket client that can connect to a WebSocket server. The `@WebSocketClient` decorator is used to define a WebSocket client, and the `OnGatewayInit`, `OnGatewayConnection`, and `OnGatewayDisconnect` interfaces are used to handle client lifecycle events.

```typescript
import { Injectable } from '@nestjs/common';
import { WebSocketClient, OnGatewayInit, OnGatewayConnection, OnGatewayDisconnect } from '@nestjs/websockets';
import { Socket } from 'socket.io-client';

@Injectable()
@WebSocketClient()
export class ChatClient implements OnGatewayInit, OnGatewayConnection, OnGatewayDisconnect {
  private client: Socket;

  afterInit(client: Socket) {
    this.client = client;
    console.log('WebSocket client initialized');
  }

  handleConnection(client: Socket) {
    console.log('Client connected:', client.id);
  }

  handleDisconnect(client: Socket) {
    console.log('Client disconnected:', client.id);
  }
}
```

Custom WebSocket Server

This feature allows you to create a custom WebSocket server using the `ws` library. The `@WebSocketGateway` decorator can accept a custom server instance, and you can handle connection and message events directly.

```typescript
import { WebSocketGateway, WebSocketServer } from '@nestjs/websockets';
import { Server } from 'ws';

@WebSocketGateway({ server: new Server({ port: 8080 }) })
export class CustomGateway {
  @WebSocketServer()
  server: Server;

  constructor() {
    this.server.on('connection', (socket) => {
      socket.on('message', (message) => {
        console.log('Received message:', message);
      });
    });
  }
}
```

Other packages similar to @nestjs/websockets

socket.io

Socket.IO is a popular library for real-time web applications. It enables real-time, bidirectional, and event-based communication between web clients and servers. Compared to @nestjs/websockets, Socket.IO is more general-purpose and can be used with various frameworks, while @nestjs/websockets is specifically designed for use with the NestJS framework.

ws

The `ws` package is a simple and fast WebSocket library for Node.js. It provides a bare-bones WebSocket server and client implementation. Compared to @nestjs/websockets, `ws` is lower-level and requires more manual setup, whereas @nestjs/websockets provides a more integrated and higher-level API within the NestJS framework.

README

A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient and scalable server-side applications.

Description

Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. It uses modern JavaScript, is built with TypeScript (preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript) and combines elements of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), FP (Functional Programming), and FRP (Functional Reactive Programming).

Under the hood, Nest makes use of Express, but also provides compatibility with a wide range of other libraries, like Fastify, allowing for easy use of the myriad of third-party plugins which are available.

Philosophy

In recent years, thanks to Node.js, JavaScript has become the “lingua franca” of the web for both front and backend applications, giving rise to awesome projects like Angular, React, and Vue, which improve developer productivity and enable the construction of fast, testable, and extensible frontend applications. However, on the server-side, while there are a lot of superb libraries, helpers, and tools for Node, none of them effectively solve the main problem - the architecture.

Nest aims to provide an application architecture out of the box which allows for effortless creation of highly testable, scalable, and loosely coupled and easily maintainable applications. The architecture is heavily inspired by Angular.

Getting started

• To check out the guide, visit docs.nestjs.com. :books:
• 要查看中文 指南, 请访问 docs.nestjs.cn. :books:
• 가이드 문서는 docs.nestjs.com에서 확인하실 수 있습니다. :books:
• ガイドは docs.nestjs.comでご確認ください。 :books:

Questions

For questions and support please use the official Discord channel. The issue list of this repo is exclusively for bug reports and feature requests.

Issues

Please make sure to read the Issue Reporting Checklist before opening an issue. Issues not conforming to the guidelines may be closed immediately.

Consulting

With official support, you can get expert help straight from Nest core team. We provide dedicated technical support, migration strategies, advice on best practices (and design decisions), PR reviews, and team augmentation. Read more about support here.

Support

Nest is an MIT-licensed open source project. It can grow thanks to the sponsors and support from the amazing backers. If you'd like to join them, please read more here.

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Stay in touch

• Author - Kamil Myśliwiec
• Website - https://nestjs.com
• X - @nestframework

License

Nest is MIT licensed.