Realtime (Push) notifications based on Redis pub/sub, node.js and socket.io

The aim of this example is to provide a small guide for implementing realtime notifications based on redis and socket.io (with node.js)

Schema

Client that pushes notifications -> Redis -> Node.js/Socket.io -> User browser

In the project folder install socket.io and node redis client:

npm install

Start the redis database:

$ redis-server

Start the push notifications server:

$ node ./server.js

Start the client node server:

$ cd ./test-client
$ node ./client.js

Open a browser and go to 127.0.0.1:8000, enter the id that you want and we are ready to push some notifications.

Open a redis client:

$ redis-cli

And with this key push:notifications:[ID] we publish messages into redis.

$ PUBLISH "push:notifications:devinterface" "Yeah, a new amazing notification!"

So all the published messages in the appropiate redis channels, will be pushed to the user browser in realtime :)

Now we should see the message Yeah, a new amazing notification! in the message list