Long Polling vs WebSockets: A Developer’s Guide to Real-Time Solutions

1// Server-side (Node.js with Express)
2const express = require('express');
3const app = express();
4
5app.get('/poll', (req, res) => {
6  const checkForUpdates = () => {
7    const updates = getUpdates(); // Function to check for updates
8    if (updates.length > 0) {
9      res.json(updates);
10    } else {
11      setTimeout(checkForUpdates, 1000); // Poll again after 1 second
12    }
13  };
14  checkForUpdates();
15});
16
17function getUpdates() {
18  // Logic to fetch updates from the database or other source
19  return [];
20}
21
22app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server running on port 3000'));

1// Server-side (Node.js with ws)
2const WebSocket = require('ws');
3const server = new WebSocket.Server({ port: 8080 });
4
5server.on('connection', socket => {
6  socket.on('message', message => {
7    console.log('received:', message);
8    // Broadcast message to all clients
9    server.clients.forEach(client => {
10      if (client.readyState === WebSocket.OPEN) {
11        client.send(message);
12      }
13    });
14  });
15
16  socket.send('Welcome to the WebSocket server!');
17});