TCP and WEB sockets - node.js

I have http server and socket.io (listening this http server). Clients connect(via socket io) and get some information. Now I want to have clients connecting via tcp socket that will receive the same information as the clients on web socket. How to do it? Is it required to create a net server? And if so, then how information which come to http server send to tcp clients?

You need to create the TCP server so clients will be able to connect to it.
One solution can be using a messaging system (such as pub/sub with Redis, or a library like https://github.com/learnboost/kue) to notify the other server to send the data.
For example:
1) user connects to socket.io
2) user connects to TCP server
3) TCP server subscribes to listening to signals
4) socket.io emits data to the user and signals the TCP server to send the data as well
5) TCP server sends the data

in nodejs to start a tcp server:
var fs = require('fs');
var net = require('net');
var server = net.createServer(function(socket){ // create a tcp server
socket.on('data',function(data){ // on data event when data is set to the socket
var strRequestInfo = data.toString(); // get the string sent by the client
/*
here you could analyse the request data
and think what to do with it like return a certain file
*/
fs.readFile('/path/to/some/file.html', function (err, fileData) { // read a file
if (err) throw err;
socket.write(fileData); // write file content to tcp socket
});
/* -or- just write some text */
socket.write(new Buffer('some text'));
});
});
server.listen(8080, function() { // bind the server
console.log('TCP server bound');
});
you have to take in to consideration that socket.on('data') will not trigger when all the data is sent, it can trigger many time depending on the size of the data being sent.
Therefore the request data should be concatenated until the logic of your request decides to send a response back to the client.
You can add the sockets to an array if you would like to send data to all sockets:
var socketArray =[];
var server = net.createServer(function(socket){
socketArray.push(socket);
});
then you could iterate and send responses to all client:
for(var i=0;i<socketArray.length;i++)
socketArray[i].write(new Buffer('some data'));

Related

How to connect two mobile clients via UDP sockets

I want to make a UDP connection for voice calls between two applications. To decrease transactions over the server, I need to send the UDP packet directly from one client to another client without sending packets over the server. But I faced the below situation:
When a packet is sent to a server, the server will receive it from the router IP and a random port.
I tried to send a response from the server to the client through the router IP and port by opening a new UDP socket connection, but the client didn't receive the response.
I do the same by sending my response over the socket that already received the client message, and this time it received the client.
I failed to send UDP packets from other UDP sockets (both on the server and other clients) to my first client, even over the router IP and opened port on it.
I'm curious to know if it is possible to make client-to-client UDP connection or not?
The below code is the correct model to return respond to the client:
const dgram = require('dgram');
const server = dgram.createSocket('udp4');
server.on('message', (msg, rinfo) => {
console.log(`* server got: ${msg} from ${rinfo.address}:${rinfo.port}`);
const message = Buffer.from('Some bytes to '+rinfo.address+":"+rinfo.port);
//////↓///////////This is the receiver socket
server.send(message, rinfo.port, rinfo.address);
//////↑///////////
});
server.bind(8090);
By the below code, the client will not receive any response, even from the server which received the client message right now!
const dgram = require('dgram');
const server = dgram.createSocket('udp4');
const serverResponse = dgram.createSocket('udp4');
server.on('message', (msg, rinfo) => {
console.log(`* server got: ${msg} from ${rinfo.address}:${rinfo.port}`);
const message = Buffer.from('Some bytes to '+rinfo.address+":"+rinfo.port);
///////↓///////// This is the different socket instance
serverResponse .send(message, rinfo.port, rinfo.address);
///////↑//////////
});
server.bind(8090);
is this true? "you send a message from your client and the server receive it but when you send response to your client the client did not receive the response".
If this is true then i think that you need use a same socket object for sending and receiving because you cannot create two socket object over same port on a device.

