A small starter app built with MEAN2 and socket.io This article was originally posted here The source code has been updated to use Angular 5. Summary Build a simple real-time application that you can use as a starter to do what you want with , within the project will also be , MEAN2(MongoDB, Express, Angular2 & NodeJS) Socket.io Typescript and Angular-material2. After having worked with and socket.io I faced some challenges that motivated me to build a simple starter project that I will reuse every times if need be. Angular2 I suppose that you already know the power of to build application. But now there is a new protocol, not attached to the browser and it’s called . Ajax SPA socket Notes This is a starter project for those who need real time in a app. MEAN2 This is not a tutorial to teach you the MEAN2 stack or Socket, but to show you a way to build a working realtime app with ease CRUD requests are made with rest For the moment, only notifications happen with socket.io Source code: https://github.com/dassiorleando/gistology Let’s call it :) gistology: https://gistology.herokuapp.com Recommandations → Have and npm on your system NodeJs → To use this article I recommend you to follow instructions Readme Demo What is used Open-source JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine NodeJS: : Database Management System MongoDB Web framework used in nodes app for rest requests Express: : The successor of Angular1 that makes the code more easier to understand, brings a lot of good functionalities in Angular apps, simplified DI, component driven apps, enriched the interaction with the DOM and benefit of Typescript. Then Angular2 is not an MVC framework, but a component-based framework( ). Angular2 @Component : Command line tool that helps to create an Angular2 project with a well structured architecture. Angular CLI Use Angular-material in Angular2 application. Angular Material 2: : is a superset of Javascript that allows us to define new types, declaring typed variables. Typescript For toast messages(info, success, warning and error notifications). Angular2-toster: : Better design the layouts(row and column) of our pages. angular-flex-layout Js lib used to make sockets connections, send and receive messages via events with a simple syntaxe. We use it to connect multiple clients together and let them exchange messages(events are created and handled). Socket.io (client & server): A module bundler for modern javascript application, this means webpack takes modules with dependencies and emits static assets representing those modules. Here it builds all into the directory as defined by angular-cli defaults options. Webpack: dist Client Side → Start App Architecture: Angular CLI First you will need to install AngularCLI, to get started here is the . link Install the tool: npm install -g @angular/cli Create the project: ng new gistology _ng serve (_within the root folder), this command also watches your files for any change to reload the browser. Serve the app: More commands: , , and . ng build ng test ng lint ng e2e Now via your browser access the app here: http://localhost:4200 → Generate client side components to manage gists: Now we will still use the power of angular-cli to come out with a new component that will help us to manage gists, with this command: ng g component gist Output: → Include Angular-material2 Click to get all steps. here npm install — save @angular/material Imports and install Don’t forget to also install and load @angular/animation to enable some material components to work normally. → Include Angular-flexLayout npm install — save @angular/flex-layout import {FlexLayoutModule} from “@angular/flex-layout”; in the app.module.ts → Design the home page: angular material card and list app.component.css app.component.html → Include for notifications Angular2-toaster Install it via npm: npm install — save angular2-toaster Include his css too in the main css file(style.css): @import ‘~angular2-toaster/toaster.css’; rom in the app module Import and Register ToasterModule f “angular2-toaster” Define the Toast container(<toaster-container></toaster-container>) in app.component.html Finally import the ToastService and you will be allowed to toast with success, info, warning and error functions. Create : Gist client model ./src/app/gist/gist.model.ts /*** Model for gist*/export class Gist{ **constructor(public title, public description, public technologies, public link){ }** } → Include socket.io -client npm install -client — save socket.io npm install — save-dev @types/socket.io-client npm install — save @types/socket.io-client — only=dev (the typings of the client socket.io) Now we need to add this @types in ./src/tsconfig.app.json and ./src/tsconfig.spec.json in the array types. tsconfig.app.json FILE {“extends”: “../tsconfig.json”,“compilerOptions”: {“outDir”: “../out-tsc/app”,“module”: “es2015”,“baseUrl”: “”,“types”: [“socket.io-client”]},“exclude”: [“test.ts”,“**/*.spec.ts”]} Install it is very easy, we just have a simple command to type. Now we can create a simple service to emit and handle socket events, lets call it in folder ./src/app: app.socketIo.service.ts Server Side → Install packages : to serve Web App Express : to parse post requests and get data from html form body-parser s: to explicitly describe status of requests http-statu : to connect to a database Mongoose mongo Server side lib of socket.io Socket.io-server: npm install --save express body-parser http-status mongoose socket.io Update Architecture Update file architecture for the server side code to add and model api. Create a file we will use to run our application, we can call it on the root folder. The trick here is to serve statics files as expected, let the root path for our api and all others request will be redirect to the index file present in folder when running the app; without forgetting to instantiate the server and handle some events to make sure all clients get them. The lib here will connect us to a mongo DB and allows us to define the server model. index.js /api dist socket.io mongoose In the index.js file we have: → Gist model: . /server/models/gist.js Let’s do something really simple, all gists with a model with follow properties: , , and the title description technologies link. → To import mongoose and pass the db name to connect var mongoose = require(‘mongoose’); mongoose.connect(‘mongodb://localhost/gistology’); // A local db is used(gistology) → Build a little rest api for gists: File presents in folder api.js ./server/routes Import the api file // Get gist routeconst api = require(‘./server/routes/api’); Defined as root path for all our api and match with the file /api api.js in the index.js file up there we done something like that. Note: → Test the project: for me it is sudo mongod Start mongo: to build the app(Take a look at ) ng build: angular-cli wiki to run the app node index.js: Now open this on your browser: http://localhost:3000/ returns an empty as I don’t yet create any gist(Yes the db is still empty) Test the API: curl http://localhost:3000/api/gist array([]) Setup and run Socket.io Server: File: ./index.js Instantiate the Socket.io server const express = require(‘express’);const http = require(‘http’);const app = express(); /*** Create HTTP server and start the connect the socket*/ const server = http.createServer(app);// Socket.io for real time communication var io = require(‘socket.io’).listen(server); Emit & Handle events /*** Socket events*/ io.sockets.on(‘connection’, function(socket){console.log(‘Socket connected’);// Socket event for gist createdsocket.on(‘gistSaved’, function(gistSaved){io.emit(‘gistSaved’, gistSaved);}); // Socket event for gist updatedsocket.on(‘gistUpdated’, function(gistUpdated){io.emit(‘gistUpdated’, gistUpdated);});}); Handle gist rest requests with & @angular/http rxjs File: ./src/app/gist/gist.service.ts Source code import { Gist } from ‘./gist.model’;import { Injectable } from ‘@angular/core’;import { Http } from ‘@angular/http’;import ‘rxjs/add/operator/map’; @Injectable()export class GistService {constructor(private http: Http) {} // Get all saved gistsgetAllGists(){return this.http.get(‘/api/gist’).map(res => res.json());} // Get a gist by IdgetGistById(gistId){return this.http.get(‘/api/gist/’ + gistId).map(res => res.json());} // register a new gistpostGist(gist: Gist){return this.http.post(‘/api/gist’, gist).map(res => res.json());} // update a gistupdateGist(gist: Gist){return this.http.put(‘/api/gist’, gist).map(res => res.json());} } Register the service in the AppModule // Some imports …import { GistService } from ‘./gist/gist.service’; @NgModule({declarations: […],imports: […],providers: [GistService],bootstrap: [AppComponent]})export class AppModule { } Ui to manage Gist: list, create, show and delete https://github.com/dassiorleando/gistology/blob/master/src/app/gist/show/gist.show.component.html https://github.com/dassiorleando/gistology/blob/master/src/app/gist/edit/gist.edit.component.html https://github.com/dassiorleando/gistology/blob/master/src/app/gist/list/gist.list.component.html UI to CRUD gists Resources https://scotch.io/tutorials/mean-app-with-angular-2-and-the-angular-cli https://scotch.io/tutorials/using-mongoosejs-in-node-js-and-mongodb-applications https://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix_sockets/what_is_socket.htm https://www.infoq.com/articles/Angular2-TypeScript-High-Level-Overview https://v2.angular.io/docs/ts/latest https://material.angular.io/guide/getting-started https://material.io/icons https://github.com/angular/flex-layout/wiki/Responsive-API https://github.com/Stabzs/Angular2-Toaster Thanks for reading this post, recommend and share if you enjoyed it. 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