Socket.io

npm install @feathersjs/socketio --save

The @feathersjs/socketio module allows to call service methods and receive real-time events via Socket.io, a NodeJS library which enables real-time bi-directional, event-based communication.

Important

This page describes how to set up a Socket.io server. The Socket.io client chapter shows how to connect to this server on the client and the message format for service calls and real-time events.

Configuration

@feathersjs/socketio can be used standalone or together with a Feathers framework integration like Express.

socketio()

app.configure(socketio()) sets up the Socket.io transport with the default configuration using either the server provided by app.listen or passed in app.setup(server).

import { feathers } from '@feathersjs/feathers'
import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio'

const app = feathers()

app.configure(socketio())

app.listen(3030)

Important

Once the server has been started with app.listen() or app.setup(server) the Socket.io object is available as app.io. Usually you should not have to send or listen to events on app.io directly.

socketio(callback)

app.configure(socketio(callback)) sets up the Socket.io transport with the default configuration and call callback with the Socket.io server object.

import { feathers } from '@feathersjs/feathers'
import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio'

const app = feathers()

app.configure(
  socketio((io) => {
    io.on('connection', (socket) => {
      // Do something here
    })

    // Registering Socket.io middleware
    io.use(function (socket, next) {
      // Exposing a request property to services and hooks
      socket.feathers.referrer = socket.request.referrer
      next()
    })
  })
)

app.listen(3030)

danger

Try to avoid listening and sending events on the socket directly since it circumvents Feathers secure dispatch mechanisms available through channels and hooks.

Using uWebSockets.js

uWS can be used as a drop in replacement for socket handling.
As a result you'll see lower latencies, a better memory footprint and even slightly less overall resource usage.
You will on the other hand need to install the following extra package to get things working.

npm install uNetworking/uWebSockets.js#20.31.0 --save

Now you can use the io.attachApp function to attach uWS as a replacement.

import { feathers } from '@feathersjs/feathers'
import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio'
import { App } from 'uWebSockets.js'

const app = feathers()

app.configure(
  socketio((io) => {
    io.attachApp(App())
  })
)

app.listen(3030)

socketio(options [, callback])

app.configure(socketio(options [, callback])) sets up the Socket.io transport with the given Socket.io options object and optionally calls the callback described above.

This can be used to e.g. configure the path where Socket.io is initialize (socket.io/ by default). The following changes the path to ws/:

import { feathers } from '@feathersjs/feathers'
import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio'

const app = feathers()

app.configure(
  socketio(
    {
      path: '/ws/'
    },
    (io) => {
      // Do something here
      // This function is optional
    }
  )
)

app.listen(3030)

socketio(port, [options], [callback])

app.configure(socketio(port, [options], [callback])) creates a new Socket.io server on a separate port. Options and a callback are optional and work as described above.

import { feathers } from '@feathersjs/feathers'
import socketio from '@feathersjs/socketio'

const app = feathers()

app.configure(socketio(3031))
app.listen(3030)

params

Socket.io middleware can modify the feathers property on the socket which will then be used as the service call params:

app.configure(
  socketio((io) => {
    io.use((socket, next) => {
      socket.feathers.user = { name: 'David' }
      next()
    })
  })
)

app.use('messages', {
  async create(data, params, callback) {
    // When called via SocketIO:
    params.provider // -> socketio
    params.user // -> { name: 'David' }
    return data
  }
})

info

socket.feathers is the same object as the connection in a channel. socket.request and socket.handshake contains information the HTTP request that initiated the connection (see the Socket.io documentation).

params.provider

For any service method call made through Socket.io params.provider will be set to socketio. In a hook this can for example be used to prevent external users from making a service method call:

app.service('users').hooks({
  before: {
    remove(context) {
      // check for if(context.params.provider) to prevent any external call
      if (context.params.provider === 'socketio') {
        throw new Error('You can not delete a user via Socket.io')
      }
    }
  }
})

params.query

params.query will contain the query parameters sent from the client.

warning

Only params.query is passed between the server and the client, other parts of params are not. This is for security reasons so that a client can't set things like params.user or the database options. You can always map from params.query to params in a before hook.

params.connection

params.connection is the connection object that can be used with channels. It is the same object as socket.feathers in a Socket.io middleware as shown in the params section.

params.headers

params.headers contains the headers from the original handshake. This is usually sent with the extraHeaders option when initialising the connection on the client:

const socket = io('http://localhost:9777', {
  extraHeaders: {
    MyHeader: 'somevalue'
  }
})