Is there a WebSocket client implemented for .NET? [closed]

Question

I would like to use WebSockets in my Windows Forms or WPF-application. Is there a .NET-control that is supporting WebSockets implemented yet? Or is there any open source project started about it?

An open source solution for a Java Client supporting WebSockets could also help me.

Charlsiecharlton

Answer 1

Now, SuperWebSocket also includes a WebSocket client implementation SuperWebSocket Project Homepage

Other .NET client implementations include:

• Microsoft WebSocket client prototype
• WebSocket-Sharp
• Anaida

Eradis

I can't see to see anything in SuperWebSocket about a client implementation? Is it still there? – Tallou

In SourceCode/mainline/Client – Eradis

The client in SuperWebSocket has been separated into WebSocket4Net: websocket4net.codeplex.com – Eradis

When I try to connect to socket.io from .NET using WebSocket4Net I see "debug - destroying non-socket.io upgrade". What am I missing? – Cadent

WebSocket4Net in github: github.com/kerryjiang/WebSocket4Net – Eradis

Answer 2

Here's a quick first pass at porting that Java code to C#. Doesn't support SSL mode and has only been very lightly tested, but it's a start.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;

public class WebSocket
{
    private Uri mUrl;
    private TcpClient mClient;
    private NetworkStream mStream;
    private bool mHandshakeComplete;
    private Dictionary<string, string> mHeaders;
    
    public WebSocket(Uri url)
    {
        mUrl = url;
        
        string protocol = mUrl.Scheme;
        if (!protocol.Equals("ws") && !protocol.Equals("wss"))
            throw new ArgumentException("Unsupported protocol: " + protocol);
    }
    
    public void SetHeaders(Dictionary<string, string> headers)
    {
        mHeaders = headers;
    }
    
    public void Connect()
    {
        string host = mUrl.DnsSafeHost;
        string path = mUrl.PathAndQuery;
        string origin = "http://" + host;

        mClient = CreateSocket(mUrl);
        mStream = mClient.GetStream();

        int port = ((IPEndPoint)mClient.Client.RemoteEndPoint).Port;
        if (port != 80)
            host = host + ":" + port;

        StringBuilder extraHeaders = new StringBuilder();
        if (mHeaders != null)
        {
            foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> header in mHeaders)
                extraHeaders.Append(header.Key + ": " + header.Value + "\r\n");
        }

        string request = "GET " + path + " HTTP/1.1\r\n" +
                         "Upgrade: WebSocket\r\n" +
                         "Connection: Upgrade\r\n" +
                         "Host: " + host + "\r\n" +
                         "Origin: " + origin + "\r\n" +
                         extraHeaders.ToString() + "\r\n";
        byte[] sendBuffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(request);

        mStream.Write(sendBuffer, 0, sendBuffer.Length);

        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(mStream);
        {
            string header = reader.ReadLine();
            if (!header.Equals("HTTP/1.1 101 Web Socket Protocol Handshake"))
                throw new IOException("Invalid handshake response");

            header = reader.ReadLine();
            if (!header.Equals("Upgrade: WebSocket"))
                throw new IOException("Invalid handshake response");

            header = reader.ReadLine();
            if (!header.Equals("Connection: Upgrade"))
                throw new IOException("Invalid handshake response");
        }

        mHandshakeComplete = true;
    }
    
    public void Send(string str)
    {
        if (!mHandshakeComplete)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("Handshake not complete");

        byte[] sendBuffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(str);

        mStream.WriteByte(0x00);
        mStream.Write(sendBuffer, 0, sendBuffer.Length);
        mStream.WriteByte(0xff);
        mStream.Flush();
    }

    public string Recv()
    {
        if (!mHandshakeComplete)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("Handshake not complete");

        StringBuilder recvBuffer = new StringBuilder();

        BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(mStream);
        byte b = reader.ReadByte();
        if ((b & 0x80) == 0x80)
        {
            // Skip data frame
            int len = 0;
            do
            {
                b = (byte)(reader.ReadByte() & 0x7f);
                len += b * 128;
            } while ((b & 0x80) != 0x80);

            for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
                reader.ReadByte();
        }
        
        while (true)
        {
            b = reader.ReadByte();
            if (b == 0xff)
                break;

            recvBuffer.Append(b);           
        }

        return recvBuffer.ToString();
    }
    
    public void Close()
    {
        mStream.Dispose();
        mClient.Close();
        mStream = null;
        mClient = null;
    }

    private static TcpClient CreateSocket(Uri url)
    {
        string scheme = url.Scheme;
        string host = url.DnsSafeHost;

        int port = url.Port;
        if (port <= 0)
        {
            if (scheme.Equals("wss"))
                port = 443;
            else if (scheme.Equals("ws"))
                port = 80;
            else
                throw new ArgumentException("Unsupported scheme");
        }

        if (scheme.Equals("wss"))
            throw new NotImplementedException("SSL support not implemented yet");
        else
            return new TcpClient(host, port);
    }
}

Nathalia

Note that StringBuilder.Append(byte) doesn't do what you think it does -- it appends the textual representation of the byte to the buffer. Building a list of bytes and then converting that byte[] to a string using Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes) works better. – Till

+1 worked for me. I ended up modifying mStream = new SslStream(mClient.GetStream()); and adding mStream.AuthenicateAsClient(host);, and that was all that was needed for SSL support. – Leonidaleonidas

Answer 3

Support for WebSockets is coming in .NET 4.5. That links also contains an example using the System.Net.WebSockets.WebSocket class.

Mellar

From the docs "the only public implementations of client and server WebSockets are supported on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012" - ie. it wont work with older versions of windows. – Barone

Answer 4

Kaazing.com provide a .NET client library that can access websockets. They have tutorials online at Checklist: Build Microsoft .NET JMS Clients and Checklist: Build Microsoft .NET AMQP Clients

There is a Java Websocket Client project on github.

Humanitarian

Answer 5

There is a client implementation: https://github.com/kerryjiang/WebSocket4Net!

Eradis

Answer 6

another choice: XSockets.Net, has implement server and client.

can install server by:

PM> Install-Package XSockets

or install client by:

PM> Install-Package XSockets.Client

current version is: 3.0.4

Seward

Answer 7

Here is the list of .net supported websocket nuget packages

Websocket pakages.

I prefer following clients

1. Alchemy websocket
2. SocketIO

Nika

Answer 8

it's a pretty simple protocol. there's a java implementation here that shouldn't be too difficult to translate into c#. if i get around to doing it, i'll post it up here...

Livingstone

Answer 9

Recently the Interoperability Bridges and Labs Center released a prototype implementation (in managed code) of two drafts of the WebSockets protocol specification:

draft-hixie-thewebsocketprotocol-75 and draft-hixie-thewebsocketprotocol-76

The prototype can be found at HTML5 Labs. I put in this blog post all the information I found (until now) and snippets of code about how this can be done using WCF.

Sochor

Answer 10

If you'd like something a little more lightweight, check out a C# server that a friend and I released: https://github.com/Olivine-Labs/Alchemy-Websockets

Supports vanilla websockets as well as flash websockets. It was built for our online game with a focus on scalability and efficiency.

Wendolynwendt

Answer 11

There is also Alchemy. http://olivinelabs.com/Alchemy-Websockets/ which is rather cool.

Unfounded

and which is not a WebSocket client – Orthotropous

Yes it is. There is a WebSocket client lib with it. Look again! – Unfounded

I don't see it as a lib actually. There is a WebSocketClient class though, right – Orthotropous