I have a ws.on('connection') event on my server which sends a JSON object to each connected client on their first connection.
However because of this bit:
// Sending the payload to all clients.
wss.clients.forEach((client) => {
// Prepare for transmission.
let transmission = JSON.stringify(SocketObject.query());
// Debug
console.log('[server:onConnection:init]');
// Send the transmission.
client.send(transmission);
});
Every time a client connects, the JSON object is transmitted to every client again and again. Is it possible to limit this reply to only the client that is getting connected initially?
It was my mistake, so when wrapped like this:
wss.on('connection', (ws) => {
console.log('[server:onConnection]');
ws.send('FIRST_RESPONSE');
... it does exactly what I need it to do. Meaning it only sends the message to the connected client. I don't know why I had the forEach(client) bit in there.
Related
I'm trying to make a WebSocket server with Socket.io. When a new socket joins a room, I want to notify all the other sockets and also retrieve a list of sockets in the room for the new joiner.
socket.to(room).emit() seems to send to everyone in the room, but the documentation says socket.to().emit() should send to everyone but the sender. Is this correct?
namespace.on('connection', (socket) => {
socket.on('join-lobby', (pkg) => {
socket.join(pkg.lobbyid);
var x = Array.from(namspace.adapter.rooms.get(pkg.lobbyid));
1. socket.emit('joined-lobby', {players:x});
2. socket.to(pkg.lobbyid).emit('player-join', {joiner:socket.id});
// socket.to sends to sender as well??
});
}
This is what I have on the server side. That socket should only receive the 'joined-lobby' emission (1), all others should receive the 'player-join' emission (2).
My project works as intended except that I have to refresh the browser every time my keyword list sends something to it to display. I assume it's my inexperience with Expressjs and not creating the route correctly within my websocket? Any help would be appreciated.
Browser
let socket = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:3000");
socket.addEventListener('open', function (event) {
console.log('Connected to WS server')
socket.send('Hello Server!');
});
socket.addEventListener('message', function (e) {
const keywordsList = JSON.parse(e.data);
console.log("Received: '" + e.data + "'");
document.getElementById("keywordsList").innerHTML = e.data;
});
socket.onclose = function(code, reason) {
console.log(code, reason, 'disconnected');
}
socket.onerror = error => {
console.error('failed to connect', error);
};
Server
const ws = require('ws');
const express = require('express');
const keywordsList = require('./app');
const app = express();
const port = 3000;
const wsServer = new ws.Server({ noServer: true });
wsServer.on('connection', function connection(socket) {
socket.send(JSON.stringify(keywordsList));
socket.on('message', message => console.log(message));
});
// `server` is a vanilla Node.js HTTP server, so use
// the same ws upgrade process described here:
// https://www.npmjs.com/package/ws#multiple-servers-sharing-a-single-https-server
const server = app.listen(3000);
server.on('upgrade', (request, socket, head) => {
wsServer.handleUpgrade(request, socket, head, socket => {
wsServer.emit('connection', socket, request);
});
});
In answer to "How to Send and/or Stream array data that is being continually updated to a client" as arrived at in comment.
A possible solution using WebSockets may be to
Create an interface on the server for array updates (if you haven't already) that isolates the array object from arbitrary outside modification and supports a callback when updates are made.
Determine the latency allowed for multiple updates to occur without being pushed. The latency should allow reasonable time for previous network traffic to complete without overloading bandwidth unnecessarily.
When an array update occurs, start a timer if not already running for the latency period .
On timer expiry JSON.stringify the array (to take a snapshot), clear the timer running status, and message the client with the JSON text.
A slightly more complicated method to avoid delaying all push operations would be to immediately push single updates unless they occur within a guard period after the most recent push operation. A timer could then push modifications made during the guard period at the end of the guard period.
Broadcasting
The WebSockets API does not directly support broadcasting the same data to multiple clients. Refer to Server Broadcast in ws documentation for an example of sending data to all connected clients using a forEach loop.
Client side listener
In the client-side message listener
document.getElementById("keywordsList").innerHTML = e.data;
would be better as
document.getElementById("keywordsList").textContent = keywordList;
to both present keywords after decoding from JSON and prevent them ever being treated as HTML.
