What are common methods for implementing real-time notifications in PHP applications?

Real-time notifications in PHP applications can be implemented using techniques such as WebSockets, Server-Sent Events (SSE), or long polling. These methods allow the server to push notifications to the client in real-time without the need for the client to constantly poll the server for updates. 

// Example implementation using WebSockets

// Server-side code
// Create a WebSocket server using Ratchet library
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Ratchet\MessageComponentInterface;
use Ratchet\ConnectionInterface;

class NotificationServer implements MessageComponentInterface {
    public function onOpen(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
        // Handle new connection
    }

    public function onMessage(ConnectionInterface $from, $msg) {
        // Handle incoming message
    }

    public function onClose(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
        // Handle connection close
    }

    public function onError(ConnectionInterface $conn, \Exception $e) {
        // Handle error
    }
}

$server = IoServer::factory(
    new HttpServer(
        new WsServer(
            new NotificationServer()
        )
    ),
    8080
);

$server->run();

// Client-side code
// Connect to WebSocket server and handle incoming notifications
var conn = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8080');
conn.onmessage = function(event) {
    // Handle incoming message
};

Keywords

Websockets Pusher SSE (Server-Sent Events) AJAX Pub/Sub pattern

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