Creating a "Hello World" WebSocket example
WebSockets is protocol that relies on TCP streamed connection. Although WebSockets is Message based protocol.
If you want to implement your own protocol then I recommend to use latest and stable specification (for 18/04/12) RFC 6455. This specification contains all necessary information regarding handshake and framing. As well most of description on scenarios of behaving from browser side as well as from server side. It is highly recommended to follow what recommendations tells regarding server side during implementing of your code.
In few words, I would describe working with WebSockets like this:
- Create server Socket (System.Net.Sockets) bind it to specific port, and keep listening with asynchronous accepting of connections. Something like that:
Socket serverSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.IP); serverSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 8080)); serverSocket.Listen(128); serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
- You should have accepting function "OnAccept" that will implement handshake. In future it has to be in another thread if system is meant to handle huge amount of connections per second.
private void OnAccept(IAsyncResult result) {
try {
Socket client = null;
if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound) {
client = serverSocket.EndAccept(result);
}
if (client != null) {
/* Handshaking and managing ClientSocket */
}
} catch(SocketException exception) {
} finally {
if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound) {
serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
}
}
}
- After connection established, you have to do handshake. Based on specification 1.3 Opening Handshake, after connection established you will receive basic HTTP request with some information. Example:
GET /chat HTTP/1.1 Host: server.example.com Upgrade: websocket Connection: Upgrade Sec-WebSocket-Key: dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ== Origin: http://example.com Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: chat, superchat Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13
This example is based on version of protocol 13. Bear in mind that older versions have some differences but mostly latest versions are cross-compatible. Different browsers may send you some additional data. For example Browser and OS details, cache and others.
Based on provided handshake details, you have to generate answer lines, they are mostly same, but will contain Accept-Key, that is based on provided Sec-WebSocket-Key. In specification 1.3 it is described clearly how to generate response key. Here is my function I've been using for V13:
static private string guid = "258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11";
private string AcceptKey(ref string key) {
string longKey = key + guid;
SHA1 sha1 = SHA1CryptoServiceProvider.Create();
byte[] hashBytes = sha1.ComputeHash(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(longKey));
return Convert.ToBase64String(hashBytes);
}
Handshake answer looks like that:
HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols Upgrade: websocket Connection: Upgrade Sec-WebSocket-Accept: s3pPLMBiTxaQ9kYGzzhZRbK+xOo=
But accept key have to be the generated one based on provided key from client and method AcceptKey I provided before. As well, make sure after last character of accept key you put two new lines "\r\n\r\n".
-
After handshake answer is sent from server, client should trigger "onopen" function, that means you can send messages after.
-
Messages are not sent in raw format, but they have Data Framing. And from client to server as well implement masking for data based on provided 4 bytes in message header. Although from server to client you don't need to apply masking over data. Read section 5. Data Framing in specification. Here is copy-paste from my own implementation. It is not ready-to-use code, and have to be modified, I am posting it just to give an idea and overall logic of read/write with WebSocket framing. Go to this link.
-
After framing is implemented, make sure that you receive data right way using sockets. For example to prevent that some messages get merged into one, because TCP is still stream based protocol. That means you have to read ONLY specific amount of bytes. Length of message is always based on header and provided data length details in header it self. So when you receiving data from Socket, first receive 2 bytes, get details from header based on Framing specification, then if mask provided another 4 bytes, and then length that might be 1, 4 or 8 bytes based on length of data. And after data it self. After you read it, apply demasking and your message data is ready to use.
-
You might want to use some Data Protocol, I recommend to use JSON due traffic economy and easy to use on client side in JavaScript. For server side you might want to check some of parsers. There is lots of them, google can be really helpful.
Implementing own WebSockets protocol definitely have some benefits and great experience you get as well as control over protocol it self. But you have to spend some time doing it, and make sure that implementation is highly reliable.
In same time you might have a look in ready to use solutions that google (again) have enough.
(Posted answer on behalf of the OP).
I am able to send data now. This is my new version of the program thanks to your answers and the code of @Maksims Mihejevs.
Server
using System;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Net;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Threading;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
static Socket serverSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,
SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.IP);
static private string guid = "258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11";
static void Main(string[] args)
{
serverSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 8080));
serverSocket.Listen(128);
serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
Console.Read();
}
private static void OnAccept(IAsyncResult result)
{
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
try
{
Socket client = null;
string headerResponse = "";
if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
{
client = serverSocket.EndAccept(result);
var i = client.Receive(buffer);
headerResponse = (System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer)).Substring(0,i);
// write received data to the console
Console.WriteLine(headerResponse);
}
if (client != null)
{
/* Handshaking and managing ClientSocket */
var key = headerResponse.Replace("ey:", "`")
.Split('`')[1] // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ== \r\n .......
