# Engine.IO client
[](https://github.com/socketio/engine.io-client/actions)
[](http://badge.fury.io/js/engine.io-client)
This is the client for [Engine.IO](http://github.com/socketio/engine.io),
the implementation of transport-based cross-browser/cross-device
bi-directional communication layer for [Socket.IO](http://github.com/socketio/socket.io).
## How to use
### Standalone
You can find an `engine.io.js` file in this repository, which is a
standalone build you can use as follows:
```html
<script src="/path/to/engine.io.js"></script>
<script>
// eio = Socket
const socket = eio('ws://localhost');
socket.on('open', () => {
socket.on('message', (data) => {});
socket.on('close', () => {});
});
</script>
```
### With browserify
Engine.IO is a commonjs module, which means you can include it by using
`require` on the browser and package using [browserify](http://browserify.org/):
1. install the client package
```bash
$ npm install engine.io-client
```
1. write your app code
```js
const { Socket } = require('engine.io-client');
const socket = new Socket('ws://localhost');
socket.on('open', () => {
socket.on('message', (data) => {});
socket.on('close', () => {});
});
```
1. build your app bundle
```bash
$ browserify app.js > bundle.js
```
1. include on your page
```html
<script src="/path/to/bundle.js"></script>
```
### Sending and receiving binary
```html
<script src="/path/to/engine.io.js"></script>
<script>
const socket = eio('ws://localhost/');
socket.binaryType = 'blob';
socket.on('open', () => {
socket.send(new Int8Array(5));
socket.on('message', (blob) => {});
socket.on('close', () => {});
});
</script>
```
### Node.JS
Add `engine.io-client` to your `package.json` and then:
```js
const { Socket } = require('engine.io-client');
const socket = new Socket('ws://localhost');
socket.on('open', () => {
socket.on('message', (data) => {});
socket.on('close', () => {});
});
```
### Node.js with certificates
```js
const opts = {
key: fs.readFileSync('test/fixtures/client.key'),
cert: fs.readFileSync('test/fixtures/client.crt'),
ca: fs.readFileSync('test/fixtures/ca.crt')
};
const { Socket } = require('engine.io-client');
const socket = new Socket('ws://localhost', opts);
socket.on('open', () => {
socket.on('message', (data) => {});
socket.on('close', () => {});
});
```
### Node.js with extraHeaders
```js
const opts = {
extraHeaders: {
'X-Custom-Header-For-My-Project': 'my-secret-access-token',
'Cookie': 'user_session=NI2JlCKF90aE0sJZD9ZzujtdsUqNYSBYxzlTsvdSUe35ZzdtVRGqYFr0kdGxbfc5gUOkR9RGp20GVKza; path=/; expires=Tue, 07-Apr-2015 18:18:08 GMT; secure; HttpOnly'
}
};
const { Socket } = require('engine.io-client');
const socket = new Socket('ws://localhost', opts);
socket.on('open', () => {
socket.on('message', (data) => {});
socket.on('close', () => {});
});
```
In the browser, the [WebSocket](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebSocket) object does not support additional headers.
In case you want to add some headers as part of some authentication mechanism, you can use the `transportOptions` attribute.
Please note that in this case the headers won't be sent in the WebSocket upgrade request.
```js
// WILL NOT WORK in the browser
const socket = new Socket('http://localhost', {
extraHeaders: {
'X-Custom-Header-For-My-Project': 'will not be sent'
}
});
// WILL NOT WORK
const socket = new Socket('http://localhost', {
transports: ['websocket'], // polling is disabled
transportOptions: {
polling: {
extraHeaders: {
'X-Custom-Header-For-My-Project': 'will not be sent'
}
}
}
});
// WILL WORK
const socket = new Socket('http://localhost', {
transports: ['polling', 'websocket'],
transportOptions: {
polling: {
extraHeaders: {
'X-Custom-Header-For-My-Project': 'will be used'
}
}
}
});
```
## Features
- Lightweight
- Runs on browser and node.js seamlessly
- Transports are independent of `Engine`
- Easy to debug
- Easy to unit test
- Runs inside HTML5 WebWorker
- Can send and receive binary data
- Receives as ArrayBuffer or Blob when in browser, and Buffer or ArrayBuffer
in Node
- When XHR2 or WebSockets are used, binary is emitted directly. Otherwise
binary is encoded into base64 strings, and decoded when binary types are
supported.
