DPC2019: Keeping it Real(time) - Mike Lehan
"Keeping it Real(time) by Mike Lehan
As people carry out more of their daily interactions online, giving them the best experience possible is our key focus as web software engineers. One way we can do that is providing views which can update dynamically as information changes - train times that adapt to delays without a page refresh, new comments on social media items engaging users by appearing in real time, bids on ecommerce websites updating as the market changes. It’s not just chat apps that can benefit from real time components.
Websockets allows a persistent 2-way connection between client and server that you can use to adapt faster to changing data. WebRTC provides a universal API for two browsers to establish a direct link, no servers involved (sort of ) to stream audio, video or files direct.
In the talk we’ll walk through where these real time services come from, and what you can use them for. We’ll look at client and server side APIs, including the popular PHP event library React and PHP Websocket client Ratchet. We’ll drill into the difference between 2-way interactions and existing so-called dynamic web technologies like AJAX, and explore how real-time event based protocols could take on a lot of what we presume only HTTP can do. Finally we’ll see some common pitfalls when integrating both Websockets and WebRTC into your own applications, including monitoring, logging and 3rd party tools.
What you'll learn from this talk:
Which real time web technologies exist, and how you can use them
The basics of websocket protocols and what clients are needed on front & back ends to speak to them
How the protocols can be used to build a live chat application
What WebRTC is, how it can be used and what pitfalls to watch out for
About Mike Lehan
Mike has been working in web application development using PHP for 10 years, including 4 years managing a development team for a property tech startup and before that 4 years building a real time application for managing operations at skydiving centres, as well as some time freelancing. Through working on business critical systems with real time elements Mike has learned the value of comprehensive logging & monitoring, redundant checks on applications & infrastructure, and of course well written testable code!
This talk was given at the Dutch PHP Conference in 2019, organised and hosted by Ibuildings. Visit https://phpconference.nl or https://www.ibuildings.nl for more information."
