Wsocket.io Server

This is a server-side wrapper for the ws NPM module. It makes it a lot easier to use WebSockets with Node JS by providing a simple to use API. Take a look at wsocket.io-client or wsocket.io for a full integration example.

Dependencies

Because this is a wrapper for ws it depends on ws.

Supported methods

API

.constructor([opts: Object])

Sends the opts object into the original ws Server constructor. Defaults to {port: 8080}. Example usage:

const WSS = require('wsocket.io-server');
 
wss = new WSS({port: 4200});

For more options refer to the original ws GitHub page or the NPM page.

.connect([fn: function <callback>])

The callback handles each separate incoming connection. It receives a single Socket object (read below). Example usage:

wss.connect( ws => {
  // ws will be the Socket class that gets instantiated by the constructor call on the .connect() method.
})

.send([name: String], [data: Object])

Sends the data in the form of a stringified object to each open connection. Example usage:

wss.send('message:all', {message: 'hello everyone'});

.sendTo([id: String], [name: String], [data: Object])

Sends the data to the socket with the id provided in the first parameter. Can be used to communicate between specific sockets or socket-specific server messages. Example usage:

wss.connect( ws => {
  ws.on('message', data => {
    wss.sendTo(ws._id, 'reply', {message: 'Thanks for the data.'});
    // ... is equivalent to ...
    ws.send('reply', {message: 'Thanks for the data.'});
  })
})

.sendExclude([id: String], [name: String], [data: Object])

Sends the data to all the sockets excluding the one with the id in the first parameter. This is the underlying method of Socket.broadcast(). Example usage:

wss.connect( ws => {
  ws.sendExclude(ws._id, 'user:join', {message: 'User joined the channel.'});
  // ... is equivalent to ...
  ws.broadcast('user:join', {message: 'User joined the channel.'});
})

While this method exists to expose the method which Socket.broadcast() uses, it may find some use cases in some applications, hence why I decided to expose it.

.close()

Closes the server. Example usage:

wss.connect( ws => {
  ws.on('hello', data => {
    if (data.sender === 'Homer') {
      wss.close();
      // Closed all connections and the open socket.
    }
  })
})

Socket

.constructor([ws: WebSocket], [id: String], [handler: Object <Server>])

Creates a new Socket object and assigns an id, which is stored in Server._sockets object by id. This gets called automatically each time a new client connects. Note the id can be useful to access other sockets. You can access it via Socket._id.

.on([name: String], [fn: function <callback>])

Handles incoming messages matching the name provided in the first parameter. This method supports subscription to multiple events via space-separated names. The callback to execute can be an anonymous or named function, an array of functions or multiple functions as well. Example usage:

ws.on('message login', data => {console.log('User interacted.')}, data => {
  console.log(data);
})
.on('message', data => {
  console.log(`New message: ${data.message}`);
})

This method returns this, for easy chaining.

.send([name: String], [data: Object])

Sends a message to the socket in the form of a stringified object. Example usage:

ws.send('welcome', {message: `Welcome on our server, dear socket with id: ${ws._id}`});

This method returns this, for easy chaining.

.broadcast([name: String], [data: Object])

Sends a message to all sockets but the current one, using the server's sendExclude() method.

ws.broadcast('userloggedin', {message: `A user with the id: ${ws._id} has logged in.`})
.send('message', {message: 'All user had been notified of your presence.'}) // Note the chaining.

This method returns this, for easy chaining.

.all([fn: Function])

Subscribes to every message received via websocket. The callback function is different from the rest, because it receives 2 parameters, the name and the data. This helps distinguish the message type, if a custom form of handling is required for a set of events. This method can accept multiple functions as an argument, in which case each of the functions is going to be executed in order. Example usage:

ws.all((name, data) => {
  if (name.startsWith('message')) {
    console.log(`We received a new message: ${data}`);
  }
  else {
    console.log(`We received an unknown WebSocket message: ${data}`);
  }
})

You can use this to add middleware for logging all WebSocket requests.

This method returns this, for easy chaining.

.off([name: String])

Removes all event handlers associated with the name provided in the parameters. This functions supports removing events from multiple listeners. Example usage:

ws.off('message userloggedin'); // Unsubscribes all messages with the names: 'message' and 'userloggedin'.

This method returns this, for easy chaining.

.offAll()

Removes all event listeners from the WebSocket connection. Example usage:

ws.offAll(); // Stops listening to events without closing the connection.

This method returns this, for easy chaining.

.close()

Removes socket from the handled sockets. Triggered automatically when socket closes on the client side. When called, it closes connection with the client. Example usage:

wss.connect( ws => {
  ws.close(); // Haha I never wanted a WebSocket connection with you anyway.
})

This method returns this, for easy chaining.

Extending the Constructor class

Because both the server, the socket and the client are just ES6 classes, all ES6 features also work on them by standard. For example you could do something like this:

const Server = require('wsocket.io-server');
 
// This is the minimum requirement for extending the class.
class InsaneServer extends Server {
  constructor () {
    super({port:4200});
  }
}
 
let iwss = new InsaneServer();
 
iwss.connect( ws => {
  iwss.send('awesome-message', {message: 'This was sent by the Insane Server.'})
})