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websockets is a fast, lightweight websockets implementation. It supports version 13 of the websocket protocol and, currently, no extensions. It passes all of the Autobahn websockets compliance tests.

All errors triggered by the library are of condition type websocket and all are continuable (not that they should be continued in all cases).

websockets also works with TLS. Just use it within a spiffy TLS request and connect to it with wss:// instead of ws://.

Author

Thomas Hintz with contributions from Seth Alves.

Please send an email to t@thintz.com or chicken-users@nongnu.org with questions, bug reports, or feature requests.

Repository

The git repository for the websockets source code is hosted by bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/thomashintz/websockets.

Requirements

The following eggs are required:

Quick start example

Put these two files in the same folder.

index.html

<html>
  <body>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      var ws = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8080/web-socket");
      ws.onmessage = function(evt) {
        alert(evt.data);
      };
      ws.onopen = function() {
        ws.send('Hello!');
      }
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

echo.scm

(import chicken scheme)
(use spiffy websockets)

(handle-not-found
 (lambda (path)
   (when (string= path "/web-socket")
         (with-websocket
          (lambda ()
            (send-message (string-append "you said: " (receive-message))))))))

(root-path ".")
(start-server port: 8080)

Then, in the same directory, run:

csi -s echo.scm

Navigate to http://localhost:8080 and you should see an alert saying "you said: Hello!".

The websocket specific code is really simple. In the above example it looks like this:

(with-websocket
  (lambda ()
    (send-message (string-append "you said: " (receive-message)))))

You can put that in any request handler it it will work the same.

Parameters

`current-websocket`

[parameter] (current-websocket [websocket])

(current-websocket) will be bound to a websocket object. Many procedures provide an optional argument for a websocket object and it is bound to current-websocket by default.

`ping-interval`

[parameter] (ping-interval [number])

How often to ping the client, in seconds, in the background. If 0 then automatic pinging will be disabled. This defaults to 15 seconds.

If this is set to a value greater than 0 then a thread will run in the background sending ping messages to the client at the specified interval. This is used to keep connections open that will otherwise be closed. Often connections without a transmission will be killed after awhile. Receiving pongs in response to a ping will also reset the connection close timer.

pong responses to ping messages are not passed through to the user but they are used to update the timestamp that the connection timeout thread uses to decide if it should kill a connection.

`close-timeout`

[parameter] (close-timeout [number])

How long to wait, in seconds, for the client to respond to a connection close request before timing out. If 0 then the connection timeout will be disabled. The default value is 5 seconds.

`connection-timeout`

[parameter] (connection-timeout [number])

The length of time in seconds without a response (of any kind) from the client before the connection to the client will be cut off. If 0 then the connection will never be timed out by the websocket (something else can, of course, timeout causing the websocket connection to fail anyways). The default is 60 seconds.

`accept-connection`

[parameter] (accept-connection [procedure])

A one-argument procedure taking as argument the URL path of the current page which tells whether to accept the websocket connection. If #t accept, #f reject. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that this parameter be set otherwise it opens up your application to potential security vulnerabilities. You will probably want to verify it is coming from a specific source. The default is to accept all connections.

`access-denied`

[parameter] (access-denied [procedure])

A procedure to be called when the origin header value is rejected by the accept-connection procedure.

The default is:

(lambda () (send-status 'forbidden "<h1>Access denied</h1>"))

`drop-incoming-pings`

[parameter] (drop-incoming-pings [boolean])

Clients should usually not initiate pings so the default is to drop all incoming pings without responding with a pong. This defaults to #t. Set this to #f to respond to incoming pings with a pong.

`propagate-common-errors`

[parameter] (propagate-common-errors [boolean])

A lot of errors that occur in the lifecycle of a websocket connection are more-or-less expected and it often is not interesting to receive and deal with these errors. The default is to correctly close the connection when an error occurs with the required opcode but the error is then not signaled to the user. The default is #f. Set to #t to receive all errors.

