go websockets eof

Question

I'm trying to make a simple command forwarder to connect my home computer to a server I own, so that I can push commands to my server and my home pc gets it. Those commands are simple pause/resume for my downloader. My design is, that on a server, I run a hub instance, which creates a window for passing commands and a window for backend to pass those commands to my pc. I'm bounding those two "windows" with a channel, they run a server. When a client connects and sends a message to the hub, it gets streamed through a channel to backend window and then to the real backend (on my home pc). When backend responds to the backend window on the hub, the hub prints the result back to the client.

With this approach, only the first message passes and works with my downloader. I have to reconnect the backend from my home pc with the hub each time I get a message to get this working properly. I don't think that's the proper way with websockets, so here I am. After one successful request (when the backend finishes it's work and replies the result), it gets looped forever with EOF error.

The important parts of the code are:

• main executable
• hub handlers
• backend connector

If you put the source in your GOPATH (i'm developing it for the tip version of go to support modern websockets), to compile it: go build gosab/cmd, to run it:

• ./cmd -mode="hub" hub
• ./cmd -mode="backend" --address="localhost:8082" backend

To pass messages to the hub, use this javascript:

var s = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8082")
s.send("1 5")

So how do I handle it? Are channels a good way to communicate between two different requests?

Answer 1

I'm surprised you haven't received an answer to this.

What you need to do is something like the code below. When you receive an incoming websocket connection, a new goroutine is spawned for that connection. If you let that goroutine end, it'll disconnect the websocket client.

I'm making an assumption that you're not necessarily going to be running the client and server on the same computer. If you always are, then it'd be better to do the communication internally via channels or such instead of using websockets or a network port. I only mention this because I'm not completely sure what you're using this for. I just hope I answered the right part of your question.

package main

import (
    "code.google.com/p/go.net/websocket"
    "flag"
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "os"
    "time"
)

type Message struct {
    RequestID      int
    Command        string
    SomeOtherThing string
    Success        bool
}

var mode *string = flag.String("mode", "<nil>", "Mode: server or client")
var address *string = flag.String("address", "localhost:8080", "Bind address:port")

func main() {
    flag.Parse()

    switch *mode {
    case "server":
        RunServer()
    case "client":
        RunClient()
    default:
        flag.Usage()
    }
}

func RunServer() {
    http.Handle("/", http.FileServer(http.Dir("www")))
    http.Handle("/server", websocket.Handler(WSHandler))
    fmt.Println("Starting Server")
    err := http.ListenAndServe(*address, nil)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("HTTP failed: %s\n", err.Error())
        os.Exit(1)
    }
}

func WSHandler(ws *websocket.Conn) {
    defer ws.Close()
    fmt.Println("Client Connected")
    for {
        var message Message
        err := websocket.JSON.Receive(ws, &message)
        if err != nil {
            fmt.Printf("Error: %s\n", err.Error())
            return
        }
        fmt.Println(message)

        // do something useful here...

        response := new(Message)
        response.RequestID = message.RequestID
        response.Success = true
        response.SomeOtherThing = "The hot dog left the castle as requested."
        err = websocket.JSON.Send(ws, response)
        if err != nil {
            fmt.Printf("Send failed: %s\n", err.Error())
            os.Exit(1)
        }
    }
}

func RunClient() {
    fmt.Println("Starting Client")
    ws, err := websocket.Dial(fmt.Sprintf("ws://%s/server", *address), "", fmt.Sprintf("http://%s/", *address))
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Dial failed: %s\n", err.Error())
        os.Exit(1)
    }
    incomingMessages := make(chan Message)
    go readClientMessages(ws, incomingMessages)
    i := 0
    for {
        select {
        case <-time.After(time.Duration(2e9)):
            i++
            response := new(Message)
            response.RequestID = i
            response.Command = "Eject the hot dog."
            err = websocket.JSON.Send(ws, response)
            if err != nil {
                fmt.Printf("Send failed: %s\n", err.Error())
                os.Exit(1)
            }
        case message := <-incomingMessages:
            fmt.Println(message)
        }
    }
}

func readClientMessages(ws *websocket.Conn, incomingMessages chan Message) {
    for {
        var message Message
        err := websocket.JSON.Receive(ws, &message)
        if err != nil {
            fmt.Printf("Error: %s\n", err.Error())
            return
        }
        incomingMessages <- message
    }
}