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# SockJS for enterprise Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription. The maintainers of SockJS and thousands of other packages are working with Tidelift to deliver commercial support and maintenance for the open source dependencies you use to build your applications. Save time, reduce risk, and improve code health, while paying the maintainers of the exact dependencies you use. [Learn more.](https://tidelift.com/subscription/pkg/npm-sockjs-client?utm_source=npm-sockjs-client&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=enterprise&utm_term=repo) # Summary SockJS is a browser JavaScript library that provides a WebSocket-like object. SockJS gives you a coherent, cross-browser, Javascript API which creates a low latency, full duplex, cross-domain communication channel between the browser and the web server. Under the hood SockJS tries to use native WebSockets first. If that fails it can use a variety of browser-specific transport protocols and presents them through WebSocket-like abstractions. SockJS is intended to work for all modern browsers and in environments which don't support the WebSocket protocol -- for example, behind restrictive corporate proxies. SockJS-client does require a server counterpart: * [SockJS-node](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-node) is a SockJS server for Node.js. Philosophy: * The API should follow [HTML5 Websockets API](https://www.w3.org/TR/websockets/) as closely as possible. * All the transports must support cross domain connections out of the box. It's possible and recommended to host a SockJS server on a different server than your main web site. * There is support for at least one streaming protocol for every major browser. * Streaming transports should work cross-domain and should support cookies (for cookie-based sticky sessions). * Polling transports are used as a fallback for old browsers and hosts behind restrictive proxies. * Connection establishment should be fast and lightweight. * No Flash inside (no need to open port 843 - which doesn't work through proxies, no need to host 'crossdomain.xml', no need [to wait for 3 seconds](https://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js/issues/49) in order to detect problems) Subscribe to [SockJS mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sockjs) for discussions and support. # SockJS family * [SockJS-client](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-client) JavaScript client library * [SockJS-node](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-node) Node.js server * [SockJS-erlang](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-erlang) Erlang server * [SockJS-cyclone](https://github.com/flaviogrossi/sockjs-cyclone) Python/Cyclone/Twisted server * [SockJS-tornado](https://github.com/MrJoes/sockjs-tornado) Python/Tornado server * [SockJS-twisted](https://github.com/DesertBus/sockjs-twisted/) Python/Twisted server * [SockJS-aiohttp](https://github.com/aio-libs/sockjs/) Python/Aiohttp server * [Spring Framework](https://projects.spring.io/spring-framework) Java [client](https://docs.spring.io/spring-framework/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/web.html#websocket-fallback-sockjs-client) & server * [vert.x](https://github.com/vert-x/vert.x) Java/vert.x server * [Xitrum](https://xitrum-framework.github.io/) Scala server * [Atmosphere Framework](https://github.com/Atmosphere/atmosphere) JavaEE Server, Play Framework, Netty, Vert.x * [Actix SockJS](https://github.com/fafhrd91/actix-sockjs) Rust Server, Actix Framework Work in progress: * [SockJS-ruby](https://github.com/nyarly/sockjs-ruby) * [SockJS-netty](https://github.com/cgbystrom/sockjs-netty) * [SockJS-gevent](https://github.com/ksava/sockjs-gevent) ([SockJS-gevent fork](https://github.com/njoyce/sockjs-gevent)) * [pyramid-SockJS](https://github.com/fafhrd91/pyramid_sockjs) * [wildcloud-websockets](https://github.com/wildcloud/wildcloud-websockets) * [wai-SockJS](https://github.com/Palmik/wai-sockjs) * [SockJS-perl](https://github.com/vti/sockjs-perl) * [SockJS-go](https://github.com/igm/sockjs-go/) * [syp.biz.SockJS.NET](https://github.com/sypbiz/SockJS.NET) - .NET port of the SockJS client # Getting Started SockJS mimics the [WebSockets API](https://www.w3.org/TR/websockets/), but instead of `WebSocket` there is a `SockJS` Javascript object. First, you need to load the SockJS JavaScript library. For example, you can put that in your HTML head: ```html ``` After the script is loaded you can establish a connection with the SockJS server. Here's a simple example: ```javascript var sock = new SockJS('https://mydomain.com/my_prefix'); sock.onopen = function() { console.log('open'); sock.send('test'); }; sock.onmessage = function(e) { console.log('message', e.data); sock.close(); }; sock.onclose = function() { console.log('close'); }; ``` # SockJS-client API ## SockJS class Similar to the 'WebSocket' API, the 'SockJS' constructor takes one, or more arguments: ```javascript var sockjs = new SockJS(url, _reserved, options); ``` `url` may contain a query string, if one is desired. Where `options` is a hash which can contain: * **server (string)** String to append to url for actual data connection. Defaults to a