PHP Websockets Live Chat – Free Code Download!

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create a PHP live chat application with WebSockets. Looking to add live chat features to your website or portal?

But just how exactly is it done? Let us walk through an example in this guide – Read on!

ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Download & Notes	Chat Server	Chat Client
Useful Bits & Links	The End

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download the source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

QUICK SETUP

For you guys who just want to use this as a “plugin”:

1. A copy of PHP Ratchet is required, but not included in the zip file. You can download it from GitHub, or use Composer to pull the latest version – composer require cboden/ratchet.
2. The default is to run the chat server on port 8080, change section D of chat-server.php if you want to specify another port.
3. Change the host and port in section B of chat-client.js to your own.
4. Run chat-server.php in the command line.
5. Access chat-client.html in the web browser.
6. Make sure that the address is correct, and the port is not blocked.

 

QUICK NOTES

If you spot a bug, please feel free to comment below. I try to answer questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.

 

 

 

PHP WEBSOCKET LIVE CHAT CLASS

<?php
// (A) COMMAND LINE ONLY!
if (php_sapi_name() != "cli") { die("Please run this in the command line"); }

// (B) REQUIRE RATCHET
require "vendor/autoload.php";
use Ratchet\MessageComponentInterface;
use Ratchet\ConnectionInterface;
use Ratchet\Server\IoServer;
use Ratchet\Http\HttpServer;
use Ratchet\WebSocket\WsServer;

// (C) CHAT CLASS
class Chat implements MessageComponentInterface {
  // (C1) PROPERTIES
  private $debug = true; // Debug mode
  protected $clients; // Connected clients
  
  // (C2) CONSTRUCTOR - INIT LIST OF CLIENTS
  public function __construct () {
    $this->clients = new \SplObjectStorage;
    if ($this->debug) { echo "Chat server started.\r\n"; }
  }

  // (C3) ON CLIENT CONNECT - STORE INTO $THIS->CLIENTS
  public function onOpen (ConnectionInterface $conn) {
    $this->clients->attach($conn);
    if ($this->debug) { echo "Client connected: {$conn->resourceId}\r\n";  }
  }

  // (C4) ON CLIENT DISCONNECT - REMOVE FROM $THIS->CLIENTS
  public function onClose (ConnectionInterface $conn) {
    $this->clients->detach($conn);
    if ($this->debug) { echo "Client disconnected: {$conn->resourceId}\r\n";  }
  }

  // (C5) ON ERROR
  public function onError (ConnectionInterface $conn, \Exception $e) {
    $conn->close();
    if ($this->debug) { echo "Client error: {$conn->resourceId} | {$e->getMessage()}\r\n";  } 
  }

  // (C6) ON RECEIVING MESSAGE FROM CLIENT - SEND TO EVERYONE
  public function onMessage (ConnectionInterface $from, $msg) {
    if ($this->debug) { echo "Received message from {$from->resourceId}: {$msg}\r\n"; }
    foreach ($this->clients as $client) { $client->send($msg); }
  }
}

// (D) WEBSOCKET SERVER START!
$server = IoServer::factory(new HttpServer(new WsServer(new Chat())), 8080); // @CHANGE if not port 8080
$server->run();

Not going to explain this library line-by-line, but in essence:

1. Just a “safety check” to make sure the script is run from the command line.
2. Load and use the Ratchet library.
3. The mechanics of the chat application, basically:
   • We store all clients into $this->clients when they connect to the WebSocket server.
   • Captain Obvious, remove the clients from $this->clients when they disconnect.
   • On receiving a message from any client, we loop through $this->clients and forward the message to everyone.
4. Start running the server.

Yep. That’s all for the “complicated chat server”.

 

 

 

HTML CHAT PAGE

<div id="chat-wrap">
  <!-- (A) CHAT MESSAGES -->
  <div id="chat-messages"></div>
 
  <!-- (B) SET NAME -->
  <form id="chat-name" onsubmit="return chat.start()">
    <input type="text" id="chat-name-set" placeholder="What is your name?" value="John Doe" required/>
    <input type="submit" id="chat-name-go" value="Start"/>
  </form>
 
  <!-- (C) SEND MESSAGE -->
  <form id="chat-send" onsubmit="return chat.send()">
    <input type="text" id="chat-send-text" placeholder="Enter message" required/>
    <input type="submit" id="chat-send-go" value="Send"/>
  </form>
</div>

This should be straightforward, there are 3 parts to the HTML chat interface:

1. <div id="chat-messages"> is where we show all the chat messages.
2. <form id="chat-name"> is where we ask the user for a name before launching the chat.
3. Lastly, <form id="chat-send"> is the “send a message” box. This is hidden at first, will only show after the user enters a name and successfully connects to the WebSocket server.

