io.socket.on()

Starts listening for server-sent events from Sails with the specified eventIdentity. Will trigger the provided callback function when a matching event is received.

Usage

io.socket.on(eventIdentity, function (msg) {
  // ...
});

Callback

Note that the callback will NEVER trigger until one of your back-end controllers, models, services, etc. sends a message to this socket. Typically that is achieved one of the following ways:

Resourceful Pubsub Methods

• server publishes a message about a record to which this socket is subscribed (see Model.publishUpdate(), Model.publishDestroy(), and Model.subscribe())
• server publishes a message informing all permitted watcher sockets that a new record has been created in the model with the same identity as eventIdentity (see Model.publishCreate(http://sailsjs.org/documentation/reference/websockets/resourceful-pubsub/publishCreate.html) and Model.watch())

Low-Level Socket Methods

• server emits a message to all known sockets (see sails.sockets.blast())
• server emits a message directly to this socket (io.socket) using its unique id (see sails.sockets.emit())
• server broadcasts to a room in which this socket (io.socket) has been allowed to join (remember that a socket only stays subscribed as long as it is connected-- i.e. as long as the browser tab is open)

Example

Listen for new orders and updates to existing orders:

io.socket.on('order', function onServerSentEvent (msg) {
  // msg => {...whatever the server published/emitted...}
});

Another example, this time using Angular:

Note that this Angular example assumes the backend calls publishCreate() at some point.

angular.module('cafeteria').controller('CheckoutCtrl', function ($scope) {

  $scope.orders = $scope.orders || [];

  if (!io.socket.alreadyListeningToOrders) {
    io.socket.alreadyListeningToOrders = true;
    io.socket.on('order', function onServerSentEvent (msg) {

      // Let's see what the server has to say...
      switch(msg.verb) {

        case 'created':
          $scope.orders.push(msg.data); // (add the new order to the DOM)
          $scope.$apply();              // (re-render)
          break;

        default: return; // ignore any unrecognized messages
      }
    });
  }
});

Notes

• When listening for resourceful pubsub calls, the eventIdentity is the same as the identity of the calling model (e.g. if you have a model "UserComment", the identity is "usercomment".)
• For context-- these types of server-sent events are sometimes referred to as "comet") messages.

Handle Socket 'Connect' and 'Disconnect' events

If connection to server was interrupted - server was restarted or some network issue - it is possible to handle these events and subscribe to sockets again.

  io.socket.on('connect', function(){
      io.socket.get('/messages');
      io.socket.get('/notifications/subscribe/statusUpdates');
  });

  io.socket.on('disconnect', function(){
      console.log('Lost connection to server');
  });