.Replace("\r", "").Split('\n')[0] // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
.Trim();
// key should now equal dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
var test1 = AcceptKey(ref key);
var newLine = "\r\n";
var response = "HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols" + newLine
+ "Upgrade: websocket" + newLine
+ "Connection: Upgrade" + newLine
+ "Sec-WebSocket-Accept: " + test1 + newLine + newLine
//+ "Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: chat, superchat" + newLine
//+ "Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13" + newLine
;
// which one should I use? none of them fires the onopen method
client.Send(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(response));
var i = client.Receive(buffer); // wait for client to send a message
// once the message is received decode it in different formats
Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToBase64String(buffer).Substring(0, i));
Console.WriteLine("\n\nPress enter to send data to client");
Console.Read();
var subA = SubArray<byte>(buffer, 0, i);
client.Send(subA);
Thread.Sleep(10000);//wait for message to be send
}
}
catch (SocketException exception)
{
throw exception;
}
finally
{
if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
{
serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
}
}
}
public static T[] SubArray<T>(T[] data, int index, int length)
{
T[] result = new T[length];
Array.Copy(data, index, result, 0, length);
return result;
}
private static string AcceptKey(ref string key)
{
string longKey = key + guid;
byte[] hashBytes = ComputeHash(longKey);
return Convert.ToBase64String(hashBytes);
}
static SHA1 sha1 = SHA1CryptoServiceProvider.Create();
private static byte[] ComputeHash(string str)
{
return sha1.ComputeHash(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(str));
}
}
}
JavaScript:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function connect() {
var ws = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8080/service");
ws.onopen = function () {
alert("About to send data");
ws.send("Hello World"); // I WANT TO SEND THIS MESSAGE TO THE SERVER!!!!!!!!
alert("Message sent!");
};
ws.onmessage = function (evt) {
alert("About to receive data");
var received_msg = evt.data;
alert("Message received = "+received_msg);
};
ws.onclose = function () {
// websocket is closed.
alert("Connection is closed...");
};
};
</script>
</head>
<body style="font-size:xx-large" >
<div>
<a href="#" onclick="connect()">Click here to start</a></div>
</body>
</html>
When I run that code I am able to send and receive data from both the client and the server. The only problem is that the messages are encrypted when they arrive to the server. Here are the steps of how the program runs:
Note how the message from the client is encrypted.
I couldnt find a simple working example anywhere (as of Jan 19), so here is an updated version. I have chrome version 71.0.3578.98.
C# Websocket server :
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
namespace WebSocketServer
{
class Program
{
static Socket serverSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.IP);
static private string guid = "258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11";
static void Main(string[] args)
{
serverSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 8080));
serverSocket.Listen(1); //just one socket
serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
Console.Read();
}
private static void OnAccept(IAsyncResult result)
{
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
try
{
Socket client = null;
string headerResponse = "";
if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
{
client = serverSocket.EndAccept(result);
var i = client.Receive(buffer);
headerResponse = (System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer)).Substring(0, i);
// write received data to the console
Console.WriteLine(headerResponse);
Console.WriteLine("=====================");
}
if (client != null)
{
/* Handshaking and managing ClientSocket */
var key = headerResponse.Replace("ey:", "`")
.Split('`')[1] // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ== \r\n .......
