How to trigger websocket send from another function in Node? - node.js

Question

It's been a while since I've worked with Node and Websockets. Basically how do I get socket.send() to work from another function is what I'm stuck on.
const server = new WebSocket.Server({ port: 8080 });
server.on('connection', socket => {
socket.on('message', message => {
console.log(`received from a client: ${message}`);
});
socket.send('yo world!');
});
function onMessageHandler (target, context, msg, self) {
client.say(target, response);
server.socket.send(response);
console.log(response);
}
}
How do I get my onMessageHandler to trigger a socket send, this is fail... server.socket.send(response);

Answer 1

Seeing your question i think there is a lack of understanding on how Websockets work. I am assuming you're using https://github.com/websockets/ws
There are two things. First is the WebSocketerver which you've named as server and then an Individual Socket which you've named as socket
Now the thing to understand is socket is not accessible outside server.on() callback The reason for this is there could be 1000 of sockets connected at a given instance and there would be no way to uniquely identify a particular socket you want to send message to.
So ask yourself the question that your application wants to send message to an individual socket to send to everyone who is connected to your server (basically broadcast)
If you want to send to an individual, you will have to uniquely identify the user
this._wss = new WebSocket.Server({
port: ENV_APP_PORT_WS
});
this._wss.on("connection", async (ws: AppWebSocket, req: IncomingMessage) => {
// const ipAddress = req.connection.remoteAddress; // IP Address of User
logger.info(req);
const queryParams = url.parse(req.url, true).query;
let authUser: User;
try {
authUser = await this._authenticateWebSocket(queryParams);
} catch (e) {
// Terminate connection and return...
}
// WS User INIT
ws.isAlive = true;
ws.userId = authUser.id;
ws.uuid = Helpers.generateUUIDV4();
ws.send(JSON.stringify({
type: "connected",
env: ENV
}));
});
The above code will add a property to each socket object that will enable it to uniquely identify a particular user/socket.
While sending =>
onMessageHandler(targetUserId: number, message: string) {
const allSockets = <AppWebSocket[]>Array.from(this._wss.clients.values());
const targetSocket = allSockets.find(w => w.userId === targetUserId);
targetSocket.send(message);
}
If You want to send to all connect users, it's quite easy:
https://github.com/websockets/ws#server-broadcast