Using WebSockets with Fastify

Node.js is a popular choice for web backend development due to its simple development environment, rich library ecosystem, asynchronous single-threaded nature, and supportive developer community, with many teams opting for HTTP-based RESTful patterns or WebSockets for real-time communication. This tutorial focuses on enabling real-time communication in Fastify-based RESTful web APIs using the fastify-websocket plugin, which integrates WebSocket protocol features without initiating another HTTP server instance. The Fastify-WebSocket plugin allows developers to handle WebSocket messages within RESTful handlers, subscribe to WebSocket client events, control WebSocket connections via Hooks, and supports TypeScript. The tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on creating a Fastify project, adding WebSocket support to endpoints, and testing them with Postman, as well as building a simple chat application using the fastify-static plugin for frontend serving. It compares Fastify-WebSocket with ws and fastify-ws, highlighting its flexibility and ease of integrating WebSocket endpoints into RESTful services, while also offering organizational tips for managing code complexity in projects utilizing both RESTful and WebSocket protocols.