Woof.WebSocket 5.2.0

Woof.WebSocket

Full, high-level WebSocket client and server. Designed to make WebSocket APIs blazing fast.

Priority list:

• ease of use,
• code speed,
• stability,
• extensibility
• completness.

Q/A:

Q: Dependencies?<br/> A: .NET 5.0, protobuf-net. Can be made to work with older frameworks, in order to do so use the source code, change the target framework, implement necessary changes.

Q: Thread-safe?<br/> A: Yes. Tested. Tested. Then tested some more.

Q: Asynchronous?<br/> A: Task based. Fully asynchronous.

Q: How? A: Override Server and Client classes, implement IAuthenticationProvider and ISessionProvider for authentication. See examples.

Q: How call SendMessageAsync() and friends in an event handler?<br/> A: Make the event handler "async void" and ensure no exceptions are thrown there. Pass exceptions as data when necessary.

Q: Will the server work with clients in other environments (non .NET)?<br/> A: Yes. WOOF codec uses compatible Google Protocol Buffer serializer available for many environments. It's relatively easy to make your own codec using JSON or any other object serializer.<br/>

Q: Why Protocol Buffers?<br/> A: Because it efficient (small serialized size), fast (simple algorithm, fixed size reads), well established (invented by Goolge, developed by active community).

Q: Where can I find an example of a client written in language x?<br/> A: Be the first to write it and don't forget to send a pull request.

Q: Can custom subprotocols be used with WebSocket transport?<br/> A: Yes. Any subprotocol can be used, all it takes is to implement SubProtocolCodec abstract class. Do JSON as an excercise 😉

Q: So why use this Client and Server without a subprotocol?<br/> A: A great deal of the transport hand-shaking already done. Tidy structure to implement. And you DO have a good WOOF subprotocol based on Protocol Buffers.

Q: Can it be done simpler?<br/> A: No. I really tried. This is as simple as it gets.

Q: Is that all?<br/> A: No. There will be streaming support soon. But don't hold your breath. Or just add it and send a pull request. Look at Skype: it uses another port (you can use just another endpoint, like a different path) to use separate server just for streaming data.

Q: Wow, neat DI there 😉 But what if my IAuthenticationProvider implementation throws an exception? I don't see it anywhere, is it a bug?<br/> A: Nope. It's a feature. Check the Exception property of the DecodeResult in your OnMessageReceived handler. It's there to be handled in your code.

Q: About the last one, isn't that dangerous? I can have non-breaking (silent) exception in authentication code.<br/> A: You still have IsSignatureValid false and IsUnauthorized true in DecodeResult. Do use them.

Usage:

First time: Pull the Git repository. See the provided examples. They contain full documentation in XMLdoc.<br/> Not first time: Just install Woof.WebSocket with NuGet.