How to reuse nodejs serverside tcp socket connection - node.js

I am using NodeJS net.socket module in a web application.
I have made a rest api which hits a method in webserver. That method creates a socket connection with another server to get data. This data is then sent as response to the Rest api request.
Issue is , whenever the Rest api hits the web server , it always creates a new socket connection. I want to re use the previous socket connection.
I have tried pushing the socket object in an array, but first of all it looses all the properties if i try to reuse the object from array. Secondly i don't know how to check whether that connection is alive or not.
var net = require('net').Socket();
var sockets = [];
module.exports.Socket = function (port, ip) {
var Client = net.connect(port, ip);
sockets.push(Client);
}
return Client;
}

Related

What is the proper way to emit an event with socket.io?

I want to emit an event to the client when a long fucntion comes to an end.
This will show a hidden div with a link - on the client side.
This is the approach i tested:
//server.js
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var http = require('http').Server(app);
var io = require('socket.io')(http);
require('./app/routes.js')(app, io);
//routes.js
app.post('/pst', function(req, res) {
var url = req.body.convo;
res.render('processing.ejs');
myAsyncFunction(url).then(result => {
console.log('Async Function completed');
socket.emit('dlReady', { description: 'Your file is ready!'});
//do some other stuff here
}).catch(err => {
console.log(err);
res.render('error.ejs');
})
});
I get this
ERROR: ReferenceError: socket is not defined
If i change the socket.emit() line to this:
io.on('connection', function(socket) {
socket.emit('dlReady', { description: 'Your file is ready!'});
});
Then i don't receive an error, but nothing happens at the client.
This is the client code:
<script>
document.querySelector('.container2').style.display = "none";
var socket = io();
socket.on('dlReady', function(data) { //When you receive dlReady event from socket.io, show the link part
document.querySelector('.container1').style.display = "none";
document.querySelector('.container2').style.display = "block";
});
</script>
This whole concept is likely a bit flawed. Let me state some facts about this environment that you must fully understand before you can follow what needs to happen:
When the browser does a POST, there's an existing page in the browser that issues the post.
If that POST is issued from a form post (not a post from Javascript in the page), then when you send back the response with res.render(), the browser will close down the previous page and render the new page.
Any socket.io connection from the previous page will be closed. If the new page from the res.render() has Javascript in it, when that Javascript runs, it may or may not create a new socket.io connection to your server. In any case, that won't happen until some time AFTER the res.render() is called as the browser has to receive the new page, parse it, then run the Javascript in it which has to then connect socket.io to your server again.
Remember that servers handle lots of clients. They are a one-to-many environment. So, you could easily have hundreds or thousands of clients that all have a socket.io connection to your server. So, your server can never assume there is ONE socket.io connection and sending to that one connection will go to a particular page. The server must keep track of N socket.io connections.
If the server ever wants to emit to a particular page, it has to create a means of figuring out which exact socket.io connect belongs to the page that it is trying to emit to, get that particular socket and call socket.emit() only on that particular socket. The server can never do this by creating some server-wide variable named socket and using that. A multi-user server can never do that.
The usual way to "track" a given client as it returns time after time to a server is by setting a unique cookie when the client first connects to your server. From then on, every connection from that client to your server (until the cookie expires or is somehow deleted by the browser) whether the client is connection for an http request or is making a socket.io connection (which also starts with an http request) will present the cookie and you can then tell which client it is from that cookie.
So, my understanding of your problem is that you'd like to get a form POST from the client, return back to the client a rendered processing.ejs and then sometime later, you'd like to communicate with that rendered page in the client via socket.io. To do that, the following steps must occur.
Whenever the client makes the POST to your server, you must make sure there is a unique cookie sent back to that client. If the cookie already exists, you can leave it. If it does not exist, you must create a new one. This can be done manually, or you can use express-session to do it for you. I'd suggest using express-session because it will make the following steps easier and I will outline steps assuming you are using express-session.
Your processing.ejs page must have Javascript in it that makes a socket.io connection to your server and registers a message listener for your "dlready" message that your server will emit.
You will need a top-level io.on('connection', ...) on your server that puts the socket into the session object. Because the client can connect from multiple tabs, if you don't want that to cause trouble, you probably have to maintain an array of sockets in the session object.
You will need a socket.on('disconnect', ...) handler on your server that can remove a socket from the session object it's been stored in when it disconnects.
In your app.post() handler, when you are ready to send the dlready message, you will have to find the appropriate socket for that browser in the session object for that page and emit to that socket(s). If there are none because the page you rendered has not yet connected, you will have to wait for it to connect (this is tricky to do efficiently).
If the POST request comes in from Javascript in the page rather than from a form post, then things are slightly simpler because the browser won't close the current page and start a new page and thus the current socket.io connection will stay connected. You could still completely change the page visuals using client-side Javascript if you wanted. I would recommend this option.

