WebSocket Client

Everything for using websockets is located in the ws_client.h header file inside the web and web::websockets::client namespaces.

#include <cpprest/ws_client.h>
using namespace web;
using namespace web::websockets::client;

The websocket_clientclass is used to create and maintain a connection to a WebSocket endpoint. Once you have your client, you must connect to the remote endpoint using the connect() function and pass in a URI specifying where this client wants to connect. This function returns a pplx::task which can be waited upon.

websocket_client client;
client.connect(U("ws://localhost:1234")).then([](){ /* We've finished connecting. */ });

Once the client is connected, you can start sending and receiving data. Like the rest of the C++ Rest SDK, this is done in an asynchronous way.

websocket_outgoing_message msg;
msg.set_utf8_message("I am a UTF-8 string! (Or close enough...)");
client.send(msg).then([](){ /* Successfully sent the message. */ });

client.receive().then([](websocket_incoming_message msg) {
    return msg.extract_string();
}).then([](std::string body) {
    std::cout << body << std::endl;
});

(Note: only one receive() call will be fulfilled per received message)

We support sending and receiving string and binary messages.

websocket_outgoing_message msg;
concurrency::streams::producer_consumer_buffer<uint8_t> buf;
std::vector<uint8_t> body(6);
memcpy(&body[0], "a\0b\0c\0", 6);

auto send_task = buf.putn(&body[0], body.size()).then([&](size_t length) {
    msg.set_binary_message(buf.create_istream(), length);
    return client.send(msg);
}).then([](pplx::task<void> t)
{
    try
    {
        t.get();
    }
    catch(const websocket_exception& ex)
    {
        std::cout << ex.what();
    }
});
send_task.wait();

Once you're done with the client, you should close it.

client.close().then([](){ /* Successfully closed the connection. */ });

Sometimes if you need to receive a lot of messages from the server it can be tedious and error prone to repeatedly call websocket_client::receive() and handle each task. We have another class websocket_callback_client that allows setting a callback for messages from the server. Here is a simple example registering a callback:

websocket_callback_client client;
client.connect(U("ws://localhost:1234")).then([](){ /* We've finished connecting. */ });

// set receive handler
client.set_message_handler([](websocket_incoming_message msg)
{
    // handle message from server...
});