@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 web applications, heavily inspired by Angular.

Description

Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js web 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, allowing for easy use of the myriad 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, 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, loosely coupled and easily maintainable applications.

Getting started

To check out the guide, visit docs.nestjs.com. :books:

Sponsors

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

Backers

People

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

License

Nest is MIT licensed.