WebSockets is a protocol that provides full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection.
In other words, it allows the server and client to send messages to each other at any time, without the need for a request-response model.
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how to create a WebSockets server in PHP.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure that you have a basic understanding of PHP programming and WebSockets.
Additionally, you should have a local development environment set up, including a web server with PHP installed.
Setting up the WebSockets Server
To create a WebSockets server in PHP, you’ll need to use a library or extension that provides WebSockets functionality.
One popular option is Ratchet, a WebSockets library for PHP.
To install Ratchet, you can use Composer by running the following command in your terminal:
composer require cboden/ratchet
Once Ratchet is installed, you can create a new WebSockets server by creating a new PHP file and including the Ratchet library at the top:
require 'vendor/autoload.php'; use Ratchet\Server\IoServer; use Ratchet\Http\HttpServer; use Ratchet\WebSocket\WsServer;
Next, you’ll need to create a new WebSockets server class that extends the Ratchet\MessageComponentInterface
class:
class MyWebSocket implements MessageComponentInterface { protected $clients; public function __construct() { $this->clients = new \SplObjectStorage; } public function onOpen(ConnectionInterface $conn) { $this->clients->attach($conn); } public function onMessage(ConnectionInterface $from, $msg) { foreach ($this->clients as $client) { if ($from !== $client) { $client->send($msg); } } } public function onClose(ConnectionInterface $conn) { $this->clients->detach($conn); } public function onError(ConnectionInterface $conn, \Exception $e) { $conn->close(); } }
Finally, you can start the WebSockets server by instantiating a new instance of the IoServer
class, passing in the WebSockets server class and the desired port number as arguments:
$server = IoServer::factory( new HttpServer( new WsServer( new MyWebSocket() ) ), 8080 ); $server->run();
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we’ve covered how to create a WebSockets server in PHP using the Ratchet library.
By following these steps, you should be able to create your own WebSockets server and start sending and receiving messages in real-time.
Keep in mind that this is just a basic example, and you can add additional functionality and customization to your WebSockets server as needed.