Misconceptions

There are few common misconceptions regarding WebSocket and Socket.IO:

1. The first misconception is that using Socket.IO is significantly easier than using WebSocket which doesn't seem to be the case. See examples below.

2. The second misconception is that WebSocket is not widely supported in the browsers. See below for more info.

3. The third misconception is that Socket.IO downgrades the connection as a fallback on older browsers. It actually assumes that the browser is old and starts an AJAX connection to the server, that gets later upgraded on browsers supporting WebSocket, after some traffic is exchanged. See below for details.

My experiment

I wrote an npm module to demonstrate the difference between WebSocket and Socket.IO:

• https://www.npmjs.com/package/websocket-vs-socket.io
• https://github.com/rsp/node-websocket-vs-socket.io

It is a simple example of server-side and client-side code - the client connects to the server using either WebSocket or Socket.IO and the server sends three messages in 1s intervals, which are added to the DOM by the client.

Server-side

Compare the server-side example of using WebSocket and Socket.IO to do the same in an Express.js app:

WebSocket Server

WebSocket server example using Express.js:

var path = require('path');
var app = require('express')();
var ws = require('express-ws')(app);
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  console.error('express connection');
  res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'ws.html'));
});
app.ws('/', (s, req) => {
  console.error('websocket connection');
  for (var t = 0; t < 3; t++)
    setTimeout(() => s.send('message from server', ()=>{}), 1000*t);
});
app.listen(3001, () => console.error('listening on http://localhost:3001/'));
console.error('websocket example');

var path = require('path');
var app = require('express')();
var http = require('http').Server(app);
var io = require('socket.io')(http);
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  console.error('express connection');
  res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'si.html'));
});
io.on('connection', s => {
  console.error('socket.io connection');
  for (var t = 0; t < 3; t++)
    setTimeout(() => s.emit('message', 'message from server'), 1000*t);
});
http.listen(3002, () => console.error('listening on http://localhost:3002/'));
console.error('socket.io example');

var l = document.getElementById('l');
var log = function (m) {
    var i = document.createElement('li');
    i.innerText = new Date().toISOString()+' '+m;
    l.appendChild(i);
}
log('opening websocket connection');
var s = new WebSocket('ws://'+window.location.host+'/');
s.addEventListener('error', function (m) { log("error"); });
s.addEventListener('open', function (m) { log("websocket connection open"); });
s.addEventListener('message', function (m) { log(m.data); });

var l = document.getElementById('l');
var log = function (m) {
    var i = document.createElement('li');
    i.innerText = new Date().toISOString()+' '+m;
    l.appendChild(i);
}
log('opening socket.io connection');
var s = io();
s.on('connect_error', function (m) { log("error"); });
s.on('connect', function (m) { log("socket.io connection open"); });
s.on('message', function (m) { log(m); });

# Install:
npm i -g websocket-vs-socket.io
# Run the server:
websocket-vs-socket.io

# Uninstall:
npm rm -g websocket-vs-socket.io