Use Web Socket for Chat in Laravel 5 (Using Ratchet for particular user )

Use Web Socket for Chat in Laravel 5 step by step:

If you want to create a chat server for particular user in Laravel 5, then this blog will help you. Its a very easy and fast way to use web socket.

For this firstly you have to install Ratchet package in your application.

Step1:
For this open your composer.json and write this code in "require" key:

"cboden/ratchet": "0.3.*"

Now open open your terminal and go to your root path and run this command

composer update

It will install this package in your application.

Step2:

Now create a controller and write functions on it , also include the package files.
For this , just go to your terminal and write this command:

php artisan make:controller ChatController


Now go to this file and write the following code on it:

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Ratchet\MessageComponentInterface;
use Ratchet\ConnectionInterface;

class ChatController implements MessageComponentInterface
{
    protected $clients;
    private $subscriptions;
    private $users;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->clients = new \SplObjectStorage;
        $this->subscriptions = [];
        $this->users = [];
    }

    public function onOpen(ConnectionInterface $conn)
    {
        $this->clients->attach($conn);
        $this->users[$conn->resourceId] = $conn;
    }

    public function onMessage(ConnectionInterface $conn, $msg)
    {
        $data = json_decode($msg);
        switch ($data->command) {
            case "subscribe":
                $this->subscriptions[$conn->resourceId] = $data->channel;
                break;
            case "message":
                if (isset($this->subscriptions[$conn->resourceId])) {
                    $target = $this->subscriptions[$conn->resourceId];
                    foreach ($this->subscriptions as $id=>$channel) {
                        if ($channel == $target && $id != $conn->resourceId) {
                            $this->users[$id]->send($data->message);
                        }
                    }
                }
        }
    }

    public function onClose(ConnectionInterface $conn)
    {
        $this->clients->detach($conn);
        unset($this->users[$conn->resourceId]);
        unset($this->subscriptions[$conn->resourceId]);
    }

    public function onError(ConnectionInterface $conn, \Exception $e)
    {
        echo "An error has occurred: {$e->getMessage()}\n";
        $conn->close();
    }
}
?>

Now you have done all the functionality. Now you'll be in need of create a chat server .

Step3:

For create a chat server , go to your root path and create a file with named php_chat_server.php


write the following code in this file:

<?php
use Ratchet\Server\IoServer;
use Ratchet\Http\HttpServer;
use Ratchet\WebSocket\WsServer;
use App\Http\Controllers\ChatController;

require  'vendor/autoload.php';


$server = IoServer::factory(
    new HttpServer(
        new WsServer(
            new ChatController()
        )
    ),
    8080
);

$server->run();
?>

Now you have to create a chat server.
You are done now.

Step4:

Now go to your root path and run this command:

php php_chat_server.php

This will start your chat server .

Step5:

For checking your working code, you have to go to your browser and open your localhost

For test you have to open two browser for this:

Now open your console in both browser and write this:

var conn = new WebSocket('ws://127.0.0.1:8080');

and then press enter

same like this write the following lines and enter in both browser:

conn.onopen = function(e) {
  console.log("Connection established!");
};


conn.onmessage = function(e) {
  console.log(e.data);
};


conn.send(JSON.stringify({command: "subscribe", channel: "mychannel"}));

Now in only one browser's console write this code

conn.send(JSON.stringify({command: "message", message: "this is message"}));

You'll see this message at 2nd browser.

You are done.

Thanks