 

 

LIVE CHAT JAVASCRIPT

var chat = {
  // (A) HELPER FUNCTION - SWAP BETWEEN SET NAME/SEND MESSAGE
  swapform : function (direction) {
    // (A1) SHOW SEND MESSAGE FORM
    if (direction) {
      document.getElementById("chat-name").style.display = "none";
      document.getElementById("chat-send").style.display = "grid";
    }

    // (A2) SHOW SET NAME FORM
    else {
      document.getElementById("chat-send").style.display = "none";
      document.getElementById("chat-name").style.display = "grid";
      document.getElementById("chat-name-go").disabled = false;
    }
  },

  // (B) START CHAT
  host : "ws://192.168.0.100:8080/", // @CHANGE to your own!
  name : "", // Current user name
  socket : null, // Websocket object
  htmltxt : null, // HTML send text field
  start : function () {
    // (B1) CREATE WEB SOCKET
    document.getElementById("chat-name-go").disabled = true;
    if (chat.htmltxt==null) { chat.htmltxt = document.getElementById("chat-send-text"); }
    chat.socket = new WebSocket(chat.host);

    // (B2) READY - CONNECTED TO SERVER
    chat.socket.onopen = function (e) {
      chat.name = document.getElementById("chat-name-set").value;
      chat.swapform(1);
    };

    // (B3) ON CONNECTION CLOSE
    chat.socket.onclose = function (e) {
      chat.swapform(0);
    };

    // (B4) ON RECEIVING DATA FROM SEREVER - UPDATE CHAT MESsAGES
    chat.socket.onmessage = function (e) {
      let msg = JSON.parse(e.data),
          row = document.createElement("div");
      row.innerHTML = `<div class="ch-name">${msg.n}</div><div class="ch-msg">${msg.m}</div>`;
      row.className = "ch-row";
      document.getElementById("chat-messages").appendChild(row);
    };
 
    // (B5) ON ERROR
    chat.socket.onerror = function (e) {
      chat.swapform(0);
      console.log(e);
      alert(`Failed to connect to ${chat.host}`);
    };
 
    return false;
  },

  // (C) SEND MESSAGE
  send : function () {
    let message = JSON.stringify({
      n: chat.name,
      m: chat.htmltxt.value
    });
    chat.htmltxt.value = "";
    chat.socket.send(message);
    return false;
  }
};

This is yet another “massive script”, but keep calm and look carefully – The var chat object literally contains all the mechanics to run the live chat.

1. Remember that the “send message” docket will show after the user enters a name? swapform() is the helper function that does the switcheroo thing.
2. A whole bunch of stuff that happens after the user enters the name and clicks on “start”. Long story short, start() creates a WebSocket object, connects to the server, and handles the HTML chat update on receiving messages from the server.
3. Self-explanatory, send() will send a chat message to the server.

 

 

COSMETIC CSS

/* (A) WRAPPER + SHARED */
#chat-wrap {
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
  max-width: 600px;
}
#chat-messages, #chat-name, #chat-send { padding: 10px; }

/* (B) CHAT MESSAGES */
#chat-messages {
  height: 300px;
  overflow: auto;
}
.ch-row {
  display: flex;
  margin-bottom: 5px;
}
.ch-name, .ch-msg { padding: 10px; }
.ch-name {
  width: 150px;
  background: #d63737;
  color: #fff;
  font-weight: bold;
}
.ch-msg {
  width: 100%;
  background: #ffe9e9;
}

/* (C) NAME + SEND MESSAGE */
#chat-wrap input {
  padding: 10px;
  border: 0;
}
#chat-wrap input[type=submit] {
  background: #5c63c1;
  color: #fff;
  cursor: pointer;
}
#chat-wrap input[type=submit]:disabled { background: #b9b9b9; }
#chat-name { display: grid; }
#chat-send { display: none; }
#chat-name, #chat-send {
  grid-template-columns: 80% 20%;
  background: #e2e2e2;
}

Just some cosmetics to make things look better. Feel free to change to fit the theme of your own project.

 

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

If you want to learn more about sockets, here are the official links:

• Sockets – PHP
• WebSocket API – MDN
• Ratchet Documentation