Socket.

IO:
Socket.IO is a library built on top of WebSocket that provides additional features and fallback
mechanisms for real-time communication. It can be used with Node.js on the server-side and
various client-side libraries, including React.

Attributes:
● Built on top of WebSockets:
○ Socket.IO is a higher-level library that uses WebSockets as its underlying
transport (along with other fallbacks for older browsers).
● Abstraction and ease of use:
○ Socket.IO provides a simple API for real-time communication, handling
the low-level details of connection handling and fallbacks.
● Event-based communication:
○ It allows you to emit and listen for custom events, making it easy to
structure your application's communication logic.

● Auto-reconnection:
○ Socket.IO handles reconnection automatically, which can be helpful when
dealing with unstable connections.
● Namespace and room support:
○ Socket.IO provides built-in support for organising clients into namespaces
and rooms, making it easier to manage groups of clients and send
targeted updates.

Pros:
● The benefit of socket.io is the ease of use and all the advanced features it offers
like namespaces and rooms, auto reconnect, the aforementioned fallbacks for
older browsers and allowing for connections behind a firewall or proxy which
websockets do not do out of the box.
● Socket.IO automatically falls back to other transport mechanisms (like
long-polling) if WebSocket is not supported by the client or the network.
● Its popularity is probably that 90% of people use it for 'chat rooms' where they
can quickly set up a really simple connection and forget about it.

Cons:

● The library itself is notoriously bloated, found on most pages on the internet. It
actually adds complexity, with its client-side injected global code compared to the
simple spec of native Websocket for HTML5 (consisting of just 4 event listeners).
[It may be best to use something built-in that works well vs. having to add another
dependency to the project.]
● The additional features and fallback mechanisms can introduce some
performance overhead compared to using WebSocket directly.
● The reconnect functionality doesn't always seem to actually reconnect.
WebSocket:
WebSocket is a protocol that provides full-duplex (bidirectional) communication over a single,
long-lived connection between a client and a server. It is part of the HTML5 specification and is
natively supported by modern web browsers.

Attributes:
● Lower-level protocol:
○ WebSockets is a standardised protocol for real-time communication,
providing a lower-level API compared to Socket.IO.
● Lightweight:
○ Since it's a lower-level protocol, WebSocket implementation can result in
less overhead and lower latency compared to Socket.IO.
● Broad support:
○ WebSockets are widely supported across various platforms and
languages, making it easy to integrate with different systems.
● No fallbacks:
○ WebSockets don't include built-in fallbacks for older browsers or network
environments that don't support them.

Pros:
● A WebSocket library is “raw”, such that it is pretty simple to implement and offers
a ton of flexibility, because you are not tied to the NodeJS socket.io server.
● WebSocket provides lower latency and better performance compared to
traditional HTTP polling or long-polling methods.
● It is easy for the WebSocket server to support TCP connections for native apps or
desktop programs with less effort, because it's easier to transition from
WebSocket to TCP, than from socket.io to TCP.
● WebSocket only has a 2-byte overhead cost compared to HTTP, which has a
2000-byte overhead. [Facilitate data flow with less overhead.]

Cons:
● Since the WebSocket library is “raw”, it does not have some of the features that
socket.io has, e.g. custom emits, automatic reconnection, message
acknowledgments, or room support. [Some of these features are still capable of
being implemented, and since there is a lot less restriction, it allows more
flexibility with WebSocket.]
● Older browsers and some proxy servers may not support WebSocket, which can
cause connectivity issues.

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Deciding Factor:

● Complexity of the application:

○ If you need a simple and easy-to-use API for real-time communication,
Socket.IO might be the better choice.
○ If you need a more lightweight implementation with less overhead,
WebSockets could be more suitable.

● Connection stability:
○ If your IoT devices or clients are expected to have unstable connections,
Socket.IO's auto-reconnection feature could be valuable.

● Custom events vs. raw data:

○ If your application benefits from event-based communication and custom
event handling, Socket.IO would be a more natural fit.
○ If you're only sending raw data, WebSockets might be sufficient.

Conclusion:
WebSocket may be a better choice if the priority is performance (lower latency, less overhead),
simplicity, and also if advanced features like automatic reconnection or room support are not
required. It is also a good choice for native browser support usage, without the need for
additional libraries. However, if you require advanced features and fallback mechanisms,
Socket.IO may be a better fit. It provides a richer feature set and automatically handles
compatibility issues with older browsers and network configurations.