Fresh Remote Ruby episode on Solid Cable (Action Cable powered by SQLite instead of Redis) with @excid3.com @andrewm.codes and @pezza.co is 🔥! Got thoughts to share, but first - give it a listen: www.remoteruby.com/2260490/epis... - ThreadSky

inazarova.bsky.social • 93 days ago

Fresh Remote Ruby episode on Solid Cable (Action Cable powered by SQLite instead of Redis) with @excid3.com @andrewm.codes and @pezza.co is 🔥! Got thoughts to share, but first - give it a listen: https://www.remoteruby.com/2260490/episodes/15976066-solid-cable-with-nick-pezza

Comments

inazarova.bsky.social•93 days ago

Props to Nick - Solid Cable is exactly what the Rails ecosystem needed. Simpler deploys, one less dependency, SQLite reliability. As someone who's always talking about WebSockets with Rails teams, and building AnyCable, I have thoughts!

inazarova.bsky.social•93 days ago

One critical aspect of WebSockets and Action Cable that wasn't mentioned is delivery guarantees. Or rather, the lack of them. When your connection flickers, messages just... won't make it. Here's a real example of Basecamp missing live comments: https://youtu.be/TgpSs2ffJL0?si=NKqiU-Wkvz4Ch2jp&t=1072

inazarova.bsky.social•93 days ago

This becomes really apparent when real-time isn't just a nice-to-have feature. In AnyCable we had to extend the protocol and tackle this by:
– Requesting message history on reconnect
– Adding unique message IDs

inazarova.bsky.social•93 days ago

Connection avalanches are real – as @andrewm.codes noted! AnyCable has a really smart way of solving it–by resuming WS sessions without hitting Rails at all: no re-auth, no re-connection. Our previous approach was 'slow drain' - more here: https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/connection-avalanche-safety-tips

inazarova.bsky.social•93 days ago

Finally, here's my favorite way to explain the problem of WebSocket scaling.
It's like using your phone line for dial-up internet 📞
– Phone calls = HTTP (quick)
– Dial-up Internet = WebSockets (long-lived)
Nobody can call you while you're online via dial-up. Same with WS - they hog your app's RAM.

inazarova.bsky.social•93 days ago

That's why you want a dedicated 'line' for WebSockets–like AnyCable Go server. It keeps the memory-hungry WS connection handling away from your Rails app. Your HTTP requests stay snappy, and you can restart the app without causing an avalanche 🏔️ AND you get real-time delivery guarantees 😎

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply