NoSocket

Realtime for Shared Hosting.

فارسی | English

NoSocket is a framework-agnostic event delivery layer for PHP applications that need near-realtime updates on ordinary shared hosting. It uses short HTTP requests, an indexed event log, adaptive polling, and cross-tab coordination. It does not require WebSockets, SSE workers, Redis, brokers, Node.js, daemons, or persistent processes.

Why NoSocket?

Shared hosting is a practical home for many PHP applications, but it usually has strict operational boundaries. Applications may be unable to open WebSocket ports, run background workers continuously, install Redis, manage a message broker, keep SSE responses open, or supervise Node.js processes and daemons. Those constraints make many common realtime stacks unavailable or unnecessarily difficult to operate.

Basic polling works almost everywhere, but polling from every open browser tab creates avoidable traffic. NoSocket exists for the space between those options: it provides a small event API and responsive UI updates while remaining compatible with standard PHP request lifecycles.

NoSocket is designed for applications where a delay of a few seconds is acceptable and predictable server load matters more than sub-second delivery.

Key Features

• Short-lived event log stored in MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or SQLite
• Independent revision cursor for each subscribed channel
• Adaptive polling: normal, recently active, and short burst intervals
• Single-tab leader election with Web Locks and a local-storage lease fallback
• Cross-tab event fan-out with BroadcastChannel and storage-event fallback
• Signed, scoped channel grants with refresh support
• Retained replay, offline recovery, and explicit retention-gap resync
• Database-backed rate limiting, shared cooldowns, jitter, and smart backoff
• Batched emits, opt-in probabilistic cleanup, diagnostics, and metrics hooks
• Vanilla PHP core with Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter 4, and WordPress adapters

How It Works

1. Your PHP application emits a small event after an authoritative write.
2. NoSocket appends that event to an indexed database table with a configurable TTL.
3. The browser leader tab sends a short POST /nosocket/poll request with its latest cursor for each channel.
4. The server returns only newer retained events.
5. The leader tab dispatches events locally and forwards them to follower tabs.
6. If required events have expired, NoSocket emits nosocket.resync_required so the application can refresh its snapshot.

flowchart LR
    A[PHP Application] -->|emit| B[(Event Log)]
    B --> C[POST /nosocket/poll]
    C --> D[Leader Browser Tab]
    D -->|BroadcastChannel| E[Other Browser Tabs]
    D -. storage-event fallback .-> E

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When several tabs share the same origin and namespace, only the elected leader polls the server. Other tabs consume the same updates without creating additional poll traffic.

Default cadence:

State	Poll interval
Normal	30 seconds
Recently active user	10 seconds
Events arriving	2 seconds for 30 seconds
HTTP 403	wait at least 60 seconds
HTTP 429	wait at least 120 seconds
HTTP 504	wait at least 300 seconds

Repeated failures use exponential backoff capped at five minutes.

Quick API Example

Emit an event from PHP:

$nosocket->emit('orders', 'order.created', ['id' => 123]);

$nosocket->emitBatch([
    ['channel' => 'orders', 'event' => 'order.updated', 'payload' => ['id' => 123]],
    ['channel' => 'dashboard', 'event' => 'metrics.updated', 'payload' => ['online' => 7]],
]);

Subscribe in the browser:

import { createNoSocket } from "/assets/js/nosocket.js";

const NoSocket = createNoSocket({
  endpoint: "/nosocket/poll",
  namespace: `shop:user-${currentUser.id}`,
  tokenProvider: ({ channels }) => fetchToken(channels),
  onResync: ({ channel }) => refreshSnapshot(channel),
});

NoSocket.subscribe("orders");
NoSocket.on("order.created", (order) => console.log(order.id));
NoSocket.start();

For the complete browser and PHP APIs, see the API reference.

Use Cases

• Shared hosting and cPanel applications
• Admin dashboards and operational screens
• Notifications and order updates
• Multi-user business systems
• Laravel applications deployed without persistent workers
• Legacy PHP applications that need incremental realtime behavior

NoSocket is intended for UI synchronization. Authoritative writes still go through your application's normal validated routes.

Packages

Package	Purpose
nosocket/nosocket	Vanilla PHP core
@nosocket/client	Browser SDK
nosocket/laravel	Laravel provider, facade, route, migration
nosocket/symfony	Symfony controller and service wiring
nosocket/codeigniter4	CodeIgniter 4 services and controller
packages/wordpress/nosocket	WordPress plugin

Install

composer require nosocket/nosocket
mysql -u app -p app_db < database/mysql/schema.sql

Set NOSOCKET_DSN, NOSOCKET_DB_USER, NOSOCKET_DB_PASSWORD, and a random NOSOCKET_SECRET of at least 32 characters. Point a route at public/poll.php, issue scoped subscription tokens after your application authorizes channels, and load assets/js/nosocket.js.

See Installation, Architecture, API, Laravel, WordPress, Observability, and the 0.2 upgrade guide.

Comparison

Approach	Operational model	Shared-hosting fit	Typical latency	Best suited for
NoSocket	Short PHP requests, database event log, one polling tab	Good	2-30 seconds by state	Dashboards, orders, notifications, appointments
WebSockets	Persistent connections and a compatible server process	Often unavailable	Very low	Chat, collaboration, high-frequency updates
SSE workers	Long-lived HTTP responses and available worker capacity	Often limited	Low	One-way streams on controlled infrastructure
Redis-based realtime stacks	Redis plus workers, queues, or broadcast processes	Usually unavailable	Low	Applications with managed infrastructure

NoSocket is not a replacement for WebSockets when very low latency is required. It is an operational alternative for environments where persistent infrastructure is unavailable or unjustified.

For managed third-party services and naive polling, see the broader comparison guide.

Project Philosophy

• Simplicity: use a small event API and a dependency-light PHP core.
• Standard HTTP: keep requests short and compatible with ordinary PHP hosting.
• Framework-agnostic design: provide a reusable core and keep framework adapters thin.
• Shared-hosting compatibility: avoid infrastructure that many low-cost hosting plans cannot run.

Guarantees And Boundaries

• NoSocket uses short HTTP requests only. It is not a low-latency replacement for WebSockets.
• Under normal browser conditions, tabs sharing an origin and namespace elect one polling leader.
• If browser storage is disabled, cross-tab election cannot be guaranteed and tabs may each poll.
• Replay covers retained events. Retention gaps trigger nosocket.resync_required.
• Bearer subscription grants must be delivered over HTTPS and kept short-lived.

Verify

composer test
npm ci
npm test
npm run test:e2e
php benchmarks/run.php

The CI workflow verifies PHP, SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, adapter fixtures, JavaScript unit tests, and Playwright multi-tab behavior.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.