Introduction to WebSockets and Socket.IO using Golang

WebSockets provide a persistent connection between a client and server, allowing for real-time data exchange. Socket.IO, while not directly related to the WebSocket protocol, is a library that enables real-time, bidirectional, and event-based communication between web clients and servers. It uses WebSockets as a transport when possible.

Setting Up the Environment

For this, I expect you already have a basic knowldege on how go works and how it is installed.

Install Socket.IO for Go: Socket.IO doesn’t have an official Go server, but you can use a third-party library like go-socket.io. Install it using Go modules:

go get github.com/googollee/go-socket.io

Creating the WebSocket Server

1. Import packages: Begin by importing necessary packages:

package main

import (
    "log"
    "net/http"
    "github.com/googollee/go-socket.io"
)

2. Set up the server: Initialize a Socket.IO server and define event handlers:

First initialize the Socket.IO server, with the code below:

func main() {
  server, err := socketio.NewServer(nil)
  if err != nil {
      log.Fatal(err)
  }
}