How to proxy websocket connections to other websockets in NodeJS

I need to create a small authentication layer on top of a 3rd party web-socket based chat application. I have a simple API (get) that can validate api tokens from requests. What I want to do is essentially validate their token (which I know how to do) then proxy the websocket connection to the actual chat server.
I've been looking for solutions and this thread seems to give some pointers in the right direction however I can't get any of the solutions to work.
var http = require('http'),
WebSocket = require('faye-websocket'),
conf = require('./conf.json');
var server = http.createServer();
server.on('upgrade', function(request, socket, body) {
console.log('upgrade fired');
var frontend = new WebSocket(request, socket, body),
backend = new WebSocket.Client('ws://echo.websocket.org');
frontend.pipe(backend).pipe(frontend);
});
server.on('connection', function(socket) {
console.log('connection')
backend = new WebSocket.Client('ws://echo.websocket.org');
console.log(backend);
socket.pipe(backend).pipe(socket);
})
server.listen(conf.port);
console.log('Listening on '+port.conf);
The connection event is fired, however the upgrade event which is supposed to be fired on a ws connection never is.
The goal is to first authenticate a api key to an external server, then open a proxy to the chat websocket all through a request to this node server via a websocket connection. I'll most likely pass the api key as a get parameter for simplicity. I also looked at this package and attempted using it however it didn't work as well.
The issue ended up being with nginx. I forgot I was proxying requests through the reverse proxy and by default nginx does not support the ws:// connection so it drops it.

socketIO handshake behavior when connecting to different namespaces

I am having troubles with socketIO (nodejs) and using multiple namespaces. Maybe I misunderstood how to use it, but this is how I understood it should work.
Server side (nodejs)
io.of('/game').on('connection', socket => {
console.log(socket.handshake.query);
console.log('user connected to game socket', socket.id);
})
io.of('/api').on('connection',socket => {
console.log(socket.handshake.query);
console.log('user connected to api socket', socket.id);
}
Client side (browser)
function test (){
gameSocketTest = io.connect('http://localhost:4003/game',{query:{test:'test'}});
apiSocketTest = io.connect('http://localhost:4003/api');
}
The weird thing is that the query (that I only send to the "game" namespace) arrives in both handlers, also the one of the api.
If I inverse the order of the client side code to:
function test (){
apiSocketTest = io.connect('http://localhost:4003/api');
gameSocketTest = io.connect('http://localhost:4003/game',{query:{test:'test'}});
}
the query in the handshake is empty in both handlers server side. So my conclusion is that one way or another the same handshake is used for both connections (however the socket ids are different for both).
Is it "uberhaupt" possible to do what I am trying to do? If so, what am I not understanding with this weird handshake behavior.
In my understanding calling on the client side "io.connect()" should create 2 separate socket io clients, each with their own handshake.
Thanks for any help!
Andries
You must open new connection explicitly as Socket.IO tries to be smart and re-use connections (which causes a lot of connection issues actually) The way around this is use the force new connection option in your io.connect
gameSocketTest = io.connect('http://localhost:4003/game',{query:{test:'test'}});
apiSocketTest = io.connect('http://localhost:4003/api', {'force new connection': true});
From docs
When called, it creates a new Manager for the given URL, and attempts
to reuse an existing Manager for subsequent calls, unless the
multiplex option is passed with false. Passing this option is the equivalent of passing 'force new connection': true

