Websockets are easy

I was interested in getting a minimal example working for Websockets and it was surprisingly easy to get a demo working between Node.js and a browser.

First install the ws library:

npm install ws

Create an index.js file with the contents:

const WebSocket = require('ws');
const wss = new WebSocket.Server({ port: 8080 });

wss.on('connection', function(ws) {
console.log('Starting connection');
ws.on('message', function(message) {
console.log('Received message: ' + message);
ws.send('You sent ' + message);
});
});

Start the Node.js process:

node index.js

In a browser console, send a message to the Node.js process:

var ws = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8080");
ws.onmessage = function(e) {
console.log(e.data);
}
ws.send('Hello World');