All websocket specific errors are covered by this. The only error you may receive if this is #f is of type websocket and unexpected-error if something goes terribly wrong with the implementation and usually means there is a bug in the implementation. This does not affect errors that are caused by user code, they will always be passed on but the websocket will be properly with an error code of 1011 (unexpected-error).

Note that this parameter is only relevant when using with-websocket or with-concurrent-websocket. If you don't use one of those then all errors will be propagated.

`max-frame-size`

[parameter] (max-frame-size [number])

The maximum allowed frame payload size. The default is 1MiB. If a frame exceeds this size then its payload will not be read and the connection will be dropped immediately. This signals a message-too-large error.

The maximum frame size supported by the current websockets implementation is 1GiB.

`max-message-size`

[parameter] (max-message-size [number])

The maximum allowed total message size. The default is 1MiB. If a frame will cause the max-message-size to be exceeded then its payload is not read and the connection is dropped immediately. This signals a message-too-large error.

The maximum message size supported by the current websockets implementation is 1GiB.

Interface

The websockets interface is not a "traditional" asynchronous API as is often seen with other websocket libraries. Instead a blocking and synchronous interface is provided as well as an asynchronous backed interface that looks and behaves like a blocking interface. See the function definitions below for further details.

The main difference between with-websocket and with-concurrent-websocket is that messages are guaranteed to be delivered in order with with-websocket. This also means that, when using with-websocket but not with-concurrent-websocket, no messages will be read into memory and processed unless a call is made to receive-message. This includes pong messages that may be sent in response to any pings sent in the background ping thread, if enabled. See the definition of ping-interval for more details on how background pings and pongs work. One implication of this is that unless you are waiting to receive a message (with receive-message) then pongs will not be received and the connection timeout timer will not be reset.

When receiving a connection-close message you should not send a response and you should exit the body of with-websocket or with-concurrent-websocket. At that point the connection will be closed properly. If you aren't expecting the connection to be closed you can signal an error and the websocket will be closed with an error code.

`with-websocket`

[procedure] (with-websocket [procedure])

with-websocket handles the process of setting up and closing off a websocket connection. procedure is a thunk to be executed after the websocket has been successfully setup. When you use with-websocket you can be assured that the connection will always be closed correctly even if errors occur in your application code and for all protocol violations.

with-websocket sends and receives all messages in a blocking fashion. Only one message will be sent or received at a time unless more threads are introduced in procedure. Even then the processing will block sending and receiving whereas it will not with with-concurrent-websocket.

Unless you expect a high volume of messages or messages of very large size on one websocket connection then this is the recommended procedure to use. It is easier to program when you know messages will arrive in order and it is more lightweight.

`with-concurrent-websocket`

[procedure] (with-concurrent-websocket [procedure])

This will, like with-websocket, handle setting up and closing a websocket connection. procedure is a thunk to be executed after the websocket has been successfully setup.

with-concurrent-websocket adds to with-websocket by running a thread in the background to read in messages as they arrive and spins off a new thread to process each message. Messages can arrive out-of-order, especially if there are a mix of very large and very small messages. with-concurrent-websocket can be very useful if very large messages are expected since they can take a long time to unmask and UTF8 validate.

Sending messages are still done in a blocking fashion but sending is relatively fast and will likely not be a problem. This could change in the future though so don't rely on it.

`receive-message`

[procedure] (receive-message #!optional (ws (current-websocket)))

Read in a message from the client. Returns two values. The first is the message and the second is the message type, either 'text or 'binary. Regardless of the message type the message itself will always be a string. Takes an optional websocket object that is bound to (current-websocket) by default. It will always block until a message is received but if used within with-concurrent-websocket it will not block other messages from being received or processed and will return the first message that is finished being processed.

receive-message is "concurrent" aware so if it is used within with-websocket it will behave in a purely blocking fashion and when used within with-concurrent-websocket it will utilize the provided concurrency mechanism internally.

Note on performance: the websocket protocol requires all messages to be valid UTF8. The current validation process is extremely fast and generates very little garbage for UTF8 messages that only contain ASCII code points (chars less than 128), but is quite slow and uses a lot of memory when it contains higher plane code points. If you are processing a high volume of messages or exceptionally large messages it may be worthwhile to try to keep all or most messages ASCII only.

