working with sockets on PHP in a similar way as Node.js

Question

I just downloaded and ran the very basic Node.js chat app:

https://github.com/socketio/chat-example

It is working properly.

The server code is very simple:

var app = require('express')();
var http = require('http').Server(app);
var io = require('socket.io')(http);
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;

app.get('/', function(req, res){
  res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html');
});

io.on('connection', function(socket){
  socket.on('chat message', function(msg){
    io.emit('chat message', msg);
  });
});

http.listen(port, function(){
  console.log('listening on *:' + port);
});

Now my question is if is it possible to do something similar with PHP ?

I have heard about:

https://www.swoole.co.uk

https://github.com/swoole/swoole-src

https://reactphp.org

https://github.com/reactphp/socket

any other framework?

But I don't know if it is a good and stable alternative?

Thanks!

Answer 1

There is a library called Ratchet i know about. But in my experience, it does not work very well. If you are trying to make a socket connection, you should always just technologies that supports it very well, such as NodeJs

It's possible to call a NodeJS server (express) from your PHP using a curl request, and make the NodeJS server do the socket connection.

Answer 2

Try phpsocket.io 1 , it is a direct PHP implementation of socket.io and even has the excellent example chat app. It's rock solid and well maintained. Personally, I had nothing but trouble with other approaches I tried.

Your example code would look something like this in PHP:

$io->on('connection', function($socket){
  $socket->on('chat message', function($msg){
    $io->emit('chat message', $msg);
  });
});