Keeping live data reliable for users

The mistake I see most often: every screen opens its own socket, parses raw messages, and silently reconnects in a slightly different way. It works until it doesn’t.

I try to keep sockets and polling behind a small service layer. Components subscribe to something typed and domain-shaped: “reservation updated,” not {"t":"evt","p":...}.

Networks drop. Show it. Retry with backoff. Do not pretend the user is always online, especially on flaky office Wi‑Fi.

If you can, write a couple of tests around the message shapes you depend on. Backend will change. You’ll thank yourself when the contract breaks in CI instead of on a customer demo.