How to create a real time notification system if I have a rails backend and clients which run on Angular.js?

Question

One simple way to do this would be to have the client poll the server every 10 seconds or so, but I don't think that's the best way to go about it.

I don't want to broadcast notifications to all clients, but only to 1 client at a time.

The internet is loaded with articles on how to do this but I can't figure out which one is more appropriate for my problem.

https://github.com/websocket-rails/websocket-rails

https://github.com/ryanb/private_pub

Answer 1

Consider using a hosted pub/sub broker like Pusher or Realtime (the company I work for) and focus on developing your app and not managing the required real-time infrastructure.

From your Rails backend you would send the messages through the REST API and use the websocket-based JavaScript library to receive them on browser clients (subscribe).

For private messages simply subscribe each user to their own private channel (maybe using their user id).