I am trying to set up a server where clients can connect and essentially "raise their hand", which lights up for every client, but only one at a time. I currently just use the express module to send a POST response on button-click. The server takes it as JSON and writes it to a file. All the clients are constantly requesting this file to check the status to see if the channel is clear.
I suspect there is a more streamlined approach for this, but I do not know what modules or methods might be best. Can the server push variables to the clients in some way, instead of the clients constantly requesting a file? Then the client script can receive the variable and change the page elements accordingly?
Usually, this kind of task is done by using WebSockets. Since you already have socket.io set up, it'd be great to reuse it.
From the server, start emitting different messages:
socket.emit("hand", { userId: <string> });
From the client, listen to the new event and invoke whatever the appropriate behavior is:
socket.on("hand", (payload) => {
// payload.userId contains user ID
});