PDO session troubleshooting

[gittix09]

I've followed the documentation for sharing the session between symfony2.6 and gos websocketbundle.
Unfortunately it doesn't work. OnSubscribe I'm stil seeing "anon-5asdfjadkja has joined acme/channel" instead of "Username has joined acme/channel".

I've updated my github "testing" repository with the latest changes. You can see everything there.

P.s. The PDO session in symfony seems to be working great. New sessions are successfully stored in the mysql table and no errors are displayed in the debug toolbar.

There is probably some error in my gos configuration or in the gos bundle itself.

[jjsaunier]

Before digging into this issue, I must verify something to avoid wasting time.

To make authentication working, you must share the cookie with the same host (you can with another, but in this case you must configure http server to make a proxy pass).

So, assuming you have your symfony2 application working under www.dummy.com domain, symfony2 will produce a cookie for the current domain (you can configure it, but by default, he take the current host). From here if you create a websocket server like ws://localhost:8080 or ws://127.0.0.1:8080 that will not working ! Because cookie app is at www.dummy.com and websocket is running at 127.0.0.1, from 127.0.0.1 you can't see *.dummy.com cookies.

So we are unable to retrieve the session id corresponding to the current session wich contains the security context of current user.

So make sure your PHPSESSID is under the same domain than your websocket.

Here some screens :

Websocket :

App cookie

In my example, sf application is running under www.dummy.com domain whereas my websocket is running under localhost. So that don't work.

I must have all under localhost or all under dummy.com.

Check this, try, and say me.

[gittix09]

New update: Still not working (look at the error in command prompt screenshot)
I'm using XAMPP and the web app has the following URL: http://localhost/myproject/web/app_dev.php/sock

I've also tried changing the gos_web_socket/client/firewall option in config.yml to "main" (instead of "secured_area") but that did not work.

For more info on my configuration see the "Testing...etc" repository in my Github account.

[jjsaunier]

Your error come from a miss configuration of PdoSessionHandler, please follow these instructions : http://symfony.com/fr/doc/current/cookbook/configuration/pdo_session_storage.html, you can also refer to my "lab project" to see configuration https://github.com/ProPheT777/real_time_bidirectional_notification-symfony2-redis-websocket-pubsub/blob/master/app/config/config.yml#L46

Your firewall is "main", see https://github.com/gittix09/TestingGosWebSocket/blob/master/myproject/app/config/security.yml#L52

[gittix09]

Great news!! With your help and a lot of luck... I got it to work!! Your bundle is truly amazing!!

I had already used the symfony documentation that you linked... what helped me the most was your config.yml file. I copied/pasted everything regarding PDO and adapted it.

This is the code I re-used from your file:

parameters:
pdo.db_options:
    db_table:    session
    db_id_col:   session_id
    db_data_col: session_value
    db_lifetime_col: session_lifetime
    db_time_col: session_time
    lock_mode: 0


services:
pdo:
    class: PDO
    arguments:
        dsn: mysql:host=%database_host%;port=%database_port%;dbname=%database_name%
        user: %database_user%
        password: %database_password%
    calls:
        - [ setAttribute, [3, 2] ] # \PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, \PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION

session.handler.pdo:
    class:     Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\Handler\PdoSessionHandler
    arguments: [@pdo, %pdo.db_options%]

I changed the name of the "sessions" table columns (to match the ones currently suggested in symfony docs).
Also I deleted port=%database_port%; because my default value was NULL and that was a problem for symfony.

Is all this code strictly necessary for PDO session handler to work (or is there anything I should remove to keep the code clean)?

[jjsaunier]

To keep code light, you can delete the following options :

    db_table:    session
    db_id_col:   session_id
    db_data_col: session_value
    db_lifetime_col: session_lifetime
    db_time_col: session_time

They will automatically fallback to default values, you can found default values here : https://github.com/symfony/symfony/blob/2.7/src/Symfony/Component/HttpFoundation/Session/Storage/Handler/PdoSessionHandler.php#L86

Keep this option lock_mode: 0 to avoid problem with session locking.

[gittix09]

Very good!! I also managed to implement the entity manager in the topic handler class and do some test queries (like retrieving the user_id from the username...etc).

By the way, what is (approximately) the estimated time before you release some tutorials about:

• user notifications
• private chat (between two users)
• group chat (between three or more users)

I'm really excited to learn how to implement those features.

P.s. As always, thank you very much for this amazing bundle!!

