Robust WebSocket

Sometimes you just want a simple WebSocket client that is reliable against the manifold forces that seek to destroy connections across the internet.

I have found myself implementing this kind of thing multiple times now so it seems good to make it a library.

Features:

• send will ensure the socket has a readyState of OPEN before attempting to send
• The socket will attempt to reconnect if disconnected
• A single onmessage callback will be automatically attached to any new WebSocket instances created due to reconnects.

Installation

1$ npm install --save ws-robust

Usage

Basic usage with a simple callback that processes each message received:

1    import { RobustWebSocket } from "ws-robust";
2
3    const rs = new RobustWebSocket(url, msg => {
4      console.log("Received message: ", msg);
5    });
6
7    rs.send("outgoing message");
8
9    rs.close();

If you want to consume messages with a for await async iterator, there is a helper messageAsyncIterator that facilitates this:

1    import { RobustWebSocket } from "ws-robust";
2
3    const messages = messageAsyncIterator<MyMessageType>();
4    const rs = new RobustWebSocket(url, messages.onMessage, {
5      onDisconnect: messages.onDisconnect,
6    });
7
8    for await (const m of messages) {
9        // m.data: MyMessageType
10        console.log("Received message: ", m.data);
11    }
12    // This will only be reached if rs is manually closed from the client side.

Development

To upgrade this package commit the changes desired to the master branch, then run

npm version <new version>
npm publish