action_cable

Package Overview

Package selection guidance compiled from public package information, community data, and project usage.

ActionCable is a Dart client implementation of Rails' ActionCable, enabling real-time bidirectional communication over WebSocket in Flutter and Dart applications. It supports web, DartVM, and mobile platforms including Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and Linux. The package allows seamless integration with ActionCable servers for features like live updates, chat systems, and notifications. It provides a clean API to subscribe to channels, receive messages, and manage connections with built-in reconnection logic. Ideal for apps requiring real-time data synchronization.

Use cases

Real-time chat applications
Live dashboard updates
Notification systems
Collaborative editing tools
Streaming data feeds

Key features

WebSocket-based real-time communication
Cross-platform support (web, mobile, desktop)
Channel subscription management
Automatic reconnection
Simple event-driven API

Suitable for

Flutter apps needing real-time features
Dart projects using Rails backend
Developers building live interactive UIs
Apps requiring low-latency updates
Teams using ActionCable on the server side

Considerations

Requires a compatible ActionCable server
Network reliability affects performance
Limited documentation compared to mature alternatives
Manual handling of message parsing needed
Not suitable for high-frequency, low-latency scenarios without tuning

Original README

Original README snapshot from the linked source repository. Visit the repository for the latest content.

Pub

ActionCable in Dart

ActionCable is the default realtime websocket framework and protocol in Rails.

This is a dart port of the client and protocol implementation which is available in web, dartVM and flutter.

Usage

Connecting to a channel 🙌

cable = ActionCable.connect(
  "ws://10.0.2.2:3000/cable",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Some Token",
  },
  onConnected: (){
    print("connected");
  },
  onConnectionLost: () {
    print("connection lost");
  },
  onCannotConnect: () {
    print("cannot connect");
});

Subscribing to channel 🎉

cable.subscribe(
  "Chat", // either "Chat" and "ChatChannel" is fine
  channelParams: { "room": "private" },
  onSubscribed: (){}, // `confirm_subscription` received
  onDisconnected: (){}, // `disconnect` received
  onMessage: (Map message) {} // any other message received
);

Unsubscribing from a channel 🎃

cable.unsubscribe(
  "Chat", // either "Chat" and "ChatChannel" is fine
  {"room": "private"}
);

Perform an action on your ActionCable server 🎇

Requires that you have a method defined in your Rails Action Cable channel whose name matches the action property passed in.

cable.performAction(
  "Chat",
  action: "send_message",
  channelParams: { "room": "private" },
  actionParams: { "message": "Hello private peeps! 😜" }
);