AJAXy Websockets

Familiar with node http and Express web servers? AJAXy Websockets enables you to do things like this!

/***** On the server *****/
var io = require('socket.io')(server);
var socketRouter = new AjaxySocketRouter(io);
 
// This is using websockets, not HTTP!
socketRouter.get('/api/some_object/:id', function(req, res) {
    res.send("Hello from ID " + req.params.id);
});
 
 
/***** On the client *****/
// Create the socket
var socket = new AjaxySocket({
    socketURL: 'ws://127.0.0.1:3000'
});
socket.start();
 
// When user clicks the button, get data for ID 1234567 from websocket!
$('#my-button').click(function() {
    socket.get('/api/some_object/1234567', function(response) {
        console.log(response.data); // "Hello from ID 1234567"
    });
});

Gracefullly degrade to AJAX requests if sockets aren't available

The beautiful part about all this is that you can assign the exact same handler method for both sockets and AJAX!

var myRequestHandler = function(req, res) { 
    if(req.params.id) {
        // Got an ID! Send back an "object"
        res.json({
            status: 'success',
            obj: {id: req.params.id}
        });
    } else {
        res.json({
            status: 'failed',
            message: 'Missing ID param!'
        });
    }
};
 
// Handle incoming socket requests
socketRouter.get('/api/some_object/:id', myRequestHandler);
// Gracefully degrade to AJAX
server.get('/api/some_object/:id', myRequestHandler);

Dev Note: This is still in it's early stages so take care if you plan to use this in production apps. See the roadmap below for what needs to be implemented.

Dependencies

Socket.io

The full setup

This solution does require the use of socket.io (shouldn't be a huge deal since it's the most popular sockets library on NPM). This can be used with or without Express.

On the server:

var AjaxySocketRouter = require('ajaxy-websockets');
 
// Instantiate a basic web server
var server = require('http').createServer(function(request, response) {
    // Regular req/response stuff goes here
});
 
// Require socket.io and pass it to an instance of ajaxy sockets
var io = require('socket.io')(server);
var socketRouter = new AjaxySocketRouter(io);

On the client:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head lang="en">
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <title>Websockets routing!</title>
 
        <!-- load in Socket.io client -->
        <script src="https://cdn.socket.io/socket.io-1.1.0.js"></script> 
        <!-- load in AjaxySocket -->
        <script src="/my/path/to/ajaxy-websocket-client.js"></script> 
    </head>
    <body>
        <button id="my-button">Gimme socket data!</button>
    </body>
    <script>
        // Your socket server address
        var host = 'ws:127.0.0.1:8888';
        var socket = new AjaxySocket({
            socketURL: host
        });
        socket.start();
 
        // Setup done. Start using it!
 
        // When user clicks the button, get data for ID 1234567 from websocket!
        $('#my-button').click(function() {
            socket.get('/api/some_object/1234567', function(response) {
                console.log(response.data); // "Hello from ID 1234567"
            });
        });
    </script> 
</html>

That's it! It can also be used with express.

var express = require('express');
 
// Setup express app
var app = express();
app.use( ... );
 
// Now with express setup, just create an HTTP webserver 
// (passing it express app) and the rest is the same as before!
var server = require('http').createServer(app);
 
// Require socket.io and pass it to an instance of ajaxy sockets
var io = require('socket.io')(server);
var socketRouter = new AjaxySocketRouter(io);

Need to secure sockets with authentication using things like passport for Socket.io? No problem!

// Basic socket.io setup
var io = require('socket.io')(server);
 
// Use the socket.io bundle and passport libs
var socketIOBundle = require('socket.io-bundle');
var socketIOPassport = require('socket.io-passport');
// Setup auth
io.use(socketIOBundle.cookieParser());
io.use(socketIOBundle.session({
    secret: 'MY_SUPER_SECRET_STRING',
    key: 'sid'
}));
io.use(socketIOPassport.initialize());
io.use(socketIOPassport.session());
 
// Create AjaxySocketRouter the regular way
var ajaxySocketsRouter = new AjaxySocketRouter(io);

API

Server side AjaxySocketsRouter

constructor

Params
- Server server instance

get Setup a handler for GET type requests

Params:
- string route
- function handler

post Setup a handler for POST type requests

Params:
- string route
- function handler

patch Setup a handler for PATCH type requests

Params:
- string route
- function handler

del Setup a handler for DELETE type requests

Params:
- string route
- function handler

Client side AjaxySocket

constructor

Params
- string socketURL - The URI for websocket server (ex. ws://127.0.0.1:8888)

start Inits the websocket. Must be called when you want the socket to connect to the server.

Params NONE

get Make a GET type request to the socket server

Params
- string url - The request url
- function callback - The callback which is executed when the socket receives a response

post Make a POST type request to the socket server

Params
- string url - The request url
- function callback - The callback which is executed when the socket receives a response

patch Make a PATCH type request to the socket server

Params
- string url - The request url
- function callback - The callback which is executed when the socket receives a response

del Make a DELETE type request to the socket server

Params
- string url - The request url
- function callback - The callback which is executed when the socket receives a response

ajaxyRequest Makes a request based on the options object passed to it (similiar to jQuery $.ajax() method)

Params
- object options - An object with the following properties:
  - string url
  - string method - The request type (GET, POST, etc)
  - object data - (optional) The data to be passed with the request
- function callback - Exectued when the response is received

Roadmap

Add good error handling
Promises!
Add various methods to request/response classes that are available in Express req/response