React和Socket.io

Question

I'm trying to create a simple app using ReactJS and Socket.io

In my component I want to be able to communicate with the server, but the problem is that I don't know how to do io.connect()

1.Do I need to explicitly specify the IP address like io.connect("http://myHost:7000") or is it enough to say : io.connect() ? As we can see in this piece of code : https://github.com/DanialK/ReactJS-Realtime-Chat/blob/master/client/app.jsx

2.I do more or less the same as this code , but I receive error when I do npm start as io is undefined . I think , io is provided globally by including the socket.io script. How can I solve this problem ?

'use strict';
var React = require('react');
var socket = io.connect();
var chatWindow = React.createClass({

    displayName: 'chatWindow',

    propTypes: {},

    getDefaultProps: function() {
        return ({
            messages: 0
        });
    },
    componentDidMount: function() {
        socket = this.props.io.connect();
        socket.on('value', this._messageRecieve);
    },
    _messageRecieve: function(messages) {
        this.setState({
           messages: messages
        });
    },
    getInitialState: function() {
        return ({
            messages: 0
        });
    },
    _handleSend: function(){
        var newValue = parseInt(this.refs.messageBox.value) + this.props.messages;
        this.setState({
            messages: newValue
        });
        socket.emit('clientMessage', { message: newValue});
    },
    render: function() {
        var window =
                <div>
                    <div>{this.props.messages}</div>
                    <input type="text" id="messageBox" refs="messageBox"></input>
                    <input type="button" onClick={this._handleSend} value="send" id="send"/>
                </div>;
        return (window);
    }
});

module.exports = chatWindow;

This is the code :

https://github.com/arian-hosseinzadeh/simple-user-list

Answer 1

Answers:

1) No, you don't need to specify the IP, you can even use / and it will go through the default HTTP 80 port, anyway, you can find more examples on the socket.io site.

2) Require io too, remember to add socket.io-client to your package:

var React = require('react'),
    io    = require('socket.io-client');

Anyway, if you want to include the client script that socket.io server provides as a static file, then remember to add it into your HTML using a <script/> tag, that way you'll have io on the global scope avoiding the require part, but well, I prefer to require it.

NOW, WHAT ABOUT...

Trying my lib: https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-socket

It will handle the socket connection on mount and disconnection on unmount (the same goes for socket event listeners), give it a try and let me know.

Here you have an example:

http://coma.github.io/react-socket/

var App = React.createClass({
    getInitialState: function() {

        return {
            tweets: []
        };
    },
    onTweet: function(tweet) {

        var tweets = this
            .state
            .tweets
            .slice();

        tweet.url    = 'https://twitter.com/' + tweet.user + '/status/' + tweet.id;
        tweet.at     = new Date(tweet.at);
        tweet.avatar = {
            backgroundImage: 'url(' + tweet.img + ')'
        };

        tweets.unshift(tweet);

        this.setState({
            tweets: tweets
        });
    },
    renderTweet: function (tweet) {

        return (
            <li key={tweet.id}>
                <a href={tweet.url} target="_blank">
                    <div className="user">
                        <div className="avatar" style={ tweet.avatar }/>
                        <div className="name">{ tweet.user }</div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="text">{ tweet.text }</div>
                </a>
            </li>
        );
    },
    render: function () {

        return (
            <div>
                <ReactSocket.Socket url="http://tweets.socket.io"/>
                <ReactSocket.Event name="tweet" callback={ this.onTweet }/>
                <ul className="tweets">{ this.state.tweets.map(this.renderTweet) }</ul>
            </div>
        );
    }
});

React.render(<App/>, document.body);