Server and client side Websockets protocol in Julia. WebSockets is a small overhead message protocol layered over TCP. It uses HTTP(S) for establishing the connections.
In the package manager, add WebSockets. Then paste this into a REPL:
julia> using WebSockets
julia> serverWS = WebSockets.ServerWS((req) -> WebSockets.Response(200), (ws_server) -> (writeguarded(ws_server, "Hello"); readguarded(ws_server)))
WebSockets.ServerWS(handler=#17(req), wshandler=#18(ws_server), connection_count=7)
julia> ta = @async WebSockets.with_logger(WebSocketLogger()) do
WebSockets.serve(serverWS, port = 8000)
end
Task (runnable) @0x000000000fc91cd0
julia> WebSockets.HTTP.get("http://127.0.0.1:8000")
HTTP.Messages.Response:
"""
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
"""
julia> WebSockets.open("ws://127.0.0.1:8000") do ws_client
data, success = readguarded(ws_client)
if success
println(stderr, ws_client, " received:", String(data))
end
end;
WebSocket(client, CONNECTED) received:Hello
WARNING: Workqueue inconsistency detected: popfirst!(Workqueue).state != :queued
julia> put!(serverWS.in, "close!")
"close!"
julia> ta
Task (done) @0x000000000fc91cd0
Access inline documentation and have a look at the examples folder! The testing files also demonstrate a variety of uses. Benchmarks show examples of websockets and servers running on separate processes, as oposed to asyncronous tasks.
Originally from 2013 and Julia 0.2, the WebSockets API has remained largely unchanged. It now depends on HTTP.jl for establishing the http connections. That package is in ambitious development, and most functionality of this package is already implemented directly in HTTP.jl.
This more downstream package may lag behind the latest version of HTTP.jl, and in so doing perhaps avoid some borderline bugs. This is why the examples and tests do not import HTTP methods directly, but rely on the methods imported in this package. E.g. by using WebSockets.HTTP.listen
instead of HTTP.listen
you may possibly be using the previous release of package HTTP. The imported HTTP version is capped so as to avoid possible issues when new versions of HTTP are released.
- read and write between entities you can program or know about
- serve an svg file to the web browser, containing javascript for connecting back through a websocket, adding two-way interaction with graphics
- enjoy very low latency and high speed with a minimum of edge case coding
- implement your own 'if X send this, Y do that' subprotocols. Typically, one subprotocol for sensor input, another for graphics or text to a display.
- use registered websocket subprotocols for e.g. remote controlled hardware
- relay user interaction to backend simulations
- build a network including browser clients and long-running relay servers
- use convenience functions for gatekeeping
WebSockets are well suited for user interactions via a browser or cross-platform applications like electron. Workload and development time can be moved off Julia resources, error checking code can be reduced. Preferably use websockets for passing arguments, not code, between compiled functions on both sides; it has both speed and security advantages over passing code for evaluation.
- Putting http handlers and websocket coroutines ('handlers') in the same process can be a security advantage. It is good practice to modify web page responses to include time-limited tokens in the address, the wsuri.
- Since
read
andreadguared
are blocking functions, you can easily end up reading indefinitely from any side of the connection. See theclose
function code for an example of non-blocking read with a timeout. - Compression is not currenlty implemented, but easily adaptable. On local connections, there's probably not much to gain.
- If you worry about milliseconds, TCP quirks like 'warm-up' time with low transmission speed after a pause can be avoided with heartbeats. High-performance examples are missing.
- Garbage collection increases message latency at semi-random intervals, as is visible in benchmark plots. Benchmarks should include non-memory-allocating examples.
- Time prefixes in e.g.
@wslog
are not accurate. To accurately track sequences of logging messages, include the time in your logging message, e.g. using 'time_ns()'
Error messages from run-time are directed to a .out channel. See inline docs: ?Websockets.serve.
When using readguarded
or writeguarded
, errors are logged with @debug
statements. Set the logging level of the logger you use to 'Debug', as in 'examples/count_with_logger.jl'.
