Ask HN: How does Roam Research “call home”?

1 pointsshibel5y ago4 comments

I’ve been trying to figure out how Roam Research (https://roamresearch.com/) sends data back and forth from and to the server.

The app seems very responsive, and when I add/omit/edit objects, there’s nothing under the Network tab in Chrome’s dev tools.

How is RR doing this? I noticed IndexedDB instances but deleting them didn’t seem to affect anything.

4 comments

m11a5y ago

They're using websockets I believe.

Look in the network tab for .ws (hosted on Firebase). You can inspect the messages using Chrome. It sends updates for every change to a block you make.

shibelOP5y ago

Hmm, nothing in the WS tab of Chrome Dev Tools but you're probably right.

Nextgrid5y ago

A websocket? I'm assuming that once the websocket is open, any future traffic inside wouldn't be logged in the developer tools?

dylz5y ago

Websockets probably. The built JS contains references to both WebSocket and Firebase.

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