Node : how to set static port to udp client in node js

I am very new to Udp Socket programming, here i implemented echo UDP Client which connects to UDP server
var buffer = require('buffer');
var udp = require('dgram');
// creating a client socket
var client = udp.createSocket('udp4');
//buffer msg
var data = Buffer.from('Pradip Shinde');
client.on('message',function(msg,info){
console.log('Data received from server : ' + msg.toString());
console.log('Received %d bytes from %s:%d\n',msg.length, info.address, info.port);
});
//sending msg
client.send(data,9300,'192.168.1.187',function(error){
if(error){
client.close();
}else{
console.log('Data sent from client!!!');
}
});
when this client send msg to server, operating system assign the random port to this client but in my scenario i want static port which will never change, is it possible to assign static port to udp client?
As mentioned in the documentation, you can use bind method to do this,
For UDP sockets, causes the dgram.Socket to listen for datagram messages on a named port and optional address that are passed as properties of an options object passed as the first argument. If port is not specified or is 0, the operating system will attempt to bind to a random port. If address is not specified, the operating system will attempt to listen on all addresses. Once binding is complete, a 'listening' event is emitted and the optional callback function is called.
Try using
// Creating a client socket
var client = udp.createSocket('udp4');
// Bind your port here
client.bind({
address: 'localhost',
port: 8000,
exclusive: true
});
For more information follow this documentation.

Combining Nodejs Net socket and Socket IO

I have a windows application (Built on C# as windows service) that sends data to NodeJs Net Socket, So since Socket.IO helps making a Web Application a live one , without the need of reload. How can i allow Socket.IO stream the received data from NodeJs Net Socket to the Web Application , in the exact moment the Net Socket receives data from C#?
So in the code that receives the socket data from C#:
var net = require('net');
net.createServer(function (socket) {
socket.on('data', function (data) {
broadcast(socket.name + "> \n" + data + " \n", socket);
socket.end("<EOF>");
//send data to web interface , does it work that way?
//SomeFooToSendDataToWebApp(Data)
});
});
Further more for the Socket.IO i have those lines , which i cant really figure out how to deal with them:
//Should it listen to net socket or web socket?
server.listen(8080);
// Loading socket.io
var io = require('socket.io').listen(server);
// It works but only for one request
io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket2) {
socket2.emit('message' , 'Message Text');
});
P.S: I am new to nodejs & socket.io , so if its possible as well to explain their behavior.
Edit 1 : My Front End Javascript to check it if it has any problems:
//for now it listens to http port , which Socket.IO listens to
var socket = io.connect('http://localhost:8080');
var myElement = document.getElementById("news");
socket.on('message', function(message) {
document.getElementById("news").innerHTML = message;
})
Edit 2 : Did follow jfriend00's answer as it seems my previous code tries were trying to send messages to an unknown socket, i only added this since i needed it to be sent to all the connected clients , so only one line fixed it !
socket.on('data', function (data) {
broadcast(socket.name + "> \n" + data + " \n", socket);
socket.end("<EOF>");
//send data to web interface , does it work that way?
//The Added code here:
io.emit('message',data + " more string");
});
It's a bit hard to tell exactly what you're asking.
If you have some data you want to send to all connected socket.io clients (no matter where the data came from), then you can do that with:
io.emit("someMessage", dataToSend);
If you want to send to only one specific connected client, then you have to somehow get the socket object for that specific client and then do:
socket.emit("someMessage", dataToSend);
How you get the specific socket object for the desired connected client depends entirely upon how your app works and how you know which client it is. Every socket connection on the server has a socket.id associated with it. In some cases, server code uses that id to keep track of a given client (such as putting the id in the session or saving it in some other server-side data). If you have the id for a socket, you can get to the socket with the .to() method such as:
io.to(someId).emit("someMessage", dataToSend);
Your question asked about how you send data received from some C# service over a normal TCP socket. As far as sending it to a socket client, it does not matter at all where the data came from or how you received it. Once you have the data in some Javascript variable, it's all the same from there whether it came from a file, from an http request, from an incoming TCP connection in your C# service, etc... It's just data you want to send.
You can try the following, simple server:
const io = require('socket.io')(8080);
io.on('connection', socket => {
console.log('client connected');
socket.on('data', data => {
io.emit('message', data);
});
});
console.log('server started at port 8080');
It should work if I understand the problem correctly.
And maybe document.getElementById("news").innerHTML += message; in the html client code to see what really happens there?
socket2 means your client which just connected. So you can store these connections to send data to them (helpful for broadcast).
If you get data from windows service via some polling mechanism, on this step you can send this message to your connected clients. So keep your connections in a array to send specific messages each client afterwards

Is it possible to enable tcp, http and websocket all using the same port?

I am trying to enable tcp, http and websocket.io communication on the same port. I started out with the tcp server (part above //// line), it worked. Then I ran the echo server example found on websocket.io (part below //// line), it also worked. But when I try to merge them together, tcp doesn't work anymore.
SO, is it possible to enable tcp, http and websockets all using the same port? Or do I have to listen on another port for tcp connections?
var net = require('net');
var http = require('http');
var wsio = require('websocket.io');
var conn = [];
var server = net.createServer(function(client) {//'connection' listener
var info = {
remote : client.remoteAddress + ':' + client.remotePort
};
var i = conn.push(info) - 1;
console.log('[conn] ' + conn[i].remote);
client.on('end', function() {
console.log('[disc] ' + conn[i].remote);
});
client.on('data', function(msg) {
console.log('[data] ' + conn[i].remote + ' ' + msg.toString());
});
client.write('hello\r\n');
});
server.listen(8080);
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
var hs = http.createServer(function(req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {
'Content-Type' : 'text/html'
});
res.end(['<script>', "var ws = new WebSocket('ws://127.0.0.1:8080');", 'ws.onmessage = function (data) { ws.send(data); };', '</script>'].join(''));
});
hs.listen(server);
var ws = wsio.attach(hs);
var i = 0, last;
ws.on('connection', function(client) {
var id = ++i, last
console.log('Client %d connected', id);
function ping() {
client.send('ping!');
if (last)
console.log('Latency for client %d: %d ', id, Date.now() - last);
last = Date.now();
};
ping();
client.on('message', ping);
});
You can have multiple different protocols handled by the same port but there are some caveats:
There must be some way for the server to detect (or negotiate) the protocol that the client wishes to speak. You can think of separate ports as the normal way of detecting the protocol the client wishes to speak.
Only one server process can be actually listening on the port. This server might only serve the purpose of detecting the type of protocol and then forwarding to multiple other servers, but each port is owned by a single server process.
You can't support multiple protocols where the server speaks first (because there is no way to detect the protocol of the client). You can support a single server-first protocol with multiple client-first protocols (by adding a short delay after accept to see if the client will send data), but that's a bit wonky.
An explicit design goal of the WebSocket protocol was to allow WebSocket and HTTP protocols to share the same server port. The initial WebSocket handshake is an HTTP compatible upgrade request.
The websockify server/bridge is an example of a server that can speak 5 different protocols on the same port: HTTP, HTTPS (encrypted HTTP), WS (WebSockets), WSS (encrypted WebSockets), and Flash policy response. The server peeks at the first character of the incoming request to determine if it is TLS encrypted (HTTPS, or WSS) or whether it begins with "<" (Flash policy request). If it is a Flash policy request, then it reads the request, responds and closes the connection. Otherwise, it reads the HTTP handshake (either encrypted or not) and the Connection and Upgrade headers determine whether it is a WebSocket request or a plain HTTP request.
Disclaimer: I made websockify
Short answer - NO, you can't have different TCP/HTTP/Websocket servers running on the same port.
Longish answer -
Both websockets and HTTP work on top of TCP. So you can think of a http server or websocket server as a custom TCP server (with some state mgmt and protocol specific encoding/decoding). It is not possible to have multiple sockets bind to the same port/protocol pair on a machine and so the first one will win and the following ones will get socket bind exceptions.
nginx allows you to run http and websocket on the same port, and it forwards to the correct appliaction:
https://medium.com/localhost-run/using-nginx-to-host-websockets-and-http-on-the-same-domain-port-d9beefbfa95d

How can I send packets between the browser and server with socket.io, but only when there is more than one client?

In my normal setup, the client will emit data to my server regardless of whether or not there is another client to receive it. How can I make it so that it only sends packets when the user-count is > 1? I'm using node with socket.io.
To do this you would want to listen to the connection event on your server (as well as disconnect) and maintain a list of clients which are connected in a 'global' variable. When more than 1 client is connected send out a message to all connected clients to know they can start sending messages, like so:
var app = require('express').createServer(),
io = require('socket.io').listen(app);
app.listen(80);
//setup express
var clients = [];
io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
clients.push(socket);
if (clients.length > 1) {
io.socket.emit('start talking');
}
socket.on('disconnect', function () {
var index = clients.indexOf(socket);
clients = clients.slice(0, index).concat(clients.slice(index + 1));
if (clients.length <= 1) {
io.sockets.emit('quiet time');
};
});
});
Note: I'm making an assumption here that the socket is passed to the disconnect event, I'm pretty sure it is but haven't had a chance to test.
The disconnect event wont receive the socket passed into it but because the event handler is registered within the closure scope of the initial connection you will have access to it.

Resources