random 4 digit number. * **transports (string OR array of strings)** Sometimes it is useful to disable some fallback transports. This option allows you to supply a list transports that may be used by SockJS. By default all available transports will be used. * **sessionId (number OR function)** Both client and server use session identifiers to distinguish connections. If you specify this option as a number, SockJS will use its random string generator function to generate session ids that are N-character long (where N corresponds to the number specified by **sessionId**). When you specify this option as a function, the function must return a randomly generated string. Every time SockJS needs to generate a session id it will call this function and use the returned string directly. If you don't specify this option, the default is to use the default random string generator to generate 8-character long session ids. * **timeout (number)** Specify a minimum timeout in milliseconds to use for the transport connections. By default this is dynamically calculated based on the measured RTT and the number of expected round trips. This setting will establish a minimum, but if the calculated timeout is higher, that will be used. Although the 'SockJS' object tries to emulate the 'WebSocket' behaviour, it's impossible to support all of its features. An important SockJS limitation is the fact that you're not allowed to open more than one SockJS connection to a single domain at a time. This limitation is caused by an in-browser limit of outgoing connections - usually [browsers don't allow opening more than two outgoing connections to a single domain](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/985431/max-parallel-http-connections-in-a-browser). A single SockJS session requires those two connections - one for downloading data, the other for sending messages. Opening a second SockJS session at the same time would most likely block, and can result in both sessions timing out. Opening more than one SockJS connection at a time is generally a bad practice. If you absolutely must do it, you can use multiple subdomains, using a different subdomain for every SockJS connection. # Supported transports, by browser (html served from http:// or https://) _Browser_ | _Websockets_ | _Streaming_ | _Polling_ ----------------|------------------|-------------|------------------- IE 6, 7 | no | no | jsonp-polling IE 8, 9 (cookies=no) | no | xdr-streaming † | xdr-polling † IE 8, 9 (cookies=yes)| no | iframe-htmlfile | iframe-xhr-polling IE 10 | rfc6455 | xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Chrome 6-13 | hixie-76 | xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Chrome 14+ | hybi-10 / rfc6455| xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Firefox <10 | no ‡ | xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Firefox 10+ | hybi-10 / rfc6455| xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Safari 5.x | hixie-76 | xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Safari 6+ | rfc6455 | xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Opera 10.70+ | no ‡ | iframe-eventsource | iframe-xhr-polling Opera 12.10+ | rfc6455 | xhr-streaming | xhr-polling Konqueror | no | no | jsonp-polling * **†**: IE 8+ supports [XDomainRequest][^9], which is essentially a modified AJAX/XHR that can do requests across domains. But unfortunately it doesn't send any cookies, which makes it inappropriate for deployments when the load balancer uses JSESSIONID cookie to do sticky sessions. * **‡**: Firefox 4.0 and Opera 11.00 and shipped with disabled Websockets "hixie-76". They can still be enabled by manually changing a browser setting. # Supported transports, by browser (html served from file://) Sometimes you may want to serve your html from "file://" address - for development or if you're using PhoneGap or similar technologies. But due to the Cross Origin Policy files served from "file://" have no Origin, and that means some of SockJS transports won't work. For this reason the SockJS transport table is different than usually, major differences are: _Browser_ | _Websockets_ | _Streaming_ | _Polling_ ----------------|---------------|--------------------|------------------- IE 8, 9 | same as above | iframe-htmlfile | iframe-xhr-polling Other | same as above | iframe-eventsource | iframe-xhr-polling # Supported transports, by name _Transport_ | _References_ ---------------------|--------------- websocket (rfc6455) | [rfc 6455][^10] websocket (hixie-76) | [draft-hixie-thewebsocketprotocol-76][^1] websocket (hybi-10) | [draft-ietf-hybi-thewebsocketprotocol-10][^2] xhr-streaming | Transport using [Cross domain XHR][^5] [streaming][^7] capability (readyState=3). xdr-streaming | Transport using [XDomainRequest][^9] [streaming][^7] capability (readyState=3). eventsource | [EventSource/Server-sent events][^4]. iframe-eventsource | [EventSource/Server-sent events][^4] used from an [iframe via postMessage][^3]. htmlfile | [HtmlFile][^8]. iframe-htmlfile | [HtmlFile][^8] used from an [iframe via postMessage][^3]. xhr-polling | Long-polling using [cross domain XHR][^5]. xdr-polling | Long-polling using [XDomainRequest][^9]. iframe-xhr-polling | Long-polling using normal AJAX from an [iframe via postMessage][^3]. jsonp-polling | Slow and old fashioned [JSONP polling][^6]. This transport will show "busy indicator" (aka: "spinning wheel") when sending data. [^1]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hixie-thewebsocketprotocol-76 [^2]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-hybi-thewebsocketprotocol-10 [^3]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/window.postMessage [^4]: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/comms.html#server-sent-events [^5]: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/XMLHttpRequest#Cross-domain_requests [^6]: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/JSONP [^7]: http://www.debugtheweb.com/test/teststreaming.aspx [^8]: http://cometdaily.com/2007/11/18/ie-activexhtmlfile-transport-part-ii/ [^9]: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ieinternals/2010/05/13/xdomainrequest-restrictions-limitations-and-workarounds/ [^10]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6455.txt # Connecting to SockJS without the client Although the main point of SockJS is to enable browser-to-server connectivity, it is possible to connect to SockJS from an external application. Any SockJS server complying with 0.3 protocol does support a raw WebSocket url. The raw WebSocket url for the test server looks like: * ws://localhost:8081/echo/websocket You can connect any WebSocket RFC 6455 compliant WebSocket client to this url. This can be a command line client, external application, third party code or even a browser (though I don't know why you would want to do so). # Deployment You should use a version of sockjs-client that supports the protocol used by your server. For example: ```html ``` For server-side deployment tricks, especially about load balancing and session stickiness, take a look at the [SockJS-node readme](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-node#readme). # Development and testing SockJS-client needs [node.js](https://nodejs.org/) for running a test server and JavaScript minification. If you want to work on SockJS-client source code, checkout the git repo and follow these steps: cd sockjs-client npm install To generate JavaScript, run: gulp browserify To generate minified JavaScript, run: gulp browserify:min Both commands output into the `build` directory. ## Testing Automated testing provided by:

Once you've compiled the SockJS-client you may want to check if your changes pass all the tests. npm run test:browser_local This will start [karma](https://karma-runner.github.io) and a test support server. # Browser Quirks There are various browser quirks which we don't intend to address: * Pressing ESC in Firefox, before Firefox 20, closes the SockJS connection. For a workaround and discussion see [#18](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-client/issues/18). * `jsonp-polling` transport will show a "spinning wheel" (aka. "busy indicator") when sending data. * You can't open more than one SockJS connection to one domain at the same time due to [the browser's limit of concurrent connections](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/985431/max-parallel-http-connections-in-a-browser) (this limit is not counting native WebSocket connections). * Although SockJS is trying to escape any strange Unicode characters (even invalid ones - [like surrogates \xD800-\xDBFF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapping_of_Unicode_characters#Surrogates) or [\xFFFE and \xFFFF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode#Character_General_Category)) it's advisable to use only valid characters. Using invalid characters is a bit slower, and may not work with SockJS servers that have proper Unicode support. * Having a global function called `onmessage` or such is probably a bad idea, as it could be called by the built-in `postMessage` API. * From SockJS' point of view there is nothing special about SSL/HTTPS. Connecting between unencrypted and encrypted sites should work just fine. * Although SockJS does its best to support both prefix and cookie based sticky sessions, the latter may not work well cross-domain with browsers that don't accept third-party cookies by default (Safari). In order to get around this make sure you're connecting to SockJS from the same parent domain as the main site. For example 'sockjs.a.com' is able to set cookies if you're connecting from 'www.a.com' or 'a.com'. * Trying to connect from secure "https://" to insecure "http://" is not a good idea. The other way around should be fine. * Long polling is known to cause problems on Heroku, but a [workaround for SockJS is available](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-node/issues/57#issuecomment-5242187). * SockJS [websocket transport is more stable over SSL](https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-client/issues/94). If you're a serious SockJS user then consider using SSL ([more info](https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/hybi/current/msg01605.html)).

	Stars	Issues	Version	Updated	Created
@stomp/stompjs	722	39	7.0.0	a year ago	7 years ago
reconnecting-websocket	1,183	63	4.4.0	4 years ago	8 years ago
sockjs-client	8,374	29	1.6.1	2 years ago	12 years ago
stompjs			2.3.3	10 years ago	11 years ago

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