Vue-Socket.io-Extended

Socket.io bindings for Vue.js 2 and Vuex (inspired by Vue-Socket.io)

> ⚠️ The alpha version of v5 (with Vue 3 support) has been released. Your feedback would be appreciated here

🍒 Features

• Lightweight and dependency free - only 2kb min gzip
• Reactive properties $socket.connected and $socket.disconnected
• Listening and emitting socket.io events inside components
• Auto-dispatches actions and mutations in multiple namespaced Vuex modules on socket.io events
• Good TypeScript support (decorator and typing)
• Can be used with any version of socket.io-client
• Custom options - tweak the library to better fit your project needs
• etc...

✔️ Browser Support

49+ ✔️	18+ ✔️	10+ ✔️	36+ ✔️	12+ ✔️

We support only browsers with global usage statistics greater than 1% and due to current Vue 3 limitation - with native Proxy support.

🌱 Motivation

I was using Vue-Socket.io for few months. I've liked the idea, but the more I used it the more I faced with bugs, outdated documentation, lack of support, absence of tests, and a huge amount of issues 😞. That slowed down development of the product I was working on. So I ended up with a decision to create my own fork with all the desirable stuff (features/fixes/tests/support/CI checks etc). That's how vue-socket.io-extended was born.

If you'd like to help - create an issue or PR. I will be glad to see any contribution. Let's make the world a better place ❤️

❕ Prerequisites

You must have a running Socket.IO server before starting any Vue/Socket.IO project! Instructions on how to build a Node/Socket.IO server can be found here.

❕ Software Requirements

• Vue.js 3.X
• Socket.io-client >= 2.X
• Vuex >= 4.X (optional)

💿 Installation

npm install vue-socket.io-extended@alpha socket.io-client

🏁 Initialization

ES2015 (Webpack/Rollup/Browserify/Parcel/etc)

import VueSocketIOExt from 'vue-socket.io-extended';
import { io } from 'socket.io-client';
import { createApp } from 'vue';

const socket = io('https://socketserver.com:1923');

const app = createApp({});
app.use(VueSocketIOExt, socket);

Note: you have to pass instance of socket.io-client as second argument to prevent library duplication. Read more here.

UMD (Browser)

🚀 Usage

On Vue.js component

Define your listeners under sockets section, and they will be executed on corresponding socket.io events automatically.

createApp({
  sockets: {
    connect() {
      console.log('socket connected')
    },
    customEmit(val) {
      console.log('this method was fired by the socket server. eg: io.emit("customEmit", data)')
    }
  },
  methods: {
    clickButton(val) {
      // this.$socket.client is `socket.io-client` instance
      this.$socket.client.emit('emit_method', val);
    }
  }
})

Note: Don't use arrow functions for methods or listeners if you are going to emit socket.io events inside. You will end up with using incorrect this. More info about this here

Dynamic socket event listeners (changed in v4)

Create a new listener

this.$socket.$subscribe('event_name', payload => {
  console.log(payload)
});

Remove existing listener

this.$socket.$unsubscribe('event_name');

Reactive properties (new in v4)

The $socket.connected and $socket.diconnected are reactive. That means you can use them in expressions

<template>
  <div>
    <span>{{ $socket.connected ? 'Connected' : 'Disconnected' }}</span>
  </div>
</template>

Or conditions

<template>
  <span class="notification">
    You are disconnected
  </span>
</template>

Or computed properties, methods and hooks. Treat them as computed properties that are available in all components

🌲 Vuex Store Integration

Setup

To set up Vuex integration just pass the store as the third argument. In a Vue CLI project, you might do this in the src/main.js file. Example:

import VueSocketIOExt from 'vue-socket.io-extended';
import { io } from 'socket.io-client';
import store from './store'

const socket = io('https://socketserver.com:1923');
const app = createApp({});

app.use(VueSocketIOExt, socket, { store });

Receiving Events

Mutations and actions will be dispatched or committed automatically in the Vuex store when a socket event arrives. A mutation or action must follow the naming convention below to recognize and handle a socket event.

• A mutation should start with SOCKET_ prefix and continue with an uppercase version of the event
• An action should start with socket_ prefix and continue with camelcase version of the event

Check the Configuration section if you'd like to use a custom transformation.

Check the Migration from VueSocketIO section if you want to keep actions names in UPPER_CASE.

