In this blog post, we’ll explore how to use Server-Sent Events (SSE) to push real-time data from a server to clients. We’ll create a simple example using Node.js and Express to demonstrate how SSE works.
What are Server-Sent Events (SSE)?
Server-Sent Events (SSE) allow servers to push updates to the client over a single, long-lived HTTP connection. Unlike WebSockets, SSE is a unidirectional protocol where updates flow from server to client. This makes SSE ideal for live data feeds like news updates, stock prices, or notifications.
Creating the Server
const express = require(“express”);
const app = express();
const { v4 } = require(“uuid”);
let clients = [];
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.static(“./public”));
function sendDataToAllClients() {
const value_to_send_to_all_clients = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000) + 1;
clients.forEach((client) =>
client.response.write(“data: ” + value_to_send_to_all_clients + “nn”)
);
}
app.get(“/subscribe”, async (req, res) => {
const clients_id = v4();
const headers = {
“Content-Type”: “text/event-stream”,
“Cache-Control”: “no-cache”,
Connection: “keep-alive”,
};
res.writeHead(200, headers);
clients.push({ id: clients_id, response: res });
// Close the connection when the client disconnects
req.on(“close”, () => {
clients = clients.filter((c) => c.id !== clients_id);
console.log(`${clients_id} Connection closed`);
res.end(“OK”);
});
});
app.get(“/data”, (req, res) => {
sendDataToAllClients();
res.send(“Data sent to all subscribed clients.”);
});
app.listen(80, () => {
console.log(“Server is running on port 80”);
});
Code Explanation
Express Setup: We create an Express app and set up JSON parsing and static file serving.
Client Management: We maintain a list of connected clients.
SSE Headers: In the /subscribe endpoint, we set the necessary headers to establish an SSE connection.
Send Data: The sendDataToAllClients function sends random data to all subscribed clients.
Subscribe Endpoint: Clients connect to this endpoint to receive real-time updates.
Data Endpoint: This endpoint triggers the sendDataToAllClients function to send data.
Creating the Client
Next, let’s create a simple HTML page to subscribe to the server and display the real-time data.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”UTF-8″ />
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″ />
<title>SSE – Example (Server-Sent-Events)</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id=”data”></div>
</body>
</html>
<script>
const subscription = new EventSource(“/subscribe”);
// Default events
subscription.addEventListener(“open”, () => {
console.log(“Connection opened”);
});
subscription.addEventListener(“error”, () => {
console.error(“Subscription err’d”);
subscription.close();
});
subscription.addEventListener(“message”, (event) => {
console.log(“Receive message”, event);
document.getElementById(“data”).innerHTML += `${event.data}<br>`;
});
</script>
Code Explanation
EventSource: We create a new EventSource object to subscribe to the /subscribe endpoint.
Event Listeners: We set up listeners for open, error, and message events.
Display Data: When a message is received, we append the data to a div.
Running the Example
Start the server:
node app.js
Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost/subscribe. [Don’t close it]
Now, open another tab & navigate to http://localhost/data and you should see random data prints onto the screen in other tab.
You can subscribe to multiple clients/tabs as you want & you can simply navigate to http://localhost/data & you would see the same data emits to all the subscribed clients.
Conclusion
In this post, we’ve seen how to use Server-Sent Events (SSE) to push real-time updates from a server to connected clients using Node.js and Express. SSE is a simple yet powerful way to add real-time capabilities to your web applications without the complexity of WebSockets.
Warning⚠️:
When not used over HTTP/2, SSE suffers from a limitation to the maximum number of open connections, which can be especially painful when opening multiple tabs, as the limit is per browser and is set to a very low number (6). The issue has been marked as “Won’t fix” in Chrome and Firefox. This limit is per browser + domain, which means that you can open 6 SSE connections across all of the tabs to www.example1.com and another 6 SSE connections to www.example2.com (per Stackoverflow). When using HTTP/2, the maximum number of simultaneous HTTP streams is negotiated between the server and the client (defaults to 100).
Happy coding!
Resources:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Server-sent_events/Using_server-sent_events
