In this episode, we're diving into how to customize the data you broadcast to all your clients—in other words, how to control exactly what information gets sent out during broadcast events. We start by looking at the default data that's being broadcast and quickly see that sometimes it's way too much. Then, we introduce the broadcastWith
method in your event classes, which lets you return only the data you actually want to send (think of it as a filter for your broadcast payload).
We play around with broadcasting just a user ID and name, rather than the whole user object. This keeps your client-side code simple and protects any sensitive data you don't want exposed. Plus, it makes the event leaner and quicker to send!
After that, we look at a practical example by building out a basic chat message system. We create a message model, hook it into the broadcast, and ensure we're only pushing the relevant info to the clients—like the message content and the user who sent it, nothing extra. By the end, you’ll see how easy it is to structure your broadcasted data so the frontend gets exactly what it needs, and nothing more.
The big takeaway: Always be intentional with the data you broadcast. Anything you send is visible to connected clients, so keep it tidy and secure!