- With browsers that don't support ArrayBuffer, an object { base64: true,
data: dataAsBase64String } is emitted on the `message` event.
## API
### Socket
The client class. Mixes in [Emitter](http://github.com/component/emitter).
Exposed as `eio` in the browser standalone build.
#### Properties
- `protocol` _(Number)_: protocol revision number
- `binaryType` _(String)_ : can be set to 'arraybuffer' or 'blob' in browsers,
and `buffer` or `arraybuffer` in Node. Blob is only used in browser if it's
supported.
#### Events
- `open`
- Fired upon successful connection.
- `message`
- Fired when data is received from the server.
- **Arguments**
- `String` | `ArrayBuffer`: utf-8 encoded data or ArrayBuffer containing
binary data
- `close`
- Fired upon disconnection. In compliance with the WebSocket API spec, this event may be
fired even if the `open` event does not occur (i.e. due to connection error or `close()`).
- `error`
- Fired when an error occurs.
- `flush`
- Fired upon completing a buffer flush
- `drain`
- Fired after `drain` event of transport if writeBuffer is empty
- `upgradeError`
- Fired if an error occurs with a transport we're trying to upgrade to.
- `upgrade`
- Fired upon upgrade success, after the new transport is set
- `ping`
- Fired upon receiving a ping packet.
- `pong`
- Fired upon _flushing_ a pong packet (ie: actual packet write out)
#### Methods
- **constructor**
- Initializes the client
- **Parameters**
- `String` uri
- `Object`: optional, options object
- **Options**
- `agent` (`http.Agent`): `http.Agent` to use, defaults to `false` (NodeJS only)
- `upgrade` (`Boolean`): defaults to true, whether the client should try
to upgrade the transport from long-polling to something better.
- `forceBase64` (`Boolean`): forces base 64 encoding for polling transport even when XHR2 responseType is available and WebSocket even if the used standard supports binary.
- `withCredentials` (`Boolean`): defaults to `false`, whether to include credentials (cookies, authorization headers, TLS client certificates, etc.) with cross-origin XHR polling requests.
- `timestampRequests` (`Boolean`): whether to add the timestamp with each
transport request. Note: polling requests are always stamped unless this
option is explicitly set to `false` (`false`)
- `timestampParam` (`String`): timestamp parameter (`t`)
- `path` (`String`): path to connect to, default is `/engine.io`
- `transports` (`Array`): a list of transports to try (in order).
Defaults to `['polling', 'websocket', 'webtransport']`. `Engine`
always attempts to connect directly with the first one, provided the
feature detection test for it passes.
- `transportOptions` (`Object`): hash of options, indexed by transport name, overriding the common options for the given transport
- `rememberUpgrade` (`Boolean`): defaults to false.
If true and if the previous websocket connection to the server succeeded,
the connection attempt will bypass the normal upgrade process and will initially
try websocket. A connection attempt following a transport error will use the
normal upgrade process. It is recommended you turn this on only when using
SSL/TLS connections, or if you know that your network does not block websockets.
- `pfx` (`String`|`Buffer`): Certificate, Private key and CA certificates to use for SSL. Can be used in Node.js client environment to manually specify certificate information.
- `key` (`String`): Private key to use for SSL. Can be used in Node.js client environment to manually specify certificate information.
- `passphrase` (`String`): A string of passphrase for the private key or pfx. Can be used in Node.js client environment to manually specify certificate information.
- `cert` (`String`): Public x509 certificate to use. Can be used in Node.js client environment to manually specify certificate information.
- `ca` (`String`|`Array`): An authority certificate or array of authority certificates to check the remote host against.. Can be used in Node.js client environment to manually specify certificate information.
