Great! Now that the PORT environment variable has been added to your Vercel project, your WebSocket server will be able to use that port value when deployed.

Let's make a small update to the server code to ensure it properly uses the PORT environment variable:

Next Steps for Your WebSocket Demo

Now that your environment variable is set up, here are some important considerations for deploying your WebSocket application:

1. WebSocket Connection URL: When deploying to Vercel, you'll need to update the WebSocket connection URL in your frontend code to use your deployed server URL instead of localhost:8080.
2. Secure WebSockets: For production, you should use secure WebSockets (wss:// instead of ws://).
3. Scaling Considerations: WebSockets maintain persistent connections, so you may need to consider scaling solutions for handling many concurrent users.

4. Deployment Options:

   • The frontend can be deployed directly to Vercel
   • For the WebSocket server, you might want to consider a platform that supports long-running processes like Heroku, Railway, or a cloud provider like AWS or GCP

Would you like me to make any additional changes to the code to prepare it for deployment, such as updating the WebSocket connection URL to use an environment variable instead of hardcoding it?

I'll update the frontend to use environment variables for the WebSocket URL. This will make your application more flexible across different environments.

Using Environment Variables for WebSocket URL

I've updated your frontend code to use environment variables for the WebSocket URL, making your application more flexible across different environments. Here's what changed:

Key Changes

1. Dynamic WebSocket URL Generation:

   • Added a getWebSocketUrl() function that:

     • Detects if the connection should use secure WebSockets (wss://) based on the current protocol
     • Uses the NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBSOCKET_URL environment variable if available
     • Falls back to localhost:8080 for development if no environment variable is set

2. Environment Variable Documentation:

   • Created a .env.local.example file to document the required environment variables
   • Updated the README with instructions for setting up environment variables

How to Set Up Environment Variables

1. For Local Development:

   • Create a .env.local file in your project root with:

     NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBSOCKET_URL=localhost:8080

2. For Production:

   • In your Vercel project settings, add an environment variable:

     NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBSOCKET_URL=your-websocket-server.com
   • Note: Don't include the protocol (ws:// or wss://) as the code determines this automatically

3. For Different Environments:

   • You can set different values for development, preview, and production environments in Vercel

Benefits of This Approach

• Environment Flexibility: Your application can now easily connect to different WebSocket servers based on the environment
• Protocol Awareness: Automatically uses secure WebSockets when your frontend is served over HTTPS
• Simplified Deployment: No need to modify code when moving between environments

Please make sure to add the following environment variable to your project: