I'm using Node.js with ws(a socket library) and I'm having a little trouble with finding the socket of a specific user.
when the user connects to my socket server, I'm supposed to keep his socket objct in a big massive object by his userID or socketID like this:
var bigMassiveObject = {};
ws.on('connection', function(socket){
var userID //somehow get the userID
bigMassiveObject[userID] = socket;
// to find the socket
socket = bigMassiveObject[userID];
socket.send("hi");
})
so that later I can send him message by that ID, but isn't it better to just keep his socketID? this way we are not storing all the socket, but only the ID and then somehow(which I don;t know) send him message by that ID
this is what i'm looking for:
var smallObject = {};
ws.on('connection', function(socket){
var userID //somehow get the userID
smallObject[userID] = socketID;
// to find the socket
var socket = generateSocketObjectBySocketID(socketID);
socket.send("tada!");
})
so the question is, is there anyway to generate the socket, by the socketID(or useID)? so that we wouldn't be storing all these big socket objects in memory and there wouldn't be any memory leakage too :)
Simply,
This is what you need :
io.to(socket.id).emit("event", data);
whenever a user joined to the server,socket details will be generated including ID.This is the ID really helps to send a message to particular people.
first we need to store all the socket.ids in array,
var people={};
people[name] = socket.id;
here name is the reciever name. Example:
people["trojan"]=2387423cjhgfwerwer23;
So, now we can get that socket.id with the reciever name whenever we are sending message:
for this we need to know the recievername.You need to emit reciever name to the server.
final thing is:
socket.on('chat message', function(data){
io.to(people[data.reciever]).emit('chat message', data.msg);
});
Hope this works well for you.!!Good Luck
Related
I just started learning NodeJS and Socket.io. Until now I have this demo code, from official socket.io site:
http://socket.io/demos/chat/
I am able to get the unique client's ID of each user (socket) which connects, I am still trying to figure out, How can I make my code to only connect with 1 random user at a time when somebody runs the application. I just want to make random chat like Omegle (http://www.omegle.com/).
Only two users should randomly connect and chat with each other till they re-run the app, if they come back they should get connected with someone else who is in the online queue.
What changes do I need to do to have a similar behaviour?
Update
Added Client site code, main.js
$(function() {
var FADE_TIME = 150; // ms
var TYPING_TIMER_LENGTH = 400; // ms
var COLORS = [
'#e21400', '#91580f', '#f8a700', '#f78b00',
'#58dc00', '#287b00', '#a8f07a', '#4ae8c4',
'#3b88eb', '#3824aa', '#a700ff', '#d300e7'
];
// Initialize variables
var $window = $(window);
var $usernameInput = $('.usernameInput'); // Input for username
var $messages = $('.messages'); // Messages area
var $inputMessage = $('.inputMessage'); // Input message input box
var $loginPage = $('.login.page'); // The login page
var $chatPage = $('.chat.page'); // The chatroom page
// Prompt for setting a username
var username;
var connected = false;
var typing = false;
var lastTypingTime;
var $currentInput = $usernameInput.focus();
//Own Global
var room = '';
var socket = io();
function addParticipantsMessage (data) {
var message = '';
if (data.numUsers === 1) {
// message += "there's 1 participant";
// Status Message
message += "Waiting to connect with someone";
} else {
// message += "there are " + data.numUsers + " participants";
//Status message update
message = "You are connected to a stranger! Say Hey!";
}
log(message);
}
// Sets the client's username
function setUsername () {
username = cleanInput($usernameInput.val().trim());
// If the username is valid
if (username) {
$loginPage.fadeOut();
$chatPage.show();
$loginPage.off('click');
$currentInput = $inputMessage.focus();
// Tell the server your username
socket.emit('add user', username);
// Own
socket.emit('login', {'username' : 'Faizan'});
}
}
Although I would close this question because it's too vague, I feel obliged to give you some insight since I worked way too much with websockets in the last years (although not that much with socketio & nodejs). I suppose some simple guide and relevant links could help you. So first,
Kind of relevant intro
You should already know that Socket.io is a WebSocket implementation.
WebSockets (WS) allow server to send data whenever it wants, as long as the connection is still open, as opposed to old way: client querying all the time asking, if there is an update on the server.
You can imagine a woman and a man at the end of a party: "Thanks for tonight, I'd love to repeat it sometimes soon. Would you give me your number?" - asks the old man. "Ughhh, you know what, better give me yours, I promise I will call you!"
If the girl were to give him her number, he'd call a few times a day asking if she'd go somewhere (and she'd reply no). The other way around, she would call him only if she wanted to go and he would go. Of course he would.
I got a bit carried away, but you get the picture. The woman is a server, the guy is a client.
What is important to understand
(Absolute basic, you should know this =>)
When client connect to your server, (s)he should be served a html page and some javascript, which establishes connection to your WS server. In the code you've posted, Express is used as http server. Check this example to see how you should give user html&js.
You'll also notice namespaces and rooms in most of these tutorials. These are used for separating users into subcategories. One server may contain multiple namespaces (by default only one) and each namespace may contain multiple rooms. You probably won't need to bother with namespaces, one is just enough for your case. You will, however, need to understand rooms (more on that later).
Next thing, taken from your code
io.on('connection', function (socket) {
It's important to know, that socket here basically represent one connected client (in one namespace, but possibly in multiple rooms). You can do all sort of stuff with it, most notably:
install event handlers on it (that's what you do when you call socket.on(event, handler(data))
send events to it with socket.emit(event, data)
send broadcast event to all users with socket.broadcast.emit(event, data)
add/remove it to/from room with socket.join(room), socket.leave(room) respectively.
work with it as with an ordinary variable - store it wherever you want and then reuse it
Do you see the definition of numUsers in your code? That's a global variable which is shared with all clients, since nodejs is single-threaded. In the example it is being incremented inside one of the event handlers. Think we could use something like that? YES.
We can define global variable, queue for example. Or Q if you want. Point is, it can be an array used to store sockets, or rather clients, which are not currently in chat room.
At the end of this section I'd like to point out another obvious thing.
io.on('connection', handler); defines an event handler for 'connection' event happening on the io object (WS server). This is triggered each time client makes connection to your WS server (in your case, through javascript ran inside client's browser). Argument to the method is socket and it is this method where you should add event listeners for each client (that you already do in the code, particularly handling events 'new message', 'add user', 'typing', 'stop typing' and 'disconnect').
What events shall you need
That really depends on how complex you want your app to be. In my opinion, the bare minimum would be (note that you can change the event names, but 'disconnect' should stay 'disconnect'):
event name -> data given
Events handled on server side
login -> username (how the user should be called), possibly password if you want to enable registration
message -> text (content of the message being sent)
leave room -> room name
disconnect
Event handled on client side
connect
chat start -> name (second client's name), room (so we can leave it)
chat end -> no data required if you want to allow only one chat at the same time. In case of multiple chats you should also include which chat got closed
disconnect
Last note before we get started
This is only a rough sketch. There are multiple different crossroads along the way and which path you take mostly depends on your idea of the app. If you want to have multiple chats opened at the same time, you'll need to do some modifications. The same goes if you want to have more than two people connected to the same chat. Here I'll describe the simplest case possible, one chat, to people, no registration. Possibly what you want, judging from your post. Could be wrong.
Workflow
User opens your page in their web browser. You serve them html and javascript. The javascript will start new connection to your websocket server. Also, handlers for desired events should be defined at this point.
When the connection is established, this will be happening:
ON SERVER SIDE
io.on('connection', handler) will be fired. Only appropriate handlers for new socket will be installed, not doing anything else at this point.
ON CLIENT SIDE
socket.on('connect', handler) will be fired. Client should at that point have username stored somewhere. If not, no problem. The connection will be alive for quite some time. You can just call socket.emit('login', {'username':name) any time you wish after you are connected (in the example below I set up variable connected, which defaults to false but will be set to true as soon as connection is established.)
After you send login event from client, server registers it and saves it somewhere. Possibilities are endless, in this case I'll create global dictionary which maps socket.id to username. After that, user socket should be either paired with another one or added to queue.
So, if the queue is empty, simply append socket to global variable (it doesn't have to be an array, since we will pair the first available sockets together, however you may want to implement some history of users so they won't get connected to the same person again). If the queue is not empty, we pull one socket out of the Q and add them to the same room. Room name can be random or whatever you want, I'll use (socket1.id+'#'+socket2.id (if you wanted to have more users in one chat, this would have to be changed).
After you add them both, you'll need to notify them that their chat has started and send them the other peer's name. You will emit event 'chat start'.
Clients will catch the event and open new window. After that, whenever user types something and sends it, client emits event 'message' with payload {'message': user_inserted_text}. Server will capture it in the .on('message' handler and broadcast it to the room. Note:
Broadcasting means sending a message to everyone else except for the socket that starts it.
Note: I am really confused about socketio code right now. Look at this and tell me, if socket.rooms is an array or an object (socket.rooms[room] = room; ?? why?)
To avoid dealing with this not-straightforward code, lets create another global object, rooms, which will store the room names for us. We will map socket.id -> roomName there.
So when message comes, we can get name of the room by calling rooms[socket.id]. Then we broadcast the message like this:
socket.broadcast.to(room).emit('message', data);
Where data is what we received from the sender, therefore object {'text': 'some nice message'}. Your peer will then receive it (you won't) and display it (you should display it when you are sending it).
So the chat continues like this for a while, then one of the users decides (s)he wants to leave / chat with somebody else. They will close window and client will emit event 'leave room'. Server will capture it and send to the other party that her/his peer has disconnected. The same should happen if the client disconnects. After everything is closed, add both users to queue (or only one, if the other has disconnected from the server). In my code I will not make sure they won't get paired again. That is for the OP to code (can't be hard).
So, if you read this far, you deserve some actual code. Although I say actual, it's actually untested. But you know, it should work like this.
Some code
Client side
var connected = false;
var username = 'Faizan';
var room = '';
var socket = io('http://localhost');
socket.on('connect', function (data) { // we are connected, should send our name
connected = true;
if (username) socket.emit('login', {'username' : username});
});
socket.on('chat start', function(data) {
room = data.room;
show_chat_window(data.name); // some method which will show chat window
});
socket.on('chat end', function(data) {
hide_chat_window(); // this will close chat window and alert user that the peer ended chat
socket.leave(room); // it's possible to leave from both server and client, hoever it is better to be done by the client in this case
room = '';
});
socket.on('disconnect', function(data) { // handle server/connection falling
console.log('Connection fell or your browser is closing.');
});
var send_message = function(text) { // method, which you will call when user hits enter in input field
if (connected) socket.emit('message', {'text': text});
};
var leave_chat = function() { // call this when user want to end current chat
if (connected) {
socket.emit('leave room');
socket.leave(room);
room = '';
}
};
Server side
Not including initial requires and html/js serving., only global definitions and main io handler.
var queue = []; // list of sockets waiting for peers
var rooms = {}; // map socket.id => room
var names = {}; // map socket.id => name
var allUsers = {}; // map socket.id => socket
var findPeerForLoneSocket = function(socket) {
// this is place for possibly some extensive logic
// which can involve preventing two people pairing multiple times
if (queue) {
// somebody is in queue, pair them!
var peer = queue.pop();
var room = socket.id + '#' + peer.id;
// join them both
peer.join(room);
socket.join(room);
// register rooms to their names
rooms[peer.id] = room;
rooms[socket.id] = room;
// exchange names between the two of them and start the chat
peer.emit('chat start', {'name': names[socket.id], 'room':room});
socket.emit('chat start', {'name': names[peer.id], 'room':room});
} else {
// queue is empty, add our lone socket
queue.push(socket);
}
}
io.on('connection', function (socket) {
console.log('User '+socket.id + ' connected');
socket.on('login', function (data) {
names[socket.id] = data.username;
allUsers[socket.id] = socket;
// now check if sb is in queue
findPeerForLoneSocket(socket);
});
socket.on('message', function (data) {
var room = rooms[socket.id];
socket.broadcast.to(room).emit('message', data);
});
socket.on('leave room', function () {
var room = rooms[socket.id];
socket.broadcast.to(room).emit('chat end');
var peerID = room.split('#');
peerID = peerID[0] === socket.id ? peerID[1] : peerID[0];
// add both current and peer to the queue
findPeerForLoneSocket(allUsers[peerID]);
findPeerForLoneSocket(socket);
});
socket.on('disconnect', function () {
var room = rooms[socket.id];
socket.broadcast.to(room).emit('chat end');
var peerID = room.split('#');
peerID = peerID[0] === socket.id ? peerID[1] : peerID[0];
// current socket left, add the other one to the queue
findPeerForLoneSocket(allUsers[peerID]);
});
});
P.S.
The code above got a bit messy in the end. It can be done better and I encourage you to do better job than I did. Having this material at hand, go through it step by step and try to understand. I think I commented most, if not all of it. Good luck.
Tl;dr
I am not even surprised. Here, read a comic
Following on the question asked by me:
socket io changes socket.id repeatedly
Registering only happens when the client comes on the chatpage:
On the client:
socketConnect: function() {
socket = io.connect('https://socket.mydomain.nl');
socket.on('connect', function() {
socket.emit('register', userID, 'Lobby');
});
};
Server
var UserSockIdStorage = {},
Allsocketids = [];
//Clients connect and register here.
io.sockets.on('connection', function(socket) {
socket.on("register", function(userID, currentchannel, userinfostr) {
console.log('USER WITH ID ' + userID + ' REGISTERS WITH THE SOCKETIDOF: ' + socket.id);
UserSockIdStorage[userID] = socket.id; //userid is associated with the socket ID.
socket.room = currentchannel;
socket.join(currentchannel);
});
As you can see i store the username in an array with the socket ID as its value.
When a message is to be send the username is looked up to retrieve the socket ID to send the message to.
Now come the part that i don't understand:
Clients keep reconnecting (Not registering so the socket id is not saved in the array!!) from time to time and i can see that they get another socket ID.
My guess would then be, that when i look up by username (Array UserSockIdStorage) a socket ID to send a message to, and the owner of that ID made several reconnects thus acquiring a new socket ID over and over again,
that a message send to the lookedUp socket ID wouldn't go anywhere since the client obtained several new socket ID's in the meanwhile.
But from what i'm observing the message is routed to the correct client so the first socket ID is still it's socket ID?!
Are those ID's cached or somewhat?
I am currently having a problem with a small Node.JS application. It is extremely similar to, for example, the Socket.IO sample chat application: whenever an user sends data to the server, I need to process the data and then broadcast it to all users. However, the way data is processed depends on the user that receives it. I tried altering the Socket#emit method (in order to process the data before sending it) for each socket, but the broadcasting doesn't use it. Is there any way I can get this solved?
Thanks in advance.
EDIT
Here is what I'd tried ():
var io = require('socket.io');
io.use(function(socket, next) {
var old_emit = socket.emit;
socket.emit = function() {
// do something with the data (arguments[1] in this case)
// the processing of the data depends on a value that is
// unique to each connection, and can't be sent over to the client
old_emit.apply(socket, arguments);
}
});
I tried the code above because I thought, initially, that broadcasting would call emit somewhere else for each connection.
I am not sure what you want to do,
There is no any "io( )" like function.You are doing it wrong.
BTW, to process data.
From sample chat application,
// when the client emits 'new message', this listens and executes
socket.on('new message', function (data) {
//call a function which you want to process data
var newData = messageProcessingFunc(data);
//and then broadcast it.
// we tell the client to execute 'new message'
socket.broadcast.emit('new message', {
username: socket.username,
message: newData
});
});
sorry, but i have a problem. I have progged a community. I want ro realize a 1:1-Chat in this community.
If a user logs in at the community, he's initiate a connection in the login.php-File:
var socket = io.connect("http://localhost:8080");
Now the question: can i send the userid with this line?
Because i want to store a pair of numbers in my sql-DB on the chatserver: the connection id and the id of the communitymember. That's because i have to inform a communitymember in chat if his chatpartner is logout and unreachable.
Very Thanks!!! And sorry for my bad english.
On the client, just pass the user id as a query string.
var socket = io.connect('http://localhost:8080?user=123');
On the server, you will probably want to handle the data in a connection handler. To do this, you have to add an authorization handler, and save the data into the handshakeData object. You can then access it on socket.handshake.
io.set('authorization', function (handshakeData, callback)
{
handshakeData.userId = handshakeData.query.user;
callback(null, true);
});
io.sockets.on('connection', function(socket)
{
console.log(socket.id, ' => ', socket.handshake.userId);
}
I've beeen scouring the Net with no luck. I'm trying to figure out how to send a private message from one user to another. There are lots of snippets, but I'm not sure about the client/server interaction. If I have the ID of the socket I want to send to, how do I send it to the server, and how do I ensure the server only sends the message to that one receiver socket?
Is there a tutorial or walkthrough that anyone knows of?
No tutorial needed. The Socket.IO FAQ is pretty straightforward on this one:
socket.emit('news', { hello: 'world' });
EDIT: Folks are linking to this question when asking about how to get that socket object later. There is no need to. When a new client connects, save a reference to that socket on whatever object you're keeping your user information on. My comment from below:
In the top of your script somewhere, setup an object to hold your users' information.
var connectedUsers = {};
In your .on('connection') function, add that socket to your new object. connectedUsers[USER_NAME_HERE] = socket; Then you can easily retrieve it later. connectedUsers[USER_NAME_HERE].emit('something', 'something');
Here's a code snippet that should help:
Client-side (sending message)
socket.emit("private", { msg: chatMsg.val(), to: selected.text() });
where to refers to the id to send a private message to and msg is the content.
