Socket.io trigger from server - node.js

I'm asking myself : "How could I trigger an IO event to a specific user (like notification when sucess on something)". But on a post request for example I don't have any socket objet.
I want to be able to do this: (should I store the socket object in a cookie? Or there are other possibilities availible?)
app.post('/askChangeUserPass', ChangePassIfCorrect , function (req, res){
if (req.session) {
if ( req.data == 1 ){
return res.send("1") // socket.emit("notification", {})
} else {
return res.send("req.data") // socket.emit("notification", {})
}
} else {
return res.render("404")
}
});

Since it appears you already have a session for each user, then the usual way to do this is to store the socket.id in the session when the user connects with socket.io. Then, from any http request, you can get the socket.id from the session and use:
// get socketid from session
io.to(socketid).emit(...)
For sharing a session between socket.io and express, see:
How to share sessions with Socket.IO 1.x and Express 4.x?
And, when the socket.io connection is created in the connect event, you can set the socket.id into the session.

Another way to do this would be to have each client join a user-specific channel when they first connect/login, and then at any time later you can emit to that channel to communicate with all of those instances.
Instance joins the user-specific channel (on connect or login, etc):
socket.join(user.id)
Server emits a message to each instance (in your POST request, etc):
socket.server.to(user.id).emit(...)

Related

Tracking WS Clients in Nodejs

I am using ws through an express plugin, express-ws. My back end needs to track clients and, send message only to a specific or clients. Right now, I am just saving the client socket along with a token. So, when the client connects, a message is sent like the following by the client:
{"path":"/openUserSocket","token":"<CLIENT_TOKEN_VALUE>"}
This registers a socket in the back end. The socket is managed by a class wscManager which, saves the socket in a plain object. So, to register a socket, I do this:
// adding web socket support
const expressWs = require('express-ws')(app, null, {
wsOptions: {
clientTracking: true
}
});
let man = new wscManager();
// then in the web socket handler
app.ws('/', (sck,req) => {
sck.on('message',(msg)=>{
// handle messages
if(msg.path === '/openUserSocket'){
man.set(msg.token, sck);
return sck.send(JSON.stringify({ status: 200, message: 'Ok' }));
}
else if(msg.path === '/<SOME_OTHER_PATH>'){
// use that socket
}
// ... other route handling
}
}
Now, as I showed in the code above, I am trying to save the socket for later use. set just uses the token as a key for saving the socket object in another object. Later, get(token) can be used with that token to use the socket. I also extended the express app prototype to allow other route handles to use the wscManager:
app.response._man = man;
Now, my question is this the right approach to client tracking? In other route handlers, the manager is used like this:
// in route handler
res._man.send(JSON.stringify({ status: <STATUS>, message: <MSG> }));
Thanks for your time and patience.

Socket.io multiple pages

I'm trying to create a chat using socket.io, I'm having a problem.
I want to know if it is possible to reuse my socket.id in my different pages of my project to not lose the connection of my socket?
A given socket.io connection belongs only to one particular page. When the user browses to a new page (assuming you're not dynamically loading new content into the same master page using a single-page-app (SPA) architecture), that socket.io connection is closed and the new page can then open a new socket.io connection (that will have a different socket.id).
I want to know if it is possible to reuse my socket.id in my different pages of my project to not lose the connection of my socket?
No, not when the browser is actually loading a whole new page into the current window/tab.
The usual way to create some sort of ID that is persistent when you go from one page to the next is to put an ID in a cookie and then that cookie will be available on each new page the user browses to and will stay consistent from one page to the next.
If you are using express on the server, you can use express-session to automatically create a persistent session for each new user and you can even store data in that session object that will be available on each page the user requests.
on page refresh and navigation your socket will get disconnected so you can use this trick.it worked in my scenario
suppose you have a multi-page application then ,here you can do a trick that when your socket gets connected first time when the page loads then you can assign the session id to that particular connection like this.and then bind that connection to that session.
io.on('connection', function(socket) {
socket.on('start-session', function(data) {
console.log("============start-session event================")
console.log(data)
if (data.sessionId == null) {
var session_id = uuidv4(); //generating the sessions_id and then binding that socket to that sessions
socket.room = session_id;
socket.join(socket.room, function(res) {
console.log("joined successfully ")
socket.emit("set-session-acknowledgement", { sessionId: session_id })
} else {
socket.room = data.sessionId; //this time using the same session
socket.join(socket.room, function(res) {
console.log("joined successfully ")
socket.emit("set-session-acknowledgement", { sessionId: data.sessionId })
})
}
});
Now you had binded the socket connection to a session now you are sending an acknowledgement too at the client side also .There what you can do is that store the session id to the web browsers session storage like this
At client side code
socket.on("set-session-acknowledgement", function(data) {
sessionStorage.setItem('sessionId', data.sessionId);
})
This will store the session id in the browsers session storage.Now when the page is navigated from page1 to page2 and so on. then send that session id to the server so that you will be connected to the same session logically like this
var session_id;
// Get saved data from sessionStorage
let data = sessionStorage.getItem('sessionId');
console.log(data)
if (data == null) {
session_id = null//when we connect first time
socket.emit('start-session', { sessionId: session_id })
} else {
session_id = data//when we connect n times
socket.emit('start-session', { sessionId: session_id })
}
So basically the logic behind is that we can use same session for multiple socket connections by doing this as every time the socket will be joined to that particular room only and emit the events which you can listen on server side and vice a versa.