socket.io client connection cannot be made on the 2nd time

Currently, I am implementing an API using nodejs express, then it needs to connect to socket.io and send event.
The API is located in socket.io-client (client), and it connects to socket.io (server)
1st API call: success
The connection is made for the 1st call of the API, message is sent and socket can be disconnected, with the 'disconnect' callback is invoked both on client and server side.
2nd API call: failure
When the API is invoked the 2nd time, the connection to server cannot be made, 'client' callback on client side is not called.
3rd API call: success
Then I tried to restart the client side, keeping other things unchanged. The API is called again, and the connection to socket.io is made successfully and everything is fine.
Can anyone explain the logistics behind this?
Updated
client.js
App.getByUserId(message.to_id, function(error, app) {
var socket = io.connect('http://127.0.0.1:9002');
socket.on('connect', function(){
console.log("client connect socket id:" + socket.id);
console.log("appkey:" + app.private_token);
socket.emit('appkey.check',{appkey: app.private_token, uuid: message.to_id.uuid}, function(data){
socket.emit("forceDisconnect");
socket = null;
});
});
You just hit one of Socket.IO's many "features" or "bugs" depending how you see this. Socket.IO tries to be smart and re-use connections (which causes a lot of connection issues actually) The way around this is use the force new connection option in your io.connect:
io.connect('http://127.0.0.1:9002', { 'force new connection': true });
What you could also do is use https://github.com/primus/primus which wraps Socket.IO if you use the socket.io transformer. Internally, it completely removes the use of the io.connect and uses the much more lower level io.Socket constructor to create more stable connections that you would get with a stock socket.io.
With socket 1.0+, you have to use this for forcing new connection.
io.connect(SERVER_IP, { 'forceNew': true });

Generating socket.io at Server side as Rest request

There is a way to manage the socket.io creation at Server Side?, Currently, I couldn't found any doc, Only found in relation with the socket is created per request from a client "io.connect(server)".
The current flow work OK:
Set Socket.io (at Node.js) at SERVER:PORT
Client connect to SERVER
using io.connect(SERVER:PORT)
I wonder if it is possible ? Trying to do:
Set Socket.io (at Node.js) at SERVER:PORT
Recieved a POST (REST) - Server side
Create/Open Socket.io a server side.
At response of Post send the id?
the clien open a socke.io
Sent to client socket.id to client as
So Far, looking in deep on the code and doc, I found that socket.io support namespaces, so I used this in order to manage client connection id.
at server.js
var app = express();
var server = require('http').createServer(app),
io = require('socket.io').listen(server,{ log: false });
// Rest New Process
function generateNameSpaceWs (responce, request) {
io.of("/" + id).on('connection', handler);
response.send(id);
}
app.post("/newWS", function (res, req) {
return generateNameSpaceWs(res, req);
}
at Client.js
function makeWS(){
var ws, c = new XMLHttpRequest();
c.open("GET", url, false);
c.send();
if (c.status == 200){
id = JSON.parse(c.responseText);
ws = new io.connect("server/" + id)
}
So far you are doing right, if I understand your question correctly, you are trying to authenticate connection via POST, so that user can only connect to server via socket if server responds to ID. This is a roundabout way. Use the socket instead of POST.
Socket server has to be running already, and accepts connection via io.sockets.on('connection'), at server you can choose whether to accept it or reject it ,do socket.disconnect('unauthorized') to close connection from server.
I would you suggest you do this :
Set Socket.io (at Node.js) at SERVER:PORT
Client connect to SERVER using io.connect(SERVER:PORT)
Send what you are sending in POST over socket.
Authenticate/Process on io.sockets.on('connection', function(socket) at server.
Close socket if unathorized.
Send back ID data to client.
This doesn't seem possible -- while the official documentation for socket.io is lacking, the documentation for the net module indicates that the only way to create a socket is to initiate it server side.
However, you can still achieve the desired effect by creating an id for the socket on the server to associate with the socket. That is,
Set Socket.io (at Node.js) at SERVER:PORT
Recieved POST (REST) - Server side
Create id (Note:This could be done before step 2)
At response of Post send the id!
Client connect to SERVER
using io.connect(SERVER:PORT)
The client sends the id to the server using something like
socket.emit("set_id",id)
The server recieves the id and associates it with the socket using something like
socket.on("set_id",function(id){
socket.set("id",id)
}
Now you can reference the socket using the id that you created!
Good luck!

Resources