Realtime Streams

Cortado supports built-in WebSocket handling, making it easy to build real-time experiences like live dashboards, collaborative tools, or notification systems. This guide walks you through setting up a WebSocket connection, broadcasting messages, and managing multiple clients. You’ll also learn about authentication for sockets, event naming conventions, and how to structure your real-time logic cleanly. By the end of this guide, you’ll have the foundation to stream live data securely and efficiently.

Advanced

16 min

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Step 1: Understand the Realtime Use Case

Before implementing WebSocket logic, it’s important to understand where it fits best:

Live Dashboards: Stream analytics or activity logs without refreshing
Collaborative Tools: Sync edits, cursors, or sessions between users
Notifications: Deliver instant alerts (e.g. “new message” or “task completed”)
Status Monitoring: Show live server or API health in real time
Chat Applications: Exchange messages instantly with multiple users

These scenarios all benefit from two-way, persistent connections instead of traditional polling or refresh cycles.

Step 2: WebSocket Events and Message Flow

To structure your WebSocket logic in Cortado, follow this event-based pattern:

Connection — Triggered when a new client connects
Auth Check — Verify the user’s token if required
Join Channel — Users can subscribe to a room/topic (e.g. project:42)
Message Exchange — Clients and server exchange events with custom payloads
Disconnection — Clean up any state or references on disconnect

You can also use internal logic to:

Broadcast to all connected users
Target specific users or channels
Store or cache messages/events if needed

This approach makes your real-time logic clean, modular, and scalable.

Step 3: Event Naming and Payload Structure

Using consistent event names and structured payloads makes it easier to manage both frontend and backend logic.

Designing Clean Event Flows

In a real-time system, your event architecture is just as important as your data. Each event—from user:connected to message:received—should have a clear name, consistent payload structure, and defined purpose. Rather than improvising each case, design a system of event types and namespaces (e.g., chat:join, task:update) that describe what’s happening in plain language. Then ensure both server and clients respond predictably to those events. This design clarity makes your real-time app easier to maintain, test, and extend as new features are added.

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