NodeJS - Response stream

I built a simple API endpoint with NodeJS using Sails.js.
When someone access my API endpoint, the server starts to wait for data and whenever a new data appears, he broadcasts it using sockets. Each client should receive his own stream of data based on his user input.
var Cap = require('cap').Cap;
collect: function (req, res) {
var iface = req.param("ip");
var c = new Cap(),
device = Cap.findDevice(ip);
c.on('data', function(myData) {
sails.sockets.blast('message', {"host": myData});
});
});
The response do not complete (I never send a res.json() - what actually happens is that the browser keep loading - but the above functionality works).
2 Problems:
I'm trying to subscribe and unsubscribe to to this API endpoint from my client (using RxJS). When I subscribe, I start to receive data via sockets - but I can't unsubscribe to the API endpoint (the browser expect the request to be completed).
Each client should subscribe to his own socket room based on the request IP parameter ( see updated code ). Currently it blasts the message to everyone.
How I can create a stream/service-like API endpoint with Sails.js that will emit new data to each user based on his input?
My goal is to be able to subscribe / unsubscribe to this API endpoint from each client.
Revised Answer
Let's assume your API endpoint is defined in config/routes.js like this:
...
'get /collect': 'SomeController.collectSubscribe',
'delete /collect': 'SomeController.collectUnsubscribe',
Since each Cap instance is tied to one device, we need one instance for each subscription. Instead of using the sails join/leave methods, we keep track of Cap instances in memory and just broadcast to the request socket's id. This works because Sails sockets are subscribed to their own ids by default.
In api/controllers/SomeController.js:
// In order for the `Cap` instances to persist after `collectSubscribe` finishes, we store them all in an Object, associated with which socket the were created for.
var caps = {/* req.socket.id: <instance of Cap>, */};
module.exports = {
...
collectSubscribe: function(req, res) {
if (!res.isSocket) return res.badRequest("I need a websocket! Help!");
if (!!caps[req.socket.id]) return res.badRequest("Dude, you are already subscribed.");
caps[req.socket.id] = new Cap();
var c = caps[req.socket.id]; // remember that `c` is a reference to our new `Cap`, not a copy.
var device = c.findDevice(req.param('ip'));
c.open(device, ...);
c.on('data', function(myData) {
sails.sockets.broadcast(req.socket.id, 'message', {host: myData});
});
return res.ok();
},
collectUnsubscribe: function(req, res) {
if (!res.isSocket) return res.badRequest("I need a websocket! Help!");
if (!caps[req.socket.id]) return res.badRequest("I can't unsubscribe you unless you actually subscribe first.");
caps[req.socket.id].removeAllListeners('data');
delete caps[req.socket.id];
return res.ok();
}
}
Basically, it goes like this: when a browser request triggers collectSubscribe, a new Cap instance listens to the provided IP. When the browser triggers collectUnsubscribe, the server retreives that Cap instance, tells it to stop listening, and then deletes it.
Production Considerations: please be aware that the list of Caps is NOT PERSISTENT (since it is stored in memory and not a DB)! So if your server is turned off and rebooted (due to lightning storm, etc), the list will be cleared, but considering that all websocket connections will be dropped anyway, I don't see any need to worry about this.
Old Answer, Kept for Reference
You can use sails.sockets.join(req, room) and sails.sockets.leave(req, room) to manage socket rooms. Essentially you have a room called "collect", and only sockets joined in that room will receive a sails.sockets.broadcast(room, eventName, data).
More info on how to user sails.sockets here.
In api/controllers/SomeController.js:
collectSubscribe: function(req, res) {
if (!res.isSocket) return res.badRequest();
sails.sockets.join(req, 'collect');
return res.ok();
},
collectUnsubscribe: function(req, res) {
if (!res.isSocket) return res.badRequest();
sails.sockets.leave(req, 'collect');
return res.ok();
}
Finally, we need to tell the server to broadcast messages to our 'collect' room.
Note that this only need to happen once, so you can do this in a file under the config/ directory.
For this example, I'll put this in config/sockets.js
module.exports = {
// ...
};
c.on('data', function(myData) {
var eventName = 'message';
var data = {host: myData};
sails.sockets.broadcast('collect', eventName, data);
});
I am assuming that c is accessible here; If not, you could define it as sails.c = ... to make it globally accessible.

