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
  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.on('channel_name', function(message){
      alert('got message:'+message);
    });
</script>

Broadcast message via server side.

SimplePusher.publish('channel_name', "Time now #{Time.now.to_s(:db}")

Broadcast message via http POST.

curl -d 'channel=channel1&message=hello'  http://localhost:3000/simple_pusher

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

Use SimplePusher in Sinatra app

# app.rb
require 'simple_pusher/sinatra_app'

EventMachine.next_tick do
  SimplePusher.setup do |config|
    config.port = 8088
  end
  SimplePusher.start
end

class MyApp < Sinatra::Base

  use SimplePusher::SinatraApp # With this you just setup http post interface: curl -d 'channel=channel1&message=hello'  http://localhost:3000/simple_pusher
end

Currently I have not implement directly require simple_pusher js from project. You can download simple_pusher.coffee file from Github repository to your project for use.

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.
• Support JSON format message.
• Use SimplePusher js in Sinatra app.

Contributing

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