What is laravel-echo?
Laravel Echo is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to work with WebSockets in a Laravel application. It provides a simple API for subscribing to channels and listening for events broadcast by your Laravel application.
What are laravel-echo's main functionalities?
Subscribing to Channels
This feature allows you to subscribe to a public channel and listen for events. In this example, the client subscribes to the 'orders' channel and listens for the 'OrderShipped' event.
Echo.channel('orders').listen('OrderShipped', (e) => { console.log(e.order); });
Private Channels
This feature allows you to subscribe to private channels that require authentication. In this example, the client subscribes to a private 'orders' channel specific to a user and listens for the 'OrderShipped' event.
Echo.private('orders.' + userId).listen('OrderShipped', (e) => { console.log(e.order); });
Presence Channels
Presence channels build on the concept of private channels and allow you to track the presence of users in a channel. In this example, the client joins a 'chat' room and logs the users currently in the room, as well as users joining and leaving.
Echo.join('chat.' + roomId).here((users) => { console.log(users); }).joining((user) => { console.log(user.name); }).leaving((user) => { console.log(user.name); });
Notifications
This feature allows you to listen for notifications sent to a user. In this example, the client subscribes to a private channel for a specific user and listens for notifications.
Echo.private('App.User.' + userId).notification((notification) => { console.log(notification.type); });
Other packages similar to laravel-echo
socket.io
Socket.IO is a JavaScript library for real-time web applications. It enables real-time, bidirectional and event-based communication. Compared to Laravel Echo, Socket.IO is more general-purpose and can be used with any backend, not just Laravel.
pusher-js
Pusher is a hosted service that makes it super-easy to add real-time data and functionality to web and mobile applications. The pusher-js library is the client-side component. Compared to Laravel Echo, Pusher provides a hosted solution and can be used with various backend technologies.
ably
Ably is a platform that provides APIs to simplify and overcome the complex aspects of building and maintaining a real-time messaging system. The Ably JavaScript library is the client-side component. Compared to Laravel Echo, Ably offers a more comprehensive set of features and can be used with various backend technologies.