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SocketWrench

SocketWrench is a light wrapper around native WebSockets that provides a slightly sexier api and a little more convinience.

Example

  // Example based on https://www.websocket.org/echo.html
  var wrench = new SocketWrench('ws://echo.websocket.org/');
 
  wrench.on('open', function () {
    console.log('CONNECTED');
    wrench.send('WebSocket rocks');
  });
 
  wrench.on('message', function (MessageEventData) {
    console.log(MessageEventData);
  });
 
  wrench.on('messageType', function (MessageEventData) {
    console.log(MessageEventData);
  });
 
  wrench.on('close', function () {
    console.log('DISCONNECTED');
  });

Install

with Bower: bower install socketwrench

with npm: npm install socketwrench

Download File: socketwrench.js

How to use this

Create a new SocketWrench

var wrench = new SocketWrench("ws://freefallws.gilt.com/connect");

or

var wrench = new SocketWrench({
  url : "ws://freefallws.gilt.com/connect"
});

or

var wrench = new SocketWrench({
  url : "ws://freefallws.gilt.com/connect",
  connectionData: {
    eventId : id,
    historySize : size
  },
  heartbeatInterval: 30000,
  retryAttempts: 5,
});

Options and Defaults

connectionData : {},
heartbeatInterval : 30000,
heartbeatMessage : { "heartbeat" : "beat" },
retryAttempts : 5,
retryTimeout : 2000,
sendFullMessages : false,
autoConnect : true

SocketWrench API

var wrench = new SocketWrench('ws://some-web-socket.com');

wrench.open();
  // Open WebSocket explicitly
wrench.close();
  // Close WebSocket explicitly
wrench.isReady();
  // Check WebSocket ReadyState
wrench.on(event, callback);
  // Add a callback to an event. returns handle
wrench.off(handle);
  // Remove a callback from an event
wrench.send(message);
  // Send a message to the server
wrench.supported;
SocketWrench.supported;
  // Check to see if WebSocket is supported. This is a Boolean

Get Started

Test for Websocket Support

Make sure you check if Websockets are supported.

if (SocketWrench.supported) { // Boolean
  // have fun!
} else {
  // provide a fallback
}

Open SocketWrench Connection Manually

wrench.open();

The WebSocket will be connected on creation. If you don't want the WebSocket to open automatically, set autoConnect to false.

wrench = new SocketWrench({
  url : "ws://localhost:4014",
  autoConnect : false
});

// when you're ready

wrench.open();

On Connection

wrench.on('open', function () {
  console.log("it's connected");
});

Responding to Socket Messages

Messages in WebSocket use the MessageEvent API. In previous WebSocket projects, I have found it convenient to give the message a "type" by adding a type property to the message data.

// WebSocket Message
MessageEvent {
  data: {
    type : "aMessageType"
    /* other message data here */
  },
  lastEventId: "",
  origin: "ws://localhost:4014",
  ports: Array[0],
  timeStamp: 1367596284302
  type: "message"
}

SocketWrench will look for this property, and if found will emit an event of that type and pass MessageEvent.data to the callback

wrench.on('messageType', function (messageData) {
  // do stuff with message
});

wrench.on('PriceChange', priceController.setPriceChange);
wrench.on('Time', clocks.setTime);
wrench.on('inventoryStatus', inventoryStatus.update)

If your app doesn't follow this convention and leaves off a 'type' property on MessageEvent.data, SocketWrench will emit a generic 'message' messageType and pass Message.data to the callback

wrench.on('message', function myMessageHandler (data) {
  // stuff with message data
});

If you need to receive the entire MessageEvent and not just the data, set sendFullMessages to true in the configuration

wrench = new SocketWrench({
  url : "ws://localhost:4014",
  sendFullMessages: true
});

Closing WebSocket Connection

If your WebSocket connection is closed, SocketWrench will attempt to reconnect the number of times specified by retryAttempts in the configuration. If you want to explicitly close the WebSocket connection you can do so by calling wrench.close().

On Close

A 'close' message is published so you can respond once the WebSocket connection is closed.

wrench.on(`close`, function () {
  // do something on close
});

Respond to failure

If the WebSocket connection is closed without you requesting it, a fail event will be published along with the number of times the SocketWrench has attempted to reconnect.

wrench.on('fail', function (retryCount) {
  // respond to failure
});

When the connection is lost SocketWrench will attempt to reconnect the number of times specified by the retryAttempts options. The default is 8. The retryAttempts will "decay" (using fibonacci numbers) or will wait longer each time it tries to reconnect until it runs out of retryAttempts.

If SocketWrench has attempted reconnect the maximum number of times, an error event is emitted.

wrench.on('error', function (err) {
  // All attempts to reconnect failed
});

Heartbeats

To give your server the opportunity to close abandoned connections, SocketWrench will send a heartbeat at the configured interval. By default SocketWrench will send a "pong" to the server every 30 seconds as well as repond to a "ping" message with a "pong".

You may override what this message looks like (as JSON if you like) and the interval by passing in config options.

var wrench = new SocketWrench({
  url: 'ws://my-socket-server.com',
  heartbeatInterval: 60000, // in milliseconds
  heartbeatMessage : {
    status : 'still alive',
    currentMood : 'happy',
    outlookOnLife : 'good'
  }
});

Contributing

If you would like to help work on SocketWrench, please see the Contributing documentation.