WebSocket support

[aaronchar]

Just wondering if this will work with web sockets as well.

[chimurai]

I think it'll just take little effort to add socket support, as http-proxy already has support to proxy sockets.

Do you have an example how you would like to use it?

[aaronchar]

Well it would be nice to have similar functionality to grunt-connect.

I believe the underlying library you are using supports websockets.

But other then that this library is perfect thanks for the work you have
put into it.
On Apr 4, 2015 9:23 AM, "chimurai" notifications@github.com wrote:

I think it'll just take little effort to add socket support, as http-proxy
already has support to proxy sockets.

Do you have an example how you would like to use it?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1 (comment)
.

[chimurai]

Websockets are still unfamiliar terrain for me...

Would it be as simple as:
var proxy = proxyMiddleware(context, {target: 'ws://echo.websocket.org'});

So all websocket requests will be proxied to "ws://echo.websocket.org", when using this as middleware?

Btw: feel free to create pull requests for any missing feature, or create separate issues for them.

[aaronchar]

Well I am by no means all that knowledge about sockets either.

But from what I understand we would need to wait for an upgrade event then switch over to use proxy.ws from proxy.web, That being said I have tried it a few different ways and always end up with the socket immediately closing.

[aaronchar]

grunt-connect-proxy

That seems to use http-proxy and works for proxying websockets

[chimurai]

Could you provide a gist of the setup you tried?
Than I'll take a shot at it.

[aaronchar]

Sure, I moved to use trying to use http-proxy without this library to see if I could get it working but ended up with the same result, I am sure I have missed something.

I don't have my code with me but here is a quick setup idea, Hopefully it gives you an idea of what I was trying to do.
Example

[chimurai]

I got a semi-working WebSocket setup with "connect":

gulp.task('serve:ws-connect', function () {
    var proxy = proxyMiddleware('/', {target: 'http://www.websocket.org', proxyHost:true});

    var app = connect();
    app.use('/', proxy);

    var server = http.createServer(app).listen(3000);
});

Initiate a WS connection in the browser:

var socket = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:3000');

With the above code I'm able to

• proxy the http website of www.websocket.org
• proxy the websocket demo on their site.

Some pitfalls:
At least 1 http request had to be made in order to access connect's server object, so I can subscribe to the server.on('upgrade') event and proxy the subsequent WebSocket call. (As indicated in your previous example req.connection.server)

---

Tried browser-sync too:
Couldn't get it working at all.
Not sure why it is happening.
I think the build-in socket server is occupying the same port, even when I change browsersync's socket.namespace property.

---

As middleware, I haven't found an elegant way to access the server object to listen to the upgrade event, (without making a normal initial http request)

---

If you want to play with the code, just replace the following function in the middleware:

    function fnProxyMiddleWare (req, res, next) {
        if (utils.hasContext(context, req.url)) {

            proxy.web(req, res);

            if (!server) {
                server = req.connection.server;
                req.connection.server.on('upgrade', function (req, socket, head) {
                    console.log('[HPM] Upgrading to WebSocket');
                    req.headers.host = 'echo.websocket.org';          // should make this dynamic.
                    proxy.ws(req, socket, head);
                });
            }

        } else {
           next();
        }
    }

[aaronchar]

Sorry for the late response.
I am going to try and spend some time this week playing with it, But thank you for taking a look at it. I am just making the switch from Grunt => Gulp and sadly this has been the only sticking point.

[chimurai]

No worries.
I was actually switching from Grunt => gulp as well.
In the process I bumped into some corporate network issues, which I didn't experience with the grunt-contrib-connect + grunt-connect-proxy setup.

Ended up writing this tiny middleware... :)

grunt-connect-proxy uses the same websocket upgrade strategy:
//Listen for the update event,onces. grunt-contrib-connect doesnt expose the server object, so bind after the first req
https://github.com/drewzboto/grunt-connect-proxy/blob/master/lib/utils.js#L113

Let me know what your findings are.