socket.io-redis

Table of contents

• How to use
  • CommonJS
  • ES6 module
  • TypeScript
• Compatibility table
• How does it work under the hood?
• API
  • adapter(uri[, opts])
  • adapter(opts)
  • RedisAdapter
    • RedisAdapter#sockets(rooms: Set)
    • RedisAdapter#allRooms()
    • RedisAdapter#remoteJoin(id:String, room:String)
    • RedisAdapter#remoteLeave(id:String, room:String)
    • RedisAdapter#remoteDisconnect(id:String, close:Boolean)
• Client error handling
• Custom client (eg: with authentication)
• With ioredis client
  • Cluster example
  • Sentinel Example
• Protocol
• License

How to use

CommonJS

const io = require('socket.io')(3000);
const redisAdapter = require('socket.io-redis');
io.adapter(redisAdapter({ host: 'localhost', port: 6379 }));

ES6 modules

import { Server } from 'socket.io';
import redisAdapter from 'socket.io-redis';

const io = new Server(3000);
io.adapter(redisAdapter({ host: 'localhost', port: 6379 }));

TypeScript

// npm i -D @types/redis
import { Server } from 'socket.io';
import { createAdapter } from 'socket.io-redis';
import { RedisClient } from 'redis';

const io = new Server(8080);
const pubClient = new RedisClient({ host: 'localhost', port: 6379 });
const subClient = pubClient.duplicate();

io.adapter(createAdapter({ pubClient, subClient }));

By running Socket.IO with the socket.io-redis adapter you can run multiple Socket.IO instances in different processes or servers that can all broadcast and emit events to and from each other.

So any of the following commands:

io.emit('hello', 'to all clients');
io.to('room42').emit('hello', "to all clients in 'room42' room");

io.on('connection', (socket) => {
  socket.broadcast.emit('hello', 'to all clients except sender');
  socket.to('room42').emit('hello', "to all clients in 'room42' room except sender");
});

will properly be broadcast to the clients through the Redis Pub/Sub mechanism.

If you need to emit events to socket.io instances from a non-socket.io process, you should use socket.io-emitter.

Compatibility table

Redis Adapter version	Socket.IO server version
4.x	1.x
5.x	2.x
6.0.x	3.x
6.1.x and above	4.x

How does it work under the hood?

This adapter extends the in-memory adapter that is included by default with the Socket.IO server.

The in-memory adapter stores the relationships between Sockets and Rooms in two Maps.

When you run socket.join("room21"), here's what happens:

console.log(adapter.rooms); // Map { "room21" => Set { "mdpk4kxF5CmhwfCdAHD8" } }
console.log(adapter.sids); // Map { "mdpk4kxF5CmhwfCdAHD8" => Set { "mdpk4kxF5CmhwfCdAHD8", room21" } }
// "mdpk4kxF5CmhwfCdAHD8" being the ID of the given socket

Those two Maps are then used when broadcasting:

• a broadcast to all sockets (io.emit()) loops through the sids Map, and send the packet to all sockets
• a broadcast to a given room (io.to("room21").emit()) loops through the Set in the rooms Map, and sends the packet to all matching sockets

The Redis adapter extends the broadcast function of the in-memory adapter: the packet is also published to a Redis channel (see below for the format of the channel name).

Each Socket.IO server receives this packet and broadcasts it to its own list of connected sockets.

To check what's happening on your Redis instance:

$ redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> PSUBSCRIBE *
Reading messages... (press Ctrl-C to quit)
1) "psubscribe"
2) "*"
3) (integer) 1

1) "pmessage"
2) "*"
3) "socket.io#/#" (a broadcast to all sockets or to a list of rooms)
4) <the packet content>

1) "pmessage"
2) "*"
3) "socket.io#/#room21#" (a broadcast to a single room)
4) <the packet content>

Note: no data is stored in Redis itself

There are 3 Redis subscriptions per namespace:

• main channel: <prefix>#<namespace>#* (glob)
• request channel: <prefix>-request#<namespace>#
• response channel: <prefix>-response#<namespace>#

The request and response channels are used in the additional methods exposed by the Redis adapter, like RedisAdapter#allRooms().

