Encountering issues with browser tabs and Socket.IO

I'm currently working on a real-time chat using Socket.IO, but I've encountered a major issue. The aim is to allow users to log in, select another connected user, and start chatting...

var http = require('http'),
    fs   = require('fs'),
    path = require('path'),
    io,
    server;

var PORT = 3000,
    HOST = '127.0.0.1';

server = http.createServer( function ( request, response ) {

    var filePath = '.' + request.url,
        extName,
        contentType;

    if (filePath == './') {
        filePath = './index.html';
    }

    extName = path.extname(filePath);
    contentType = 'text/html';

    switch ( extName ) {
        case '.js':
            contentType = 'text/javascript';
        break;
        case '.css':
            contentType = 'text/css';
        break;
    }

    fs.exists( filePath, function ( exists ) {

        if ( exists ) {
            fs.readFile( filePath, function ( error, content ) {
                if ( error ) {
                    response.writeHead( 500 );
                    response.end();
                }
                else {
                    response.writeHead( 200, { 'Content-Type': contentType });
                    response.end( content, 'utf-8' );
                }
            });
        }
        else {
            response.writeHead( 404 );
            response.end();
        }
    });

}).listen( PORT, HOST );



io = require('socket.io').listen( server );
var Users = [ ]; // List of users

io.sockets.on('connection', function ( socket ) {
    var user = { }; // The user

socket.on('newUser', function ( data ) {
    user.userName = data.name, // Selected name
            user.userId   = socket.id; // The socket id

            Users.push( user );

            socket.emit('me', user); // Emit the user object
            socket.emit('userList', { users : Users }); // Emit the user list

});

socket.on('disconnect', function () {
    Users.remove( user ); // Delete from the user list
            socket.emit('userList', { users : Users }); // emit again the user list for refresh
});

socket.on('clientMessage', function ( data ) {
    io.sockets.socket(data.to).emit('newMessage', { 
       // data.to is the socket ID that a message is sent
       "from" : data.from, 
       "message" : data.message, 
       "date" : new Date() 

        });
    });
});

The current problem is that when a user opens multiple tabs, each tab receives a different socket.id from the server. This causes messages not to be synchronized across all tabs.

I am looking for solutions to maintain the same socket.id for a logged-in user across all tabs so that messages can be displayed consistently.

Any suggestions or solutions?

Answer №1

To achieve this, create an array of socketIDs for each user and send specific messages to them accordingly. I faced a similar issue before and this was the solution I implemented.

socket.on('newUser', function ( data ) {
    user.userName = data.name; // Selected name
    if ( !user.userId ) user.userId = {};
    user.userId.push(socket.id);

    Users.push( user );

    socket.emit('me', user); // Emit the user object
    socket.emit('userList', { users : Users }); // Emit the user list
});

socket.on('disconnect', function () {
    Users.userId.remove( socket.id );
    if ( Users.userId.length === 0 ) Users.remove(user);
    socket.emit('userList', { users : Users }); // emit again the user list for refresh
});

socket.on('clientMessage', function ( data ) {
    io.sockets.socket(data.to).emit('newMessage', { 
       // data.to is the socket ID that a message is sent
       "from" : data.from, 
       "message" : data.message, 
       "date" : new Date() 

        });
    });
});

I have not tested the code yet. It's just a suggestion on how to handle multiple socket connections. Feel free to optimize it further!

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