Building a Real-time Dashboard with React and WebSockets
Published: March 20, 2025
Author: Jane Developer
Tags: #react #websockets #javascript #realtime #dashboard
Introduction
In today's fast-paced digital environment, users expect real-time updates and interactive experiences. This blog post explores how to build a responsive dashboard that updates in real-time using React for the frontend and WebSockets for bidirectional communication. We'll cover everything from setting up the project to implementing key features and optimizing performance.
Project Setup
Let's start by setting up our React application using Create React App and adding the necessary dependencies:
bashCopy# Create a new React application
npx create-react-app realtime-dashboard

Navigate to the project directory

cd realtime-dashboard

Install required dependencies

npm install socket.io-client recharts tailwindcss @heroicons/react
WebSocket Connection
The first step is establishing a WebSocket connection to our backend server. We'll use Socket.IO for this purpose:

javascriptCopy// src/services/socketService.js
import { io } from 'socket.io-client';

let socket;

export const initSocket = () => {
  socket = io('http://localhost:5000', {
    transports: ['websocket'],
    reconnection: true,
    reconnectionAttempts: 5,
    reconnectionDelay: 1000,
  });

  socket.on('connect', () => {
    console.log('Connected to WebSocket server');
  });

  socket.on('connect_error', (error) => {
    console.error('Connection error:', error);
  });

  return socket;
};

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Navigate to the project directory

cd realtime-dashboard

Install required dependencies

javascriptCopy// src/services/socketService.js
import { io } from 'socket.io-client';

let socket;

export const initSocket = () => {
  socket = io('http://localhost:5000', {
    transports: ['websocket'],
    reconnection: true,
    reconnectionAttempts: 5,
    reconnectionDelay: 1000,
  });

  socket.on('connect', () => {
    console.log('Connected to WebSocket server');
  });

  socket.on('connect_error', (error) => {
    console.error('Connection error:', error);
  });

  return socket;
};

Testing...

Navigate to the project directory

Install required dependencies

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Navigate to the project directory

Install required dependencies

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