WebSocket.IO

WebSocket.IO is an abstraction of the websocket server previously used by Socket.IO. It has the broadest support for websocket protocol/specifications and an API that allows for interoperability with higher-level frameworks such as Engine, Socket.IO's realtime core.

Features

• Fast
• Minimalistic
  • Offers an integration API for higher-level impls to handle authorization, routing, etc
• Widest support of protocols
  • Draft-75
  • Draft-76
  • Draft-00
  • Protocol version 7
  • Protocol version 8
  • Protocol version 13
• Written for Node 0.6

How to use

Standalone

Listening on a port

var ws = require('websocket.io')
  , server = ws.listen(3000)

server.on('connection', function (client) {
  client.on('message', function () { });
  client.on('close', function () { });
});

Intercepting WebSocket requests for a http.Server

var ws = require('websocket.io')
  , http = require('http').createServer().listen(3000)
  , server = ws.attach(http)

server.on('connection', function (client) {
  client.on('message', function () { });
  client.on('close', function () { });
});

Passing in requests

var ws = require('websocket.io')
  , server = new ws.Server()

// … somewhere in your http server code
server.on('upgrade', function (req, socket, head) {
  server.handleUpgrade(req, socket, head);
});

Client-side example

var ws = new WebSocket("ws://host:port/");        

socket.onopen = function() {
 //do something when connection estabilished
};

socket.onmessage = function(message) {
 //do something when message arrives
};

socket.onclose = function() {
 //do something when connection close
};

API

Top-level

These are exposed by require('websocket.io')

Properties

• version (String): protocol revision number
• Server (Function): server constructor
• Socket (Function): client constructor
• Logger (Function): logger constructor
• protocols (Object): hash of different Socket constructors for each protocol
  • drafts (Function): client for drafts 75/76/00
  • 7 (Function): client for protocol 7
  • 8 (Function): client for protocol 8
  • 13 (Function): client for protocol 13

Methods

• listen
  • Creates an http.Server which listens on the given port and attaches WS to it. It returns 501 Not Implemented for regular http requests.
  • Parameters
    • Number: port to listen on.
    • Function: callback for listen. The options object can be supplied as second parameter as well.
    • Object: optional, options object. See Server constructor API for options.
  • Returns Server
• attach
  • Captures upgrade requests for a http.Server. In other words, makes a regular http.Server websocket-compatible.
  • Parameters
    • http.Server: server to attach to.
    • Object: optional, options object. See Server constructor API for options.
  • Returns Server

Server

Events

• connection
  • Fired when a new connection is established.
  • Arguments
    • Socket: a Socket object

Methods

• constructor
  • Initializes the server
  • Parameters
    • Object: optional, options object
  • Options
    • logger (Object/Boolean): logger object. If you want to customize the logger options, please supply a new Logger object (see API below). If you want to enable it, set this option to true.
• handleUpgrade
  • Handles an incoming request that triggered an upgrade event
  • Parameters
    • http.Request: http request
    • http.Stream: request socket
    • Buffer: stream head
  • Returns Server

Socket

Events

• message
  • Fired when data is received.
  • Arguments
    • String: data
• close
  • Fired when the connection is closed.

Properties

• open
  • Whether the socket is open for writing

Methods

• send
  • Sends data to the socket.
  • Parameters
    • String: data to send
  • Returns Socket
• close
  • Closes the socket.
  • Returns Socket
• destroy
  • Forcibly closes the socket.
  • Returns Socket

Logger

Methods

• constructor
  • Initializes the logger
  • Parameters
    • Object: optional, options object
  • Options
    • enabled (Boolean): whether to output to the console (false).
    • log level (Number): log level (3).
    • colors (Boolean): whether to output colors (true).

Methods

• log
• debug
• warn
• info

Support

The support channels for websocket.io are the same as socket.io:

• irc.freenode.net #socket.io
• Google Groups
• Website

Development

To contribute patches, run tests or benchmarks, make sure to clone the repository:

git clone git://github.com/LearnBoost/websocket.io.git

Then:

cd websocket.io
npm install

Tests

$ make test

Benchmarks

$ make bench

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011 Guillermo Rauch <guillermo@learnboost.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.