@azure/web-pubsub

Azure Web PubSub service client library for JavaScript

Azure Web PubSub service is an Azure-managed service that helps developers easily build web applications with real-time features and publish-subscribe pattern. Any scenario that requires real-time publish-subscribe messaging between server and clients or among clients can use Azure Web PubSub service. Traditional real-time features that often require polling from server or submitting HTTP requests can also use Azure Web PubSub service.

You can use this library in your app server side to manage the WebSocket client connections, as shown in below diagram:

.

• Send messages to hubs and groups.
• Send messages to particular users and connections.
• Organize users and connections into groups.
• Close connections
• Grant, revoke, and check permissions for an existing connection

Details about the terms used here are described in Key concepts section.

Source code | Package (NPM) | API reference documentation | Product documentation | Samples

Getting started

Currently supported environments

• LTS versions of Node.js

Prerequisites

• An Azure subscription.
• An existing Azure Web PubSub service instance.

1. Install the @azure/web-pubsub package

npm install @azure/web-pubsub

2. Create and authenticate a WebPubSubServiceClient

const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");

You can also authenticate the WebPubSubServiceClient using an endpoint and an AzureKeyCredential:

const { WebPubSubServiceClient, AzureKeyCredential } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

const key = new AzureKeyCredential("<Key>");
const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<Endpoint>", key, "<hubName>");

Or authenticate the WebPubSubServiceClient using Azure Active Directory

1. Install the @azure/identity dependency

npm install @azure/identity

1. Update the source code to use DefaultAzureCredential:

const { WebPubSubServiceClient, AzureKeyCredential } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");
const { DefaultAzureCredential } = require("@azure/identity");

const key = new DefaultAzureCredential();
const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<Endpoint>", key, "<hubName>");

Key concepts

Connection

A connection, also known as a client or a client connection, represents an individual WebSocket connection connected to the Web PubSub service. When successfully connected, a unique connection ID is assigned to this connection by the Web PubSub service.

Hub

A hub is a logical concept for a set of client connections. Usually you use one hub for one purpose, for example, a chat hub, or a notification hub. When a client connection is created, it connects to a hub, and during its lifetime, it belongs to that hub. Different applications can share one Azure Web PubSub service by using different hub names.

Group

A group is a subset of connections to the hub. You can add a client connection to a group, or remove the client connection from the group, anytime you want. For example, when a client joins a chat room, or when a client leaves the chat room, this chat room can be considered to be a group. A client can join multiple groups, and a group can contain multiple clients.

User

Connections to Web PubSub can belong to one user. A user might have multiple connections, for example when a single user is connected across multiple devices or multiple browser tabs.

Message

When the client is connected, it can send messages to the upstream application, or receive messages from the upstream application, through the WebSocket connection.

Examples

Get the access token for a client to start the WebSocket connection

const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");

// Get the access token for the WebSocket client connection to use
let token = await serviceClient.getClientAccessToken();

// Or get the access token and assign the client a userId
token = await serviceClient.getClientAccessToken({ userId: "user1" });

// Or get the access token that the client will join group GroupA when it connects using the access token
token = await serviceClient.getClientAccessToken({ userId: "user1", groups: [ "GroupA" ] });

// return the token to the WebSocket client

Broadcast messages to all connections in a hub

const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");

// Send a JSON message
await serviceClient.sendToAll({ message: "Hello world!" });

// Send a plain text message
await serviceClient.sendToAll("Hi there!", { contentType: "text/plain" });

// Send a binary message
const payload = new Uint8Array(10);
await serviceClient.sendToAll(payload.buffer);

Send messages to all connections in a hub with OData filter syntax

Details about filter syntax please see OData filter syntax for Azure Web PubSub.

const { WebPubSubServiceClient, odata } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");

// Send a JSON message to anonymous connections
await serviceClient.sendToAll(
  { message: "Hello world!" },
  { filter: "userId eq null" }
  );

// Send a text message to connections in groupA but not in groupB
const groupA = 'groupA';
const groupB = 'groupB';
await serviceClient.sendToAll(
  "Hello world!",
  { 
    contentType: "text/plain",
    // use plain text "'groupA' in groups and not('groupB' in groups)"
    // or use the odata helper method
    filter: odata`${groupA} in groups and not(${groupB} in groups)` 
  });

Send messages to all connections in a group

const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");

const groupClient = serviceClient.group("<groupName>");

// Add user to the group
await groupClient.addUser("user1");

// Send a JSON message
await groupClient.sendToAll({ message: "Hello world!" });

// Send a plain text message
await groupClient.sendToAll("Hi there!", { contentType: "text/plain" });

// Send a binary message
const payload = new Uint8Array(10);
await groupClient.sendToAll(payload.buffer);

Send messages to all connections for a user

const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");

// Send a JSON message
await serviceClient.sendToUser("user1", { message: "Hello world!" });

// Send a plain text message
await serviceClient.sendToUser("user1", "Hi there!", { contentType: "text/plain" });

// Send a binary message
const payload = new Uint8Array(10);
await serviceClient.sendToUser("user1", payload.buffer);

Check if the group has any connection

const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");
const WebSocket = require("ws");

const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");

const groupClient = serviceClient.group("<groupName>");

// close all the connections in the group
await groupClient.closeAllConnections({ reason: "<closeReason>" });

// check if the group has any connections
const hasConnections = await serviceClient.groupExists("<groupName>");

Access the raw HTTP response for an operation

const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require("@azure/web-pubsub");

function onResponse(rawResponse) {
  console.log(rawResponse);
}
const serviceClient = new WebPubSubServiceClient("<ConnectionString>", "<hubName>");
await serviceClient.sendToAll({ message: "Hello world!" }, { onResponse });

Troubleshooting

Enable logs

You can set the following environment variable to get the debug logs when using this library.

• Getting debug logs from the SignalR client library

export AZURE_LOG_LEVEL=verbose

For more detailed instructions on how to enable logs, you can look at the @azure/logger package docs.

Live Trace

Use Live Trace from the Web PubSub service portal to view the live traffic.

Next steps

Please take a look at the samples directory for detailed examples on how to use this library.

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute to this library, please read the contributing guide to learn more about how to build and test the code.

Related projects

• Microsoft Azure SDK for Javascript