This method is thread safe.

A list of the possible message types (symbols):

'text
'binary
'connection-close

If a message is of type binary then converting it to something possibly more "binary" like, such as a u8vector, could be done with the following. It will incur one copy of the data though.

(blob->u8vector/shared (string->blob msg))

You could also use a string port to read the data in different fashions.

(with-input-from-string msg
  (lambda ()
    (read-byte)
    (read-u8vector))) ; etc

`send-message`

[procedure] (send-message data #!optional (message-type 'text) (ws (current-websocket)))

Send a message to the client. data is a string or u8vector to be sent to the client. message-type is one of the types listed under the message-types section and defaults to 'text. Usually this will be 'text or 'binary but any valid type is allowed. Note that if the data argument is a u8vector it must be copied before being sent due to some CHICKEN internal limitations, strings will not be. send-message also takes an optional websocket object that is bound to (current-websocket) by default.

This method is thread safe.

A list of the possible message types (symbols):

'text
'binary
'ping

Exceptions

Possible exceptions and a brief description. See individual function definitions for details on when specific ones will be triggered.

type	description
websocket	A part of every websocket error as a composite condition. You can use this as a catchall for all websocket related errors.
protocol-error	Anytime something happens that violates the websocket protocol. The `msg` error property will contain details on the protocol broken.
invalid-optype	If an invalid message type (optype) is passed into any method that takes it as an argument.
reserved-bits-not-supported	A frame had a reserved bit set.
message-too-large	A message exceeds the set `(max-frame-size)` or `(max-message-size)` parameters.
unhandled-optype	The implementation received a frame with an opcode it could not handle. The `optype` property contains the unhandleable optype (as produced by `(opcode->optype)`).
invalid-data	Currently only signaled when a text payload contains invalid UTF8 codepoints. The `msg` property will hold a description of the "invalid data".
missing-header-upgrade	The request does not contain an "upgrade" parameter or it is not set to "websocket".
connection-timeout	The connection has timed out.

Examples

echo server for the Autobahn test suite

To run the tests make sure to have the test suites installed.

Autobahn test suite

echo-server.scm

(import chicken scheme)
(use spiffy websockets)

(ping-interval 0)
(drop-incoming-pings #f)

(handle-not-found
 (lambda (path)
   (with-websocket
     (lambda ()
       (let loop ()
         (receive (data type) (receive-message)
                  (unless (eq? type 'connection-close)
                          (send-message data type)
                          (loop))))))))

(start-server port: 8080)

ws-test.spec

{
    "servers": [
        {"agent": "AutobahnServer",
            "url": "ws://localhost:8080/web-socket",
            "options": {"version": 13}}
        ],
    "cases": ["1.*", "2.*", "3.*", "4.*", "5.*"],
    "exclude-cases": [],
    "exclude-agent-cases": {}
}

Run and compile it:

terminal

csc -O3 echo-server.scm
./echo-server

terminal 2

wstest -m fuzzingclient -s ws-test.spec

preventing some race conditions.
preventing some buffer overflows.
flushing the output port after each frame is sent (thanks to Mario Goulart).
correcting the upgrade header check (thanks to Andras Pahi).

Copyright (c) 2014, Thomas Hintz, Seth Alves
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. The name of the authors may not be used to endorse or promote products
   derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE
GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN
IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Outdated egg!

websockets

Description

Author

Repository

Requirements

Quick start example

Parameters

`current-websocket`

`ping-interval`

`close-timeout`

`connection-timeout`

`accept-connection`

`access-denied`

`drop-incoming-pings`

`propagate-common-errors`

`max-frame-size`

`max-message-size`

Interface

`with-websocket`

`with-concurrent-websocket`

`receive-message`

`send-message`

Exceptions

Examples

echo server for the Autobahn test suite

Contributors

Versions

0.1.6

0.1.5

0.1.4

0.1.3

0.1.2

0.1.1

0.1.0

0.0.1

License