RFC 6455 WebSockets for Racket

This package, rfc6455, provides RFC 6455 compatible WebSockets server and client interfaces for Racket, building on Racket's web-server collection.

Besides support for RFC 6455, the final WebSockets standard, the package also incorporates code supporting the earlier, draft hybi-00 proposal, because several common older browsers still use this protocol variant.

Wikipedia has a good section on browser support for WebSocket protocol variations, which states "All the latest browsers except Android browser support the latest specification (RFC 6455) of the WebSocket protocol."

This package has been developed against

• Firefox 24.0 (which is an RFC 6455 peer)
• Chrome 30.0.1599.101 (which is an RFC 6455 peer)
• Safari 5.1.10 (which is a hybi-00 peer)

Examples

See the net/rfc6455/examples directory.

• test-server.rkt is a server using the API compatible with Racket's existing WebSockets support.

• test-service-mapper.rkt is (roughly) the same service, implemented using the extended API provided by this package.

• client.html and client.js form a simple browser-based WebSockets program that exercises the servers.

• client.rkt is a simple Racket-based WebSockets client program that exercises the servers.

To run the examples,

$ racket -l net/rfc6455/examples/test-server

or

$ racket -l net/rfc6455/examples/test-service-mapper

and then open client.html in your favourite browser. It should work served directly off the file system. Make sure to open your browser's web console to see the effect of the WebSockets communication.

The example Racket-based WebSockets client program can be run using

$ racket -l net/rfc6455/examples/client

Usage Synopsis

Using the net/websocket-compatible interface:

(require net/rfc6455)
(ws-serve #:port 8081 (lambda (c s) (ws-send! c "Hello world!")))

Using an interface that supports URL path matching and WebSocket subprotocol selection:

(require net/rfc6455)
(ws-serve* #:port 8081
           (ws-service-mapper
            ["/test" ;; the URL path (regular expression)
             [(subprotocol) ;; if client requests subprotocol "subprotocol"
              (lambda (c) (ws-send! c "You requested a subprotocol"))]
             [(#f)          ;; if client did not request any subprotocol
              (lambda (c) (ws-send! c "You didn't explicitly request a subprotocol"))]]))

Creating a client connection:

(require net/rfc6455)
(require net/url)
(define c (ws-connect (string->url "ws://localhost:8081/")))
(ws-send! c "Hello world!")

Installation

From within DrRacket, install the package rfc6455. From the command-line,

$ raco pkg install rfc6455

(If you are developing the package from a git checkout, see instead the link and setup targets of the Makefile.)

Documentation

Documentation is provided within Racket's own help system once the package is installed.

License

The following text applies to all the code in this package except files marked "public domain" in the net/rfc6455/examples directory:

Copyright (c) 2013 Tony Garnock-Jones tonygarnockjones@gmail.com.

This package is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). This means that you can link it into proprietary applications, provided you follow the rules stated in the LGPL. You can also modify this package; if you distribute a modified version, you must distribute it under the terms of the LGPL, which in particular means that you must release the source code for the modified software. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.txt for more information.