What are the advantages of using WebSockets over Ajax for bidirectional communication in PHP applications?

WebSockets offer advantages over Ajax for bidirectional communication in PHP applications because they provide a full-duplex communication channel, allowing both the client and server to send messages to each other simultaneously. This results in lower latency and reduced overhead compared to the request-response model of Ajax. Additionally, WebSockets support real-time updates and push notifications without the need for continuous polling. 

// Example PHP code using WebSockets for bidirectional communication
// Server-side code using Ratchet library
use Ratchet\MessageComponentInterface;
use Ratchet\ConnectionInterface;

require dirname(__DIR__) . '/vendor/autoload.php';

class WebSocketServer implements MessageComponentInterface {
    protected $clients;

    public function __construct() {
        $this->clients = new \SplObjectStorage;
    }

    public function onOpen(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
        $this->clients->attach($conn);
        echo "New connection! ({$conn->resourceId})\n";
    }

    public function onMessage(ConnectionInterface $from, $msg) {
        foreach ($this->clients as $client) {
            if ($client !== $from) {
                $client->send($msg);
            }
        }
    }

    public function onClose(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
        $this->clients->detach($conn);
        echo "Connection {$conn->resourceId} has disconnected\n";
    }

    public function onError(ConnectionInterface $conn, \Exception $e) {
        echo "An error has occurred: {$e->getMessage()}\n";
        $conn->close();
    }
}

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

$server->run();

Keywords

WebSockets Ajax bidirectional communication PHP applications advantages

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