NAME
Mojolicious::Plugin::Multiplex - A websocket multiplexing layer for Mojolicious applications
SYNOPSIS
use Mojolicious::Lite;
plugin 'Multiplex';
get '/' => 'index';
websocket '/multiplex' => sub {
my $c = shift;
my $multiplex = $c->multiplex;
$multiplex->on(subscribe => sub { ... });
$multiplex->on(message => sub { ... });
$multiplex->on(unsubscribe => sub { ... });
};
__DATA__
@@ index.html.ep
%= javascript 'websocket_multiplex.js';
<script>
var ws = new WebSocket('<%= url_for('multiplex')->to_abs %>');
var multiplex = new WebSocketMultiplex(ws);
var foo = multiplex.channel('foo');
foo.onmessage = function (e) { console.log('foo channel got: ' + e.data) };
var bar = multiplex.channel('bar');
bar.onmessage = function (e) { console.log('bar channel got: ' + e.data) };
</script>DESCRIPTION
Mojolicious::Plugin::Multiplex implements a mechanism proposed by SockJS for the multiplexing of data on a single websocket. Rather than proposing both a protocol and a programmatic api to use it, they propose a very simple protocol and reusing the api of the existing Javascript WebSocket api. This has the immediate advantage (beyond having to dream up a client api) that existing front-end code that is written for a WebSocket can immediately use the multiplexer with no changes necessary.
Their proposal only includes a partially implemented reference implementation. This module extends the protocol slightly in order to enough of the "WebSocket API" to be useful. More extensions may be necessary if the API is to be completely implemented, however those last few details are rarely used and will likely not be missed.
On the server-side the logic is entirely up to the application author. The module simply parses the multiplexed messages and emits events in accordance with them. A typical use case may be to relay message to a bus, subscribing and unsubscribing from topics that it presents. Another might be to stream updates to multiple types of data (perhaps in multiple parts of a single page application). (Indeed those might not be distinct cases from each other).
For reference, the distribution comes with an example which uses Mojo::Pg as a message broker for a multi-channel chat application. The example may also be seen on GitHub.
CAVEAT
While I'm declaring this module stable and production worthy, I still don't nearly have enough tests. The biggest reason for this is that I don't have a great way to test Perl and Javascript together. Unfortunately PhantomJS declared defeat right as Mojo::Phantom was catching on. A project to wrap its successor, headless Chrome, is stalled waiting for now, so we wait. Contributions from people with experience in this area would be greatly appreciated.
HELPERS
multiplex
my $multiplex = $c->multiplex;Establishes the WebSocket connection (if it hasn't been already) and returns an instance of Mojolicious::Plugin::Multiplex::Multiplexer. The multiplexer is attached to the websocket stream and begins listening for messages. The multiplexer emits events for incoming messages and has methods to send outgoing messages; more details about those are contained in its own documentation.
Note that for each websocket connection the same instance of the multiplexer will be returned on any subsequent call. Though not prevented, the user is highly discouraged from sending other traffic over any websocket connection that is managed by a multiplexer.
BUNDLED FILES
websocket_multiplex.mjs
<script type="module">
import WebSocketMultiplex from '/websocket_multiplex.mjs';
var ws = new WebSocket(url);
var multiplex = new WebSocketMultiplex(ws);
var channel = multiplex.channel(topic);
</script>Bundled with this plugin is a javascript module file called websocket_multiplex.mjs which contains the front-end code to create a multiplexer. It exports the WebSocketMultiplex class, whose constructor takes as its only argument an existing WebSocket object or a url string to build one. This then is used to open new channel objects via the channel method which takes a topic string as an arugment. Topics can be almost any string, however they must not contain a comma (a limitation of the protocol). The resulting channel objects implement the same API as a WebSocket (though they do not inherit from it).
The client-side multiplexer will also attempt to reconnect to closed sockets and when successful will automatically resubscribe to the channels that were subscribed.
N.B. This library is the least stable of the entire project. Use with caution.
Also, this library will likely use very modern conventions, even going forward. Older browsers are not the target for this file. For those you want ...
websocket_multiplex.js
<script src="websocket_multiplex.js"></script>
<script>
var ws = new WebSocket(url);
var multiplex = new WebSocketMultiplex(ws);
var channel = multiplex.channel(topic);
</script>This is the above javascript module but transpiled back to work on older browsers (and minified). It sets the global symbol WebSocketMultiplex when loaded. In all other ways it works just like the above file.
websocket_multiplex.js.map
A file used to get better diagnostics from the minified javascript file.
SOURCE REPOSITORY
http://github.com/jberger/Mojolicious-Plugin-Multiplex
AUTHOR
Joel Berger, <joel.a.berger@gmail.com>
ADDITIONAL THANKS
John Susek
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2016-2018 by Joel Berger
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The multiplexer protocol and javascript code (both extended by this project) are copyright their original authors and by their nature are assumed to be in the public domain.