spdy

What is spdy?

The spdy npm package is designed to support the SPDY and HTTP/2 protocols in Node.js. It provides server and client functionality, allowing developers to create SPDY/HTTP2 servers and clients with ease. This package is particularly useful for improving web application performance by leveraging the advanced features of these protocols, such as multiplexing, server push, and header compression.

What are spdy's main functionalities?

Creating an SPDY/HTTP2 server

This code sample demonstrates how to create a simple SPDY/HTTP2 server using the spdy package along with Express. It sets up a server that listens on port 3000 and serves a simple message over SPDY/HTTP2.

const spdy = require('spdy');
const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.end('Hello over SPDY/HTTP2');
});

const options = {
  key: fs.readFileSync('<path-to-key>'),
  cert: fs.readFileSync('<path-to-cert>')
};

spdy.createServer(options, app).listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on https://localhost:3000');
});

Creating an SPDY/HTTP2 client

This code sample shows how to create an SPDY/HTTP2 client that connects to a server. It demonstrates making a request to the server and handling the response, including reading response headers and data.

const spdy = require('spdy');
const http2 = require('http2');

const client = spdy.connect('https://localhost:3000', (err, socket) => {
  if (err) {
    throw new Error('Connection failed');
  }

  const req = http2.request({
    ':path': '/'
  });

  req.on('response', (headers) => {
    console.log('Response headers:', headers);
  });

  req.setEncoding('utf8');
  req.on('data', (chunk) => console.log(chunk));
  req.end();
});

Other packages similar to spdy

http2

The http2 package is a core module in Node.js that provides an implementation of the HTTP/2 protocol. It offers similar functionalities to spdy, such as creating servers and clients that can communicate over HTTP/2. However, spdy provides additional support for the SPDY protocol, which is not covered by the http2 module.

node-http2

node-http2 is an npm package that also implements the HTTP/2 protocol. It provides an API for creating HTTP/2 servers and clients. Compared to spdy, node-http2 focuses solely on HTTP/2 without support for SPDY. spdy might offer a more comprehensive solution for developers looking to support both protocols.

README

SPDY Server for node.js

With this module you can create SPDY servers in node.js with natural http module interface and fallback to regular https (for browsers that doesn't support SPDY yet).

Node+OpenSSL building

At the moment node-spdy requires zlib dictionary support, which will come to node.js only in 0.7.x version. To build 0.7.x version follow instructions below:

git clone git://github.com/joyent/node.git
cd node
./configure --prefix=$HOME/.node/dev # <- or any other dir

make install -j4 # in -jN, N is number of CPU cores on your machine

# Add node's bin to PATH env variable
echo 'export PATH=$HOME/.node/dev/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc

#
# You have working node 0.7.x + NPN now !!!
#

Usage

var spdy = require('spdy'),
    fs = require('fs');

var options = {
  key: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/keys/spdy-key.pem'),
  cert: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/keys/spdy-cert.pem'),
  ca: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/keys/spdy-csr.pem')
};

var server = spdy.createServer(options, function(req, res) {
  res.writeHead(200);
  res.end('hello world!');
});

server.listen(443);

API

API is compatible with http and https module, but you can use another function as base class for SPDYServer. For example, require('express').HTTPSServer given that as base class you'll get a server compatible with express API.

spdy.createServer(
  [base class constructor, i.e. https.Server or express.HTTPSServer],
  { /* keys and options */ }, // <- the only one required argument
  [request listener]
).listen([port], [host], [callback]);

Request listener will receive two arguments: request and response. They're both instances of http's IncomingMessage and OutgoingMessage. But two custom properties are added to both of them: streamID and isSpdy. The first one indicates on which spdy stream are sitting request and response. Latter one is always true and can be checked to ensure that incoming request wasn't received by HTTPS callback.

Push streams

It is possible to initiate 'push' streams to send content to clients before the client requests it.

spdy.createServer(options, function(req, res) {
  var headers = { 'content-type': 'application/javascript' };
  res.push('/main.js', headers, function(err, stream) {
    if (err) return;

    stream.end('alert("hello from push stream!");');
  });

  res.end('<script src="/main.js"></script>');
}).listen(443);

Push is accomplished via the push() method invoked on the current response object (this works for express.js response objects as well). The format of the push() method is:

.push('full or relative url', { ... headers ... }, callback)

You can use either full ( http://host/path ) or relative ( /path ) urls with .push(). headers are the same as for regular response object. callback will receive two arguments: err (if any error is happened) and stream (stream object have API compatible with a net.Socket ).

Options

All options supported by tls are working with node-spdy. In addition, maxStreams options is available. it allows you controlling [maximum concurrent streams][http://www.chromium.org/spdy/spdy-protocol/spdy-protocol-draft2#TOC-SETTINGS] protocol option (if client will start more streams than that limit, RST_STREAM will be sent for each additional stream).

Contributors

• Fedor Indutny
• Chris Strom
• François de Metz
• Ilya Grigorik

LICENSE

This software is licensed under the MIT License.

Copyright Fedor Indutny, 2012.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.