Realtime API

Learn to use the Realtime API for live data updates via WebSocket connections. This enables real-time notifications when items are created, updated, or deleted in your collections.

Table of Contents

• Authentication - WebSocket authentication modes (public, handshake, strict)
• Subscriptions - Subscribe to collection changes via WebSocket or GraphQL
• Actions - Execute CRUD operations over WebSocket
• Custom WebSocket Handlers - Server-side hook extensions for WebSocket events

Quick Start

1. Enable WebSockets

Ensure WebSockets are enabled in your Likha ERP instance by setting WEBSOCKETS_ENABLED=true in your environment configuration.

2. Choose an Authentication Mode

Connect to the WebSocket server using one of three authentication modes:

• Public - No authentication required (limited to public role)
• Handshake - Send authentication as first message (default)
• Strict - Include access token as URL parameter

See Authentication for detailed examples.

3. Subscribe to a Collection

Once connected and authenticated, subscribe to changes in a collection:

{
	"type": "subscribe",
	"collection": "messages"
}

You'll now receive real-time notifications whenever items in the messages collection are created, updated, or deleted.

4. Perform CRUD Actions (Optional)

You can also perform CRUD operations over the WebSocket connection. See Actions for complete documentation.

Heartbeat

To keep your connection alive, you may receive periodic ping messages. Respond with pong to prevent the connection from closing:

connection.addEventListener('message', (message) => {
	const data = JSON.parse(message.data);

	if (data.type === 'ping') {
		connection.send(JSON.stringify({ type: 'pong' }));
	}
});