.Replace("\r", "").Split('\n')[0] // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
.Trim();
// key should now equal dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
var test1 = AcceptKey(ref key);
var newLine = "\r\n";
var response = "HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols" + newLine
+ "Upgrade: websocket" + newLine
+ "Connection: Upgrade" + newLine
+ "Sec-WebSocket-Accept: " + test1 + newLine + newLine
//+ "Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: chat, superchat" + newLine
//+ "Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13" + newLine
;
client.Send(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(response));
var i = client.Receive(buffer); // wait for client to send a message
string browserSent = GetDecodedData(buffer, i);
Console.WriteLine("BrowserSent: " + browserSent);
Console.WriteLine("=====================");
//now send message to client
client.Send(GetFrameFromString("This is message from server to client."));
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);//wait for message to be sent
}
}
catch (SocketException exception)
{
throw exception;
}
finally
{
if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
{
serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
}
}
}
public static T[] SubArray<T>(T[] data, int index, int length)
{
T[] result = new T[length];
Array.Copy(data, index, result, 0, length);
return result;
}
private static string AcceptKey(ref string key)
{
string longKey = key + guid;
byte[] hashBytes = ComputeHash(longKey);
return Convert.ToBase64String(hashBytes);
}
static SHA1 sha1 = SHA1CryptoServiceProvider.Create();
private static byte[] ComputeHash(string str)
{
return sha1.ComputeHash(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(str));
}
//Needed to decode frame
public static string GetDecodedData(byte[] buffer, int length)
{
byte b = buffer[1];
int dataLength = 0;
int totalLength = 0;
int keyIndex = 0;
if (b - 128 <= 125)
{
dataLength = b - 128;
keyIndex = 2;
totalLength = dataLength + 6;
}
if (b - 128 == 126)
{
dataLength = BitConverter.ToInt16(new byte[] { buffer[3], buffer[2] }, 0);
keyIndex = 4;
totalLength = dataLength + 8;
}
if (b - 128 == 127)
{
dataLength = (int)BitConverter.ToInt64(new byte[] { buffer[9], buffer[8], buffer[7], buffer[6], buffer[5], buffer[4], buffer[3], buffer[2] }, 0);
keyIndex = 10;
totalLength = dataLength + 14;
}
if (totalLength > length)
throw new Exception("The buffer length is small than the data length");
byte[] key = new byte[] { buffer[keyIndex], buffer[keyIndex + 1], buffer[keyIndex + 2], buffer[keyIndex + 3] };
int dataIndex = keyIndex + 4;
int count = 0;
for (int i = dataIndex; i < totalLength; i++)
{
buffer[i] = (byte)(buffer[i] ^ key[count % 4]);
count++;
}
return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer, dataIndex, dataLength);
}
//function to create frames to send to client
/// <summary>
/// Enum for opcode types
/// </summary>
public enum EOpcodeType
{
/* Denotes a continuation code */
Fragment = 0,
/* Denotes a text code */
Text = 1,
/* Denotes a binary code */
Binary = 2,
/* Denotes a closed connection */
ClosedConnection = 8,
/* Denotes a ping*/
Ping = 9,
/* Denotes a pong */
Pong = 10
}
/// <summary>Gets an encoded websocket frame to send to a client from a string</summary>
/// <param name="Message">The message to encode into the frame</param>
/// <param name="Opcode">The opcode of the frame</param>
/// <returns>Byte array in form of a websocket frame</returns>
public static byte[] GetFrameFromString(string Message, EOpcodeType Opcode = EOpcodeType.Text)
{
byte[] response;
byte[] bytesRaw = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(Message);
byte[] frame = new byte[10];
long indexStartRawData = -1;
long length = (long)bytesRaw.Length;
frame[0] = (byte)(128 + (int)Opcode);
if (length <= 125)
{
frame[1] = (byte)length;
indexStartRawData = 2;
}
else if (length >= 126 && length <= 65535)
{
frame[1] = (byte)126;
frame[2] = (byte)((length >> 8) & 255);
frame[3] = (byte)(length & 255);
indexStartRawData = 4;
}
else
{
frame[1] = (byte)127;
frame[2] = (byte)((length >> 56) & 255);
frame[3] = (byte)((length >> 48) & 255);
frame[4] = (byte)((length >> 40) & 255);
frame[5] = (byte)((length >> 32) & 255);
frame[6] = (byte)((length >> 24) & 255);
frame[7] = (byte)((length >> 16) & 255);
frame[8] = (byte)((length >> 8) & 255);
frame[9] = (byte)(length & 255);
indexStartRawData = 10;
}
response = new byte[indexStartRawData + length];
long i, reponseIdx = 0;
//Add the frame bytes to the reponse
for (i = 0; i < indexStartRawData; i++)
{
response[reponseIdx] = frame[i];
reponseIdx++;
}
//Add the data bytes to the response
for (i = 0; i < length; i++)
{
response[reponseIdx] = bytesRaw[i];
reponseIdx++;
}
return response;
}
}
}
Client html and javascript:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var socket = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8080/websession');
socket.onopen = function() {
// alert('handshake successfully established. May send data now...');
socket.send("Hi there from browser.");
};
socket.onmessage = function (evt) {
//alert("About to receive data");
var received_msg = evt.data;
alert("Message received = "+received_msg);
};
socket.onclose = function() {
alert('connection closed');
};
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>