[jjsaunier]

Currently i'm working on PubSubRouter https://github.com/GeniusesOfSymfony/PubSubRouterBundle who is an very important component for WebSocketBundle & NotificationBundle. The main goal is to remove this : https://github.com/GeniusesOfSymfony/WebSocketBundle/blob/master/Server/App/Dispatcher/TopicDispatcher.php#L74 and make clean definition of what channel is linked to what handler.

Today you can only handle a channel by the prefix. Tomorrow that' will look's lile :

websocket_user_channel:
    channel: user/admin/{user_id}
    handler: @service_to_my_topic
    requirements:
        username: \d+
        wildcard: true

So i'm working on and I think I have at least one week of work just for this component. I also msut write documentation about it.

For real time notification (on which I work as) is stuck until PubSubRouter is not finished but he is near of the end. In the first time, I don't know if it will be "easy" to use out of box because he need's to understand the concept of pubsub and currently only work with redis pubsub, maybe later support zeromq pubsub but it's not currently planned. And I also need to create a JS Client for NotificationBundle, He will be written with AngularJS (I do not plan to do, I do not need).

I also plan to port NotificationBundle into micro services, wich implements RESTFull API to push & fetch from any another applications and get the real time through exposed websocket. I must dig into Docker before do that, and currently I do not have the need but I want to try :D

[gittix09]

Nice!!
But there are some sentences in your last message that are not clear to me.

Please correct me if I am wrong:

• I understand that right now you are working on the PubSubRouter and that you need the same PubSubRouter to complete the NotificationBundle.
• The NotificationBundle now works with Redis PubSub system but you plan on switching to the new PubSubRouter. Anyway, the NotificationBundle will be completed (and not abandoned) right? Proper documentation for this bundle will be written, right?
• When you say "JS Client", are you referring to the code necessary to establish the connection and receive the notification OR to the code that simply displays the received notification in the html page?
  From your message, I undestand that you do NOT plan to create it. Is that right? If it is true, is there any open source JS client that is compatible (or a tutorial, or somewhere we can learn how to create a simple JS client)?

[jjsaunier]

Yeah sorry, my english is bad :D

First point : PubSubRouter is a unique bundle who will be used inside WebsocketBundle to handle Topic & Rpc dispatching in a better way. NotificationBundle will also use this bundle to bind logic behind channel (pusher & fetcher).

Second point : Redis PubSub and PubSubRouter are complementary, PubSubRouter will not replace Redis PubSub, Redis PubSub allow us to be faster, scallable and use as notification storage. Here an example of how it's work :

1. I start websocket server (throught websocket bundle)
2. I start redis pubsub server
3. Client (via websocket) subscribe to his own channel + globale channel (notification/user/user1, notification/user/all)
4. NotificationBundle expose a "NotificationCenter" $notificationCenter->push('notification:user:user1')
5. NotificationCenter publish the message on redis pubsub server, we catch the message, look the channel, retrieve all pushers for this channel, and call each pusher. Example of pusher : WebSocketPusher : push the notification in the websocket, RedisPusher : We store the notification.

We can plug pusher like we want, if you want sotre your notification through mongoDB, just create a mongoDB pusher and plug it via PubSubRouter, and each channel can different pusherd.

Why use redis pubsub : When we are in Redis PubSub we are async (non blocking), we very fast, and redis allow to subscribe / publish with channel pattern (like notification:user:*)

Third point: Yeah client JS means front end notification part (not only the connection), but this will only be done with AngularJS because my front end work with it, and I do not plan to port the NotificationAngularJS to native or jQuey like library (because I do not need it from my side. If somebody want to do it, sure i'll accept). I don't think i'll make a tutorial to achieve this because it's useless. You just need to know how call the API (2 methods, push and fetch), and the real time part is achieve via Gos Websocket JS with a notification JS lib (like toaster or alertify for example).

In nutshell and just to be clear :
PubSubRouterBundle allow us to link channel like :

• Websocket channel (notification/user/1)
• Redis PubSub channel (notification:user:*)

With any handlers (topic/rpc for websocket, pusher for redis in my cases).

It's like an HTTP router, you link the URL with a controller, here is the same but with pubsub channel and handlers.

[gittix09]

Very good explanation!! Thank you very much.
Now I'm very excited to see the NotificationBundle completed ;)

P.s. The news about your bundle is spreading. Look here
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24041277/bundle-for-notifications-in-symfony2/29086169#29086169

[jjsaunier]

Wow thank you for the positive feedback on stack overflow !

I think I also will make "a call" on ClankBundle to say I have fork, improve & maintain this lib and all request or improvement will be take in consideration, because actually all PRs are ignored and it's too bad.