- `ciphers` (`String`): A string describing the ciphers to use or exclude. Consult the [cipher format list](http://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/ciphers.html#CIPHER_LIST_FORMAT) for details on the format. Can be used in Node.js client environment to manually specify certificate information.
- `rejectUnauthorized` (`Boolean`): If true, the server certificate is verified against the list of supplied CAs. An 'error' event is emitted if verification fails. Verification happens at the connection level, before the HTTP request is sent. Can be used in Node.js client environment to manually specify certificate information.
- `perMessageDeflate` (`Object|Boolean`): parameters of the WebSocket permessage-deflate extension
(see [ws module](https://github.com/einaros/ws) api docs). Set to `false` to disable. (`true`)
- `threshold` (`Number`): data is compressed only if the byte size is above this value. This option is ignored on the browser. (`1024`)
- `extraHeaders` (`Object`): Headers that will be passed for each request to the server (via xhr-polling and via websockets). These values then can be used during handshake or for special proxies. Can only be used in Node.js client environment.
- `onlyBinaryUpgrades` (`Boolean`): whether transport upgrades should be restricted to transports supporting binary data (`false`)
- `forceNode` (`Boolean`): Uses NodeJS implementation for websockets - even if there is a native Browser-Websocket available, which is preferred by default over the NodeJS implementation. (This is useful when using hybrid platforms like nw.js or electron) (`false`, NodeJS only)
- `localAddress` (`String`): the local IP address to connect to
- `autoUnref` (`Boolean`): whether the transport should be `unref`'d upon creation. This calls `unref` on the underlying timers and sockets so that the program is allowed to exit if they are the only timers/sockets in the event system (Node.js only)
- `useNativeTimers` (`Boolean`): Whether to always use the native timeouts. This allows the client to reconnect when the native timeout functions are overridden, such as when mock clocks are installed with [`@sinonjs/fake-timers`](https://github.com/sinonjs/fake-timers).
- **Polling-only options**
- `requestTimeout` (`Number`): Timeout for xhr-polling requests in milliseconds (`0`)
- **Websocket-only options**
- `protocols` (`Array`): a list of subprotocols (see [MDN reference](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebSockets_API/Writing_WebSocket_servers#Subprotocols))
- `closeOnBeforeunload` (`Boolean`): whether to silently close the connection when the [`beforeunload`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/beforeunload_event) event is emitted in the browser (defaults to `false`)
- `send`
- Sends a message to the server
- **Parameters**
- `String` | `ArrayBuffer` | `ArrayBufferView` | `Blob`: data to send
- `Object`: optional, options object
- `Function`: optional, callback upon `drain`
- **Options**
- `compress` (`Boolean`): whether to compress sending data. This option is ignored and forced to be `true` on the browser. (`true`)
- `close`
- Disconnects the client.
### Transport
The transport class. Private. _Inherits from EventEmitter_.
#### Events
- `poll`: emitted by polling transports upon starting a new request
- `pollComplete`: emitted by polling transports upon completing a request
- `drain`: emitted by polling transports upon a buffer drain
## Tests
`engine.io-client` is used to test
[engine](http://github.com/socketio/engine.io). Running the `engine.io`
test suite ensures the client works and vice-versa.
Browser tests are run using [zuul](https://github.com/defunctzombie/zuul). You can
run the tests locally using the following command.
```
./node_modules/.bin/zuul --local 8080 -- test/index.js
```
Additionally, `engine.io-client` has a standalone test suite you can run
with `make test` which will run node.js and browser tests. You must have zuul setup with
a saucelabs account.
## Support
The support channels for `engine.io-client` are the same as `socket.io`:
- irc.freenode.net **#socket.io**
- [Google Groups](http://groups.google.com/group/socket_io)
- [Website](http://socket.io)
## Development
To contribute patches, run tests or benchmarks, make sure to clone the
repository:
```bash
git clone git://github.com/socketio/engine.io-client.git
```
Then:
```bash
cd engine.io-client
npm install
```
See the `Tests` section above for how to run tests before submitting any patches.
## License
MIT - Copyright (c) 2014 Automattic, Inc.
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