How to Use Websockets With Your Vue Projects

WebSockets are a great tool for when you want to show real time changes in data. For example, a server can push stock market price changes to the client rather than the client needing to ask for the changes via a HTTP request. With this being said, below you will find an example of a simple Vue application that shows the current time to the user and where the user can send a simple message to the websocket.

  const app = new Vue({
    data: () => ({ time: null }),
    template: `
      <div>
        <h2>{{time}}</h2>
      </div>
    `,
    mounted: function(){
      let connection = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:3000/');
      connection.onmessage = (event) => {
        // Vue data binding means you don't need any extra work to
        // update your UI. Just set the `time` and Vue will automatically
        // update the `<h2>`.
        this.time = event.data;
      }
    }
  });
  app.$mount("#content");

Below is an example websocket server that you can use with the above Vue code.

"use strict";

const serverPort = 3000;
const express = require("express");
const http = require("http");
const WebSocket = require("ws");

const app = express();
const server = http.createServer(app);
const websocketServer = new WebSocket.Server({ server });

//when a websocket connection is established
websocketServer.on("connection", (webSocketClient) => {
  // send feedback to the incoming connection
  webSocketClient.send("The time is: ");
  setInterval(() => {
    let time = new Date();
    webSocketClient.send("The time is: " + time.toTimeString());
  }, 1000);
});

//start the web server
server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log("Websocket server started on port 3000");
});

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