How to get current socket object or id with in a sails controller?

I would like to access the currently connected socket id with in a sails.js (v0.12 ) controller function.
sails.sockets.getId(req.socket); is showing undefined since this is not a socket request
My objective is to set the online status of my user in the database when he logged in successfully
login: function (req, res) {
Util.login(req, function(){
var socketId = sails.sockets.getId(req.socket);
console.log('socketId ===', socketId); // return undefined
});
},
Basically i would like to access the current user's socket object in a controller or access current user's session object with in a socket on method
Also i'm not sure that how can i rewrite my old sockets.onConnect
handler
onConnect: function(session, socket) {
// Proceed only if the user is logged in
if (session.me) {
//console.log('test',session);
User.findOne({id: session.me}).exec(function(err, user) {
var socketId = sails.sockets.getId(socket);
user.status = 'online';
user.ip = socket.handshake.address;
user.save(function(err) {
// Publish this user creation event to every socket watching the User model via User.watch()
User.publishCreate(user, socket);
});
// Create the session.users hash if it doesn't exist already
session.users = session.users || {};
// Save this user in the session, indexed by their socket ID.
// This way we can look the user up by socket ID later.
session.users[socketId] = user;
// Persist the session
//session.save();
// Get updates about users being created
User.watch(socket);
// Send a message to the client with information about the new user
sails.sockets.broadcast(socketId, 'user', {
verb :'list',
data:session.users
});
});
}
},
You need to pass the req object to the method.
if (req.isSocket) {
let socketId = sails.sockets.getId(req);
sails.log('socket id: ' + socketId);
}
Since the request is not a socket request, you might need to do something like
Send back some identifier to the client once logged in.
Use the identifier to join a room. (One user per room. )
Broadcast messages to the room with the identifier whenever you need to send message to client.
https://gist.github.com/crtr0/2896891
Update:
From sails migration guide
The onConnect lifecycle callback has been deprecated. Instead, if you need to do something when a new socket is connected, send a request from the newly-connected client to do so. The purpose of onConnect was always for optimizing performance (eliminating the need to do this initial extra round-trip with the server), yet its use can lead to confusion and race conditions. If you desperately need to eliminate the server roundtrip, you can bind a handler directly on sails.io.on('connect', function (newlyConnectedSocket){}) in your bootstrap function (config/bootstrap.js). However, note that this is discouraged. Unless you're facing true production performance issues, you should use the strategy mentioned above for your "on connection" logic (i.e. send an initial request from the client after the socket connects). Socket requests are lightweight, so this doesn't add any tangible overhead to your application, and it will help make your code more predictable.
// in some controller
if (req.isSocket) {
let handshake = req.socket.manager.handshaken[sails.sockets.getId(req)];
if (handshake) {
session = handshake.session;
}
}

How to handle user and socket pairs with node.js + redis

Straight to the point:
I am using node.js, socket.io and redis for a private chat system.
On connect user passes his website id (userID) to node.js server. He may have multiple connections so I have to pair socketID (of each connection) and userID somehow. I has thinking about using redis to store userID->sessionID pairs. However, when user disconnects I need to remove that pair from redis.. but I have only socketID not userID so I can't select by that key..
Now, am I approaching this the wrong way or should I store both userID->socketID and socketID->userID pairs? Maybe someone could offer more elegant solution?
A more elegant solution would be to make each socket connect to the channel userID, for example:
io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
socket.join(userID);
});
// when you want somebody to send a message to userID you can do:
io.sockets.in(userID).emit(message);
There are two things you need to take care of here:
Make sure that only userID can connect to his channel, thus verify the session ( read more here: http://www.danielbaulig.de/socket-ioexpress/ )
On connection increase the value for userID in redis (so that you know a new connection for that user is listening) and on disconnect decrease the userID value (so that you know the number of connections still listening). If the value is 0 then you emit a message to the chat stating that userID has left (since the number of connections listening to the userID channel is 0).
When other users will want to send a message to userID, they don't need to connect to the userID channel, they can send a message to the chat channel and pass userID as a property. For example:
var chat = io
.of('/chat')
.on('connection', function (socket) {
// connected to public chat
})
.on('message', function (data) {
if (data.userID && data.message) {
io.sockets.in(userID).emit('UserX: ' + data.message);
}
});

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