Client-side (receiving message)
socket.on("private", function(data) {
chatLog.append('<li class="private"><em><strong>'+ data.from +' -> '+ data.to +'</strong>: '+ data.msg +'</em></li>');
});
where chatLog is a div displaying the chat messages.
Server-side
client.on("private", function(data) {
io.sockets.sockets[data.to].emit("private", { from: client.id, to: data.to, msg: data.msg });
client.emit("private", { from: client.id, to: data.to, msg: data.msg });
});
Although we have nice answers here. However, I couldn't grasp the whole client server unique user identification pretty fast, so I'm posting this simple steps in order to help whoever is struggling as i did.....
At the client side, Get the user's ID, in my case I'm getting the username...
Client side user registration
//Connect socket.io
var systemUrl = 'http://localhost:4000';
var socket = io.connect(systemUrl);
//Collect User identity from the client side
var username = prompt('Enter your Username');
socket.emit('register',username);
The Listen to register on the server side to register user's socket to connected socket
Serve side code User registration
/*Craete an empty object to collect connected users*/
var connectedUsers = {};
io.on('connection',function(socket){
/*Register connected user*/
socket.on('register',function(username){
socket.username = username;
connectedUsers[username] = socket;
});
});
Send Message from the client side
$(document).on('click','.username',function(){
var username = $(this).text(),
message = prompt("type your message");
socket.emit('private_chat',{
to : username,
message : message
});
});
Receive message on server and emit it to private user
/*Private chat*/
socket.on('private_chat',function(data){
const to = data.to,
message = data.message;
if(connectedUsers.hasOwnProperty(to)){
connectedUsers[to].emit('private_chat',{
//The sender's username
username : socket.username,
//Message sent to receiver
message : message
});
}
});
Receive message on client and display it
/*Received private messages*/
socket.on('private_chat',function(data){
var username = data.username;
var message = data.message;
alert(username+': '+message);
});
This is not the best, however you can start from here....
The easiest way I can think of is to have an hash of all the users on using their id or name as the key and have their socket as part of the value then when you want to send a message to just them you pull that socket and emit on it... something like this:
users[toUser].emit('msg',"Hello, "+toUser+"!");
if you have a web site that has register users with uid then you can create a room for each user and name the room by uid of the user.
first connect client to the server using :
var socket = io('server_url');
on the server side create an event for detecting client connection:
io.on('connection', function (socket) {}
then you can emit to client inside it using socket.emit(); and ask uid of current user.
on the client side create an event for this request and then send uid of the user to server.
now on server side join the connected socket to room using :
socket.join(uid);
console.log('user ' + socket.user + ' connected \n');
now you can send private message to a user using following line:
io.to(uid).emit();
if you use the code above, it doesn't matter how many tab user has already open from your web site . each tab will connect to the same room.
in socket.io 1.0 use
io.sockets.connected[<socketid>]
you can store just socket id. like so:
var users = {};
users[USER_NAME] = socket.id;
then:
io.sockets.connected[users[USER_NAME]]
.emit('private', {
msg:'private message for user with name '+ USER_NAME
});
You can create an unique room for messaging between USER_A and USER_B and both users must join to this room. You may use an UUID as a ROOM_ID (the 'socketId' in the following example).
io.on('connection', socket => {
socket.on('message', message => {
socket.to(message.socketId).emit('message', message);
});
socket.on('join', socketId => {
socket.join(socketId);
});
});
See Joining Rooms and Emit Cheatsheet
The way I got it to work is by introducing one more event "registered user". This basically triggers on the client side as soon as there is a registered user and then emits this even and passes "currentUser._id"
Client Side:
var socket = io();
<% if (currentUser) { %>
socket.emit('registered user', "<%= currentUser._id %>");
<% } %>
Server Side: Once the "registered user" even triggers, it joins the current user socket to the new room with the name which is that user id. So basically each registered user will be in a room which is his/her uid.
socket.on('registered user', function (uid) {
socket.join(uid)
});
Server Side: One there is a message sent, I pass the id of the user the message is sent to in the msg object and then emit to that specific room.
// Private chat
socket.on('chat message', function (msg) {
const uidTo = msg.uidTo
socket.in(uidTo).emit('chat message', msg )
}); `
});