API

adapter(uri[, opts])

uri is a string like localhost:6379 where your redis server is located. For a list of options see below.

adapter(opts)

The following options are allowed:

• key: the name of the key to pub/sub events on as prefix (socket.io)
• host: host to connect to redis on (localhost)
• port: port to connect to redis on (6379)
• pubClient: optional, the redis client to publish events on
• subClient: optional, the redis client to subscribe to events on
• requestsTimeout: optional, after this timeout the adapter will stop waiting from responses to request (5000ms)

If you decide to supply pubClient and subClient, make sure you use node_redis as a client or one with an equivalent API.

RedisAdapter

The redis adapter instances expose the following properties that a regular Adapter does not

• uid
• prefix
• pubClient
• subClient
• requestsTimeout

RedisAdapter#sockets(rooms: Set)

Returns the list of socket IDs connected to rooms across all nodes. See Namespace#allSockets()

const sockets = await io.of('/').adapter.sockets(new Set());
console.log(sockets); // a Set containing all the connected socket ids

const sockets = await io.of('/').adapter.sockets(new Set(['room1', 'room2']));
console.log(sockets); // a Set containing the socket ids in 'room1' or in 'room2'

// this method is also exposed by the Server instance
const sockets = await io.in('room3').allSockets();
console.log(sockets); // a Set containing the socket ids in 'room3'

RedisAdapter#allRooms()

Returns the list of all rooms.

const rooms = await io.of('/').adapter.allRooms();
console.log(rooms); // a Set containing all rooms (across every node)

RedisAdapter#remoteJoin(id:String, room:String)

Makes the socket with the given id join the room.

try {
  await io.of('/').adapter.remoteJoin('<my-id>', 'room1');
} catch (e) {
  // the socket was not found
}

RedisAdapter#remoteLeave(id:String, room:String)

Makes the socket with the given id leave the room.

try {
  await io.of('/').adapter.remoteLeave('<my-id>', 'room1');
} catch (e) {
  // the socket was not found
}

RedisAdapter#remoteDisconnect(id:String, close:Boolean)

Makes the socket with the given id to get disconnected. If close is set to true, it also closes the underlying socket.

try {
  await io.of('/').adapter.remoteDisconnect('<my-id>', true);
} catch (e) {
  // the socket was not found
}

Client error handling

Access the pubClient and subClient properties of the Redis Adapter instance to subscribe to its error event:

const adapter = require('socket.io-redis')('localhost:6379');
adapter.pubClient.on('error', function(){});
adapter.subClient.on('error', function(){});

The errors emitted from pubClient and subClient will also be forwarded to the adapter instance:

const io = require('socket.io')(3000);
const redisAdapter = require('socket.io-redis');
io.adapter(redisAdapter({ host: 'localhost', port: 6379 }));
io.of('/').adapter.on('error', function(){});

Custom client (eg: with authentication)

If you need to create a redisAdapter to a redis instance that has a password, use pub/sub options instead of passing a connection string.

const redis = require('redis');
const redisAdapter = require('socket.io-redis');
const pubClient = redis.createClient(port, host, { auth_pass: "pwd" });
const subClient = pubClient.duplicate();
io.adapter(redisAdapter({ pubClient, subClient }));

With ioredis client

Cluster example

const io = require('socket.io')(3000);
const redisAdapter = require('socket.io-redis');
const Redis = require('ioredis');

const startupNodes = [
  {
    port: 6380,
    host: '127.0.0.1'
  },
  {
    port: 6381,
    host: '127.0.0.1'
  }
];

io.adapter(redisAdapter({
  pubClient: new Redis.Cluster(startupNodes),
  subClient: new Redis.Cluster(startupNodes)
}));

Sentinel Example

const io = require('socket.io')(3000);
const redisAdapter = require('socket.io-redis');
const Redis = require('ioredis');

const options = {
  sentinels: [
    { host: 'somehost1', port: 26379 },
    { host: 'somehost2', port: 26379 }
  ],
  name: 'master01'
};

io.adapter(redisAdapter({
  pubClient: new Redis(options),
  subClient: new Redis(options)
}));

Protocol

The socket.io-redis adapter broadcasts and receives messages on particularly named Redis channels. For global broadcasts the channel name is:

prefix + '#' + namespace + '#'

In broadcasting to a single room the channel name is:

prefix + '#' + namespace + '#' + room + '#'

• prefix: The base channel name. Default value is socket.io. Changed by setting opts.key in adapter(opts) constructor
• namespace: See https://github.com/socketio/socket.io#namespace.
• room : Used if targeting a specific room.

A number of other libraries adopt this protocol including:

• socket.io-emitter
• socket.io-python-emitter
• socket.io-emitter-go

License

MIT