Implementing a Dynamic Notification System in Rails with Stimulus and ActionCable
I'm dealing with I'm trying to figure out I'm upgrading from an older version and I've hit a wall trying to I'm working through a tutorial and I'm working on a personal project and Currently developing a Rails application that requires real-time notifications for user actions......... The goal is to use ActionCable for handling WebSocket connections and Stimulus for the frontend interaction. Having set up ActionCable in my Rails 7.1 backend, I managed to create a basic channel and can broadcast messages without issues. Here's how I established the channel: ```ruby # app/channels/notification_channel.rb class NotificationChannel < ApplicationCable::Channel def subscribed stream_from 'notifications' end def unsubscribed # Any cleanup needed when channel is unsubscribed end end ``` On the client side, I'm using Stimulus to listen for these notifications and update the UI accordingly. However, integrating these components hasn’t been seamless. I’ve set up a Stimulus controller like this: ```javascript // app/javascript/controllers/notification_controller.js import { Controller } from "@hotwired/stimulus"; export default class extends Controller { connect() { this.subscription = App.cable.subscriptions.create("NotificationChannel", { received: (data) => this.handleNotification(data), }); } handleNotification(data) { console.log('Received:', data); // Logic to update the UI } disconnect() { this.subscription.unsubscribe(); } } ``` The notifications are expected to appear in a dropdown menu but so far, the received data isn't updating the DOM as intended. I've tried adding console logs, and it appears that the `handleNotification` method is being invoked, but the DOM update isn't reflecting changes. I've also explored different options to trigger UI updates, including using `Stimulus`'s `dispatch` method to emit events. Despite my attempts, I haven’t managed to get the UI to respond. Here’s an example I tried: ```javascript handleNotification(data) { const event = new CustomEvent('notification:update', { detail: data }); document.dispatchEvent(event); } ``` I would appreciate insights into how to properly connect the ActionCable notifications with the Stimulus controller so that the UI reflects real-time updates. Any tips on refining this approach or potential pitfalls I might be overlooking would be invaluable. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. I appreciate any insights! What's the correct way to implement this? Thanks, I really appreciate it! I'm using Ruby LTS in this project. This is happening in both development and production on Windows 10. Is there a better approach?