David Baird
113 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
113 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
easywsclient
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============
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Easywsclient is an easy and powerful WebSocket client to get your
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C++ code connected to a web stack right away. It depends only on the
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standard libraries. It is compatible with modern C++11 std::function and
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[lambda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_function#C.2B.2B),
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if they're available (it's not required though). [RFC
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6455](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6455) Version 13 WebSocket is
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supported. Version 13 is compatible with all major, modern WebSocket
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implementations, including Node.js, and has been a standard since
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December 2011.
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Rationale: This library is intended to help a C++ project start using
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WebSocket rapidly. This small library can easily be thrown into an
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existing project. For complicated builds that you can't figure out right
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away, you can even cheat by piggy-backing the .cpp file into one of
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the project's existing files. Yes, WebSocket is that awesome enough to
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warrant getting it integrated into your project! This project imposes
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no special interface requirements, and can work happily with new C++11
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features or with older C++ projects.
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As an additional benefit, easywsclient is very simple, with just a single
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implementation file. It can serve as a cruft-free concise reference. You
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are most welcome to use this code as a reference for creating alternative
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implementations that may better suit your needs.
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Usage
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=====
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The WebSocket class interface looks like this:
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```c++
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// Factory method to create a WebSocket:
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static pointer from_url(std::string url);
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// Factory method to create a dummy WebSocket (all operations are noop):
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static pointer create_dummy();
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// Function to perform actual network send()/recv() I/O:
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void poll();
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// Receive a message, and pass it to callable(). Really, this just looks at
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// a buffer (filled up by poll()) and decodes any messages in the buffer.
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// Callable must have signature: void(const std::string & message).
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// Should work with C functions, C++ functors, and C++11 std::function and
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// lambda:
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template<class Callable>
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void dispatch(Callable callable);
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// Sends a TEXT type message (gets put into a buffer for poll() to send
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// later):
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void send(std::string message);
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```
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Put together, the usage looks like this:
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```c++
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#include "easywsclient.hpp"
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#include "easywsclient.cpp" // <-- include only if you don't want compile separately
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int
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main()
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{
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...
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using easywsclient::WebSocket;
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WebSocket::pointer ws = WebSocket::from_url("ws://localhost:8126/foo");
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assert(ws);
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while (true) {
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ws->poll();
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ws->send("hello");
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ws->dispatch(handle_message);
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// ...do more stuff...
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}
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...
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}
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```
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Example
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=======
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# Launch a test server:
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node example-server.js
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# Build and launch the client:
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g++ example-client.cpp -o example-client
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./example-client
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# ...or build and launch a C++11 client:
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g++ -std=gnu++0x example-client-cpp11.cpp -o example-client-cpp11
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./example-client-cpp11
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# Expect the output from example-client:
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Connected to: ws://localhost:8126/foo
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>>> galaxy
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>>> world
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Threading
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=========
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This library is not thread safe. The user must take care to use locks if
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accessing an instance of `WebSocket` from multiple threads. If you need
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a quick threading library and don't have Boost or something else already,
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I recommend [TinyThread++](http://tinythreadpp.bitsnbites.eu/).
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Future Work
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===========
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(contributions appreciated!)
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* Parameterize the `pointer` type (especially for `shared_ptr`).
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* Support optional integration on top of an async (event-driven) library,
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especially Asio.
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