CODEWITHSUNDEEP
reactjs
Lelio Faieta
Lelio Faieta

Reputation: 6663

implement a chat system with react - configuration required

Some years ago I implemented a websocket (Ruby based) on a intranet website to create a one direction message system. Admin types a message and all the clients that are registered on that channel get the message. It is working well but now that I'm approaching REACTJS I am thinking about replacing the Ruby websocket with a React component. Starting from an Apache webserver running php and a Ruby websocket in parallel to it what do I have to do to set up an environment running react?

On react side I'm currently learning the basics and I have not approached yet the differences in terms of application beside a compiled app and the dev version. So I expect that also the compiled version will require the same environment as when I am developing. Am I right?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 170

Answers (1)

Sydney Y
Sydney Y

Reputation: 3152

React is solely a front-end/client-side technology, so it has very little to do with the server.

If you develop a React app using something like create-react-app, the development environment they provide allows you to disregard the backend/server-side while you develop. It does this by serving the files on a local webserver.

If you have a server that makes a web socket available, your React component can connect to it and use it.

After development the React code must be transpiled, and all you need is to serve the static files. For example you might end up with a chat.html file that uses styles.css and connect.js, and you'll need a server to respond to requests for those files.

So I would say that if you already have an exposed web socket, you do not need a new production environment on your server.

*If you intend to build a new websocket on Node or if you need to build yourself an additional REST API that's going to require setting up a Node environment on your server*

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions