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The previous two blog posts introduced WebSocket and how to implement a WebSocket application on Ruby on Rails. This blog post digs deeper. It is a memo on creating a more realistic application by Action Cable.

The previous blog post, WebSocket on Rails by Action Cable, focused on WebSocket as a protocol. As in the previous post, by default, Rails app responds to WebSocket connection requests without any hassle. However, other than connecting and sending ping frames, it doesn’t do anything. This blog post focuses on an application side and explains how we can create a full-duplex, bidirectional app.

In the web application domain, we hear some protocol names. Absolutely, HTTP or HTTPS is the most famous protocol that all web developers know. Although there’s a mechanism of Keep-Alive, a single request/response sequence with a single client/server is all done by HTTP. The client initiates the HTTP request to the server. Once the client receives the HTTP response from the server, communication finishes. As far as HTTP is used, the server just waits and waits. Only when the request comes in, the server can send back some data to the client. This communication style is surprisingly capable of doing many things, so most web applications are satisfied with HTTP.

“When you type a URL in your browser, what will happen?” If you are a web developer, you might have answered this sort of interview question once or twice. It would be a popular question to test the knowledge how the Internet works. As it is famous, you will find many answers here and there online.

When a Ruby on Rails application is created by rails new command, we typically see bcrypt gem in Gemfile.