Should I create another related phoenix channel?

Phoenix Forum Questions / Help
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I’m making a project where users can talk in a chat application and I’m trying to understand Phoenix Channels.

As of now, the only real-time feature planned is the chat. But I may consider having a notification system (if someone mentions you, or sends you a direct message for example)

Are there advantages or disadvantages in having a single channel for several of your real-time features? Would it be better to create another phoenix channel for notifications and have the first channel communicate to the second one?

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There is no real limitation on how many channels You might use…

At least, I use one for notification, one per user (private channel) one for lobby etc.

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Thank you that makes sense as channels are processes and processes are cheap in the beam

So each channel has like a different concern in your system

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Unless you go through some work proxies or so that can limit it to 1 websocket connection per server (hence why my server is built to put everything over just one).

Plus it uses fewer server resources (not much, but still).

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I thought there was only one socket connection, over which channels are multiplexed ?! :slight_smile:

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Oh, I misread!

I was thinking multiple sockets. ^.^

But yeah, channels are super cheap regardless, can have many many of them over a single socket. ^.^

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Yea, this is generally a good idea. It should lead to smaller Channels that could be composed more easily.

I recommend looking at a new Socket when your authentication needs change. For instance, a user portal has different authentication needs than an admin portal. I would have a Socket for the admins and then one for the users. If I had a feed:user_id topic, I would probably put that in the same Socket, different Channel, as the notifications:user_id topic.

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