CODEWITHSUNDEEP
socket.io
Matt
Matt

Reputation: 5653

In modern browsers, what is the need for socket.io?

I'm building a web application that is aimed at developers. I assumed that most web developers would be using a modern browser, and thus would have support for WebSockets. Is there any need, then, for socket.io? Or maybe I'm just being naive about this?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 175

Answers (2)

fadedbee
fadedbee

Reputation: 44807

Many proxy servers and firewalls break websockets. Use http://socket.io-test.com to test.

Upvotes: 0

Dan Rigby
Dan Rigby

Reputation: 17883

WebSockets support is very limited. The current release version of Internet Explorer (IE 9) doesn't even support the current WebSockets specification. You need IE 10+, Firefox 11+, Chrome 16+, or a nightly build of Safari.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket#Browser_support

So it's a pretty big assumption that most web developers are using a browser that supports it.

Also, think about enterprise web developers. Often their corporate users are all running some older version of a browser (almost always IE) that the company has standardized on (usually to support some older Line of Business app).

In fact, 7% of all internet users and 25% of Chinese users are still using IE 6.

There will likely be plenty of need for socket.io for the foreseeable future.

Upvotes: 2

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