cpp-httplib/docs-src/pages/en/cookbook/e02-sse-event-names.md

---

title: "E02. Use Named Events in SSE" order: 48

status: "draft"

SSE lets you send multiple kinds of events over the same stream. Give each one a name with the event: field, and the client can dispatch to a different handler per type. Great for things like "new message", "user joined", "user left" in a chat app.

Send events with names

auto send_event = [](httplib::DataSink &sink,
                     const std::string &event,
                     const std::string &data) {
  std::string msg = "event: " + event + "\n"
                  + "data: " + data + "\n\n";
  sink.write(msg.data(), msg.size());
};

svr.Get("/chat/stream", [&](const httplib::Request &req, httplib::Response &res) {
  res.set_chunked_content_provider(
    "text/event-stream",
    [&, send_event](size_t offset, httplib::DataSink &sink) {
      send_event(sink, "message", "Hello!");
      std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(2));
      send_event(sink, "join", "alice");
      std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(2));
      send_event(sink, "leave", "bob");
      std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(2));
      return true;
    });
});

A message is event: → data: → blank line. If you omit event:, the client treats it as a default "message" event.

Attach IDs for reconnect

When you include an id: field, the client automatically sends it back as Last-Event-ID on reconnect, telling the server "here's how far I got."

auto send_event = [](httplib::DataSink &sink,
                     const std::string &event,
                     const std::string &data,
                     const std::string &id) {
  std::string msg = "id: " + id + "\n"
                  + "event: " + event + "\n"
                  + "data: " + data + "\n\n";
  sink.write(msg.data(), msg.size());
};

send_event(sink, "message", "Hello!", "42");

The ID format is up to you. Monotonic counters or UUIDs both work — just pick something unique and orderable on the server side. See E03. Handle SSE reconnection for details.

JSON payloads in data

For structured data, the usual move is to put JSON in data:.

nlohmann::json payload = {
  {"user", "alice"},
  {"text", "Hello!"},
};
send_event(sink, "message", payload.dump(), "42");

On the client, parse the incoming data as JSON to get the original object back.

Data with newlines

If the data value contains newlines, split it across multiple data: lines.

std::string msg = "data: line1\n"
                  "data: line2\n"
                  "data: line3\n\n";
sink.write(msg.data(), msg.size());

On the client side, these come back as a single data string with newlines.

Note: Using event: makes client-side dispatch cleaner, but it also helps in the browser DevTools — events are easier to filter by type. That matters more than you'd expect while debugging.