SimplePusher

SimplePusher is a HTML5 websocket powered realtime messaging tool used in Rails / Sintra project.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'simple_pusher'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install simple_pusher

Then start simple pusher server when rails app boot:

# config/initializers/simple_pusher.rb
EventMachine.next_tick do
  SimplePusher.setup do |config|
    config.port = 8088
    config.debug = false
  end
  SimplePusher.start
end

Note

As initializer code config/initializers/simple_pusher.rb show, your rails runtime environment must be in EventMachine run loop. Otherwise you start EventMachine run loop in a new thread.

Usage

Setup client js code.

Add //= require simple_pusher to app/assets/javascripts/application.js

Add code to app/views/layouts/application.html.erb

<script type="text/javascript">
    var simple_pusher = new SimplePusher("ws://<%= request.host %>:8088/");
    simple_pusher.broadcast("Hello everybody.");
</script>

Broadcast message via server side.

SimplePusher.broadcast("Time now #{Time.now.to_s(:db}")

Message callback at server side.

SimplePusher.on("ping") do
  puts "I received ping request."
end

SimplePusher.on("ping") do
  puts "I also received ping request."
end

Emulating WebSockets in older browsers

It is possible to emulate WebSockets in older browsers using flash emulation. For example take a look at the web-socket-js project.

TODO

Add on method message callback to client js.

Contributing

Fork it
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create new Pull Request