If you prefer to write your own server coroutine with this approach, error messages may be sent as messages to the client. This may not be good practice if you're serving pages to the internet, but very nice while developing locally. There are some inline comments in the source code which may be of help.
The issues section is used for planning development: Contributions are welcome.
- Version 1.5 shows the current number of connections on ServerWS. ServerWS in itself is immutable.
- Version 1.4 removes a ratelimiter function.
- Version 1.3 integrates
WebSocketLogger
. It closely resemblesConsoleLogger
from the Julia standard library. Additional features: see inline docs and 'examples/count_with_logger.jl'. With this closer integration with Julia's core logging functionality, we also introduce@debug
statements inreadguarded
andwriteguarded
(as well as when receiving 'ping' or 'pong'). The functions still return a boolean to indicate failure, but return no reason except the logger messages. - The /benchmark folder contain some code that is not currently working, pending logging facilities.
- Alternative Julia packages: DandelionWebSockets and the direct implementation in HTTP.jl.
Updated to use HTTP 0.9 as a dependency.
Julia 0.7 is dropped from testing, but the compatibility as stated in 'Project.toml' is kept, since HTTP is also claiming to be 0.7 compatible and we do not want to put too many restraints on the compatibility graph. The non-compatibility is that @wslog will not quite work.
WebSockets.DEFAULTOPTIONS has changed to WebSockets.default_options() The previous behaviour is considered a bug, and might result in close(s1::ServerWS) or put!(s1::ServerWS.in, "close") also closing s2::ServerWS.
The 'listen... do' syntax example is removed. You now need to wrap the handler function: handler(req) = WebSockets.Response(200) handler_wrap = WebSockets.RequestHandlerFunction(handler)
The function that accepts RequestHandlerFunction is called handle
. It replaces handle_request
, which was more accepting.
Consider taking keyword option values from the new function WebSockets.default_options()
There are no changes if you're using syntax like examples/minimal_server.jl.
Keywords 'cert' and 'key' are no longer accepted. Instead, make sure you're using the same version of MbedTLS as WebSockets.HTTP this way:
sslconf = WebSockets.SSLConfig(cert, key)
ServerWS(h,w, sslconfig = sslconf)
The upgrade to using HTTP 0.8 changes the bevaviour of server options. Try not passing any options to ServerWS. If you do, they will overrule the list of options in WebSockets.DEFAULTOPTIONS.
Type ServerOptions is removed and the corresponding fields now reside in ServerWS.
The optional function 'tcpisvalid' used to take two arguments; it should now take only one.
Ratelimiting is now performed outside of optional user functions, if you pass keyword rate_limit โ nothing.
Keyword logger is no longer supported. For redirecting logs, use Logging.with_logger
We removed the default ratelimit! function, since the way it worked was counter-intuitive and slowed down most use cases. If you have not provided any ratelimit to SererOptions in the past, you may be able to notice a very tiny performance improvement. See issue #124 and the inline documentation.
WebSockets additionaly exports WebSocketLogger, @wslog, Wslog.
This version is driven by large restructuring in HTTP.jl. We import more functions and types into WebSockets, e.g., WebSockets.Request. The main interface does not, intentionally, change, except for 'origin', which should now be qualified as WebSockets.origin.
The introduction of client side websockets to this package in version 0.5.0 may require changes in your code:
- The
WebSocket.id
field is no longer supported. You can generate unique counters by code similar to 'bencmark/functions_open_browsers.jl' COUNTBROWSER. - You may want to modify you error handling code. Examine WebSocketsClosedError.message.
- You may want to use
readguarded
andwriteguarded
to save on error handling code. Server
->WebSockets.WSServer
WebSocketHandler
->WebSockets.WebsocketHandler
(or just pass a function without wrapper)HttpHandler
->HTTP.HandlerFunction
(or just pass a function without wrapper)run
->serve
Response
->HTTP.Response
Request
->HTTP.Response
You may also want to consider using target
, orgin
and subprotocol
, which
are compatible with both of the types above.
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