So I finally figured out what I wanted to accomplish. It sounds straight forward after I learned enough and thought about how to structure the back end of my project.
If you have two websockets running and one needs information from the other, you cannot run them side by side. You need to have one encapsulate the other and then call the websocket INSIDE of the other websocket. This can easily cause problems down the road for other projects since now you have one websocket that won't fire until the other is run but for my project it makes perfect sense since it is locally run and needs all the parts working 100 percent in order to be effective. It took me a long time to understand how to structure the code as such.
Socket.io doesn't display messages send on yourself ip.
For example
var id = 333;
socket.broadcast.to(id).emit('user', user);
It working good, but message is only in client #333, but user than sent message, do not have a copy in the message client.
I wanted to solve in this way, but it does not work
socket.broadcast.to(socket.id).emit('user', user);
Why?
Without more code its hard to say what you want but one thing is certain in order to send a message to a single user you must use that socket object and use socket.emit
As far as i know broadcast is only used to tell everyone except for yourself.
What i usually do when it comes to keeping track of users is i have the following:
var userList = [];
io.on('connection', function (socket) {
socket.on('userData', function (userDetails) {
userDetails.socket = socket;
userList[userDetails.id] = userDetails
});
});
Basicly when a user connects to my socket and the page for the user is fully loaded it sends its id (or a token if you wish) i then map the user's socket into the list so i can quickly pick it up again if i wish to send to that user.
An example could be:
user.id = 33 connects to our server
Once loaded the users emits to our server userData function
The socket is then taken and put into the list at row 33
When we need to we can this use the following code to get the users socket:
socket = userList[33];
or if we have the object:
socket = userList[user.id];
I hope this helps you.
For this, you can use socket.emit('message').
socket.emit: Emit for only one socket.
Hope this will help you. You can also check out this link: socket.io send packet to sender only
I am trying to create a system where I have a desktop client created in VB, and a browser based client, that can send messages to each other. I am using a Node.js server to handle the connections and messages.
This is the code of my Node.js server:
net = require('net')
// Supports multiple client chat application
// Keep a pool of sockets ready for everyone
// Avoid dead sockets by responding to the 'end' event
var sockets = [];
// Create a TCP socket listener
var s = net.Server(function (socket) {
// Add the new client socket connection to the array of
// sockets
sockets.push(socket);
// 'data' is an event that means that a message was just sent by the
// client application
socket.on('data', function (msg_sent) {
// Loop through all of our sockets and send the data
for (var i = 0; i < sockets.length; i++) {
// Don't send the data back to the original sender
if (sockets[i] == socket) // don't send the message to yourself
continue;
// Write the msg sent by chat client
sockets[i].write(msg_sent);
}
});
// Use splice to get rid of the socket that is ending.
// The 'end' event means tcp client has disconnected.
socket.on('end', function () {
var i = sockets.indexOf(socket);
sockets.splice(i, 1);
});
});
s.listen(8000);
console.log('System waiting at http://localhost:8000');
With this sever, I am able to send messages between two desktop clients successfully.
However, because I am using net and not HTTP I cannot get the browser based client to connect.
How can I get both the clients to connect? I would really appreciate any help/suggestions/directions. I have been searching everywhere for about 4 days now! TIA!
You could use http or express for browser based client. could check socket.io also which works on http port.
I would try to help more if know type of the desktop client you are using.
I am using node.js building a TCP server, just like the example in the doc. The server establishes persistent connections and handle client requests. But I also need to send data to any specified connection, which means this action is not client driven. How to do that?
Your server could maintain a data structure of active connections by adding on the server "connection" event and removing on the stream "close" event. Then you can pick the desired connection from that data structure and write data to it whenever you want.
Here is a simple example of a time server that sends the current time to all connected clients every second:
var net = require('net')
, clients = {}; // Contains all active clients at any time.
net.createServer().on('connection', function(sock) {
clients[sock.fd] = sock; // Add the client, keyed by fd.
sock.on('close', function() {
delete clients[sock.fd]; // Remove the client.
});
}).listen(5555, 'localhost');
setInterval(function() { // Write the time to all clients every second.
var i, sock;
for (i in clients) {
sock = clients[i];
if (sock.writable) { // In case it closed while we are iterating.
sock.write(new Date().toString() + "\n");
}
}
}, 1000);