// In this example we have a socket.io server that sends message ID when it arrives
// so to get entire body of the message we need to make AJAX call the server
import { createStore } from 'vuex';

// `MessagesAPI.downloadMessageById` is an async function (goes to backend through REST Api and fetches all message data)
import MessagesAPI from './api/message'

export default createStore({
  state: {
    // we store messages as a dictionary for easier access and interaction
    // @see https://hackernoon.com/shape-your-redux-store-like-your-database-98faa4754fd5
    messages: {},
    messagesOrder: []
  },
  mutations: {
    NEW_MESSAGE(state, message) {
      state.messages[message.id] = message;
      state.messagesOrder.push(message.id);
    }
  },
  actions: {
    socket_userMessage ({ dispatch, commit }, messageId) { // <-- this action is triggered when `user_message` is emmited on the server
      return MessagesAPI.downloadMessageById(messageId).then((message) => {
       commit('NEW_MESSAGE', message);
      })
    }
  }
})

Emitting Events

Events can be sent to the Socket.IO server by calling this._vm.$socket.client.emit from a Vuex mutation or action. Mutation or action names are not subject to the same naming requirements as above. More than one argument can be included. All serializable data structures are supported, including Buffer.

  actions: {
    emitSocketEvent(data) {
      this._vm.$socket.client.emit('eventName', data);
      this._vm.$socket.client.emit('with-binary', 1, '2', { 3: '4', 5: new Buffer(6) });
    }
  }

Namespaced Vuex Modules

Namespaced modules are supported out-of-the-box. Any appropriately-named mutation or action should work regardless of whether it's in a module or in the main Vuex store.

import { createStore } from 'vuex';

const messages = {
  state: {
    messages: []
  },
  mutations: {
    SOCKET_CHAT_MESSAGE(state, message) {
      state.messages.push(message);
    }
  },
  actions: {
    socket_chatMessage() {
      console.log('this action will be called');
    }
  },
};

const notifications = {
  state: {
    notifications: []
  },
  mutations: {
    SOCKET_CHAT_MESSAGE(state, message) {
      state.notifications.push({ type: 'message', payload: message });
    }
  },
};

export default createStore({
  modules: {
    messages,
    notifications,
  }
})

The above code will:

• Commit the SOCKET_CHAT_MESSAGE mutation in the messages module
• Commit the SOCKET_CHAT_MESSAGE mutation in the notification module
• Dispatch the socket_chatMessage action in the messages module

🎍 ECMAScript / TypeScript decorator (added in v4)

Required: ECMAScript stage 1 decorators. If you use Babel, babel-plugin-transform-decorators-legacy is needed. If you use TypeScript, enable --experimentalDecorators flag.

> It does not support the stage 2 decorators yet since mainstream transpilers still transpile to the old decorators.

We provide @Socket() decorator for users of class-style Vue components. By default, @Socket() decorator listens the same event as decorated method name, but you can use custom name by passing a string inside decorator e.g. @Socket('custom_event').

Check the example below:

🚵 Usage with Nuxt.js

⚠️ The current version of Nuxt.js (v2) doesn't support Vue 3 just yet. The section is going to be updated after the initial release. Check v4 for integration with Vue 2 & Next 2

🚵 Usage with Quasar Framework

⚠️ The current version of Quasar (v1) doesn't support Vue 3 just yet. Beta version is planned for Jan 2021 though, while the final version is expected to be released in Q1. The section is going to be updated after the initial release. Check v4 for integration with Vue 2 & Quasar 1

⚙️ Configuration

In addition to store instance, vue-socket.io-extended accepts other options. Here they are:

FYI: You can always access default plugin options if you need it (e.g. re-use default eventToActionTransformer function):

import VueSocketIOExt from 'vue-socket.io-extended';
VueSocketIOExt.defaults // -> { actionPrefix: '...', mutationPrefix: '...', ... }

ℹ️ Migration from VueSocketIO

For those who has migrated from old VueSocketIO to this package on existing project there is an easy way to migrate without rewriting exiting store modules. You need to redefine 2 parameters so vue-socket.io-extended would support the same format of actions as in vue-socket.io.

import VueSocketIO from 'vue-socket.io-extended';
import { io } from 'socket.io-client';

const ioInstance = io('https://hostname/path');
app.use(VueSocketIO, ioInstance, {
  store, // vuex store instance
  actionPrefix: 'SOCKET_', // keep prefix in uppercase
  eventToActionTransformer: (actionName) => actionName // cancel camel case
});

Note: Since vue-socket.io seems to be active again the instructions might not work as described above. If you are migrating and facing some issues just create an issue with a short description of the problem. I'll try to update instructions, so you can make use of them.

❓ FAQ

• How to prevent connection until authed?

• How to receive/emit event from server to the particular user? (check also this)

• How access this.$socket from Vuex actions?

• My mutation is triggered two times?

• Mutations and actions are not fired while using Quasar

⚓ Semantic Versioning Policy

This plugin follows semantic versioning.

📰 Changelog

We're using GitHub Releases.

🍻 Contribution

We're more than happy to see potential contributions, so don't hesitate. If you have any suggestions, ideas or problems feel free to add new issue, but first please make sure your question does not repeat previous ones.

🔒 License

See the LICENSE file for license rights and limitations (MIT).