Essentially, I'm trying to work out the best way to ensure that a user is connected to the server / the internet and is thus able to make requests in my application without error.
I have come across various solutions, but I can;t really decide what is the best performing or useful.
Websockets, using Socket.io to keep an open connection with the server for each client. Also opens up the possibility for real time updates in my app, which could be a nice thing in the future. However, having lots of open sockets is sure to be hard hitting in performance.
Polling, so having an endpoint in my API that the angular app hits every 5 seconds or so to check the user is connected. Again, seems like it isn't a good idea to be hitting the server a load.
Waiting for an error, then start polling every couple of seconds to wait for the connection to be re-established. This is a little change on the above. However, you are still waiting for a user to fail, which isn't good for user experience.
Does anybody have any informed input on this issue?
Thanks