Trigger/Subscribe to websocket-rails event from inside a rails runner

Question

I have a Rails Application with websocket-rails gem.

Inside my application there is a Daemon that I launch with rails runner MyDaemon.start

I'm using websocket-rails Synchronization, so my config/initializers/websocket_rails.rb looks like this:

WebsocketRails.setup do |config|
  config.log_internal_events = false
  config.standalone = false
  config.synchronize = true
end

Inside MyDaemon, using synchronization, I can trigger event that will reach both my WebsocketRails::BaseController and my javascript WebSocketRails.

What I'm trying to do is to find a way to bind to events from my MyDaemon.

I've tried to implement a plain WebSocket client using both faye-websocket-ruby and websocket-client-simple, but after banging my head on my keyboard for some time, I figured out that there is some kind of "handshake" process using connection_id from the client_connected message. Basically none of the solutions provided in this other so question works for me.

I need to understand if inside my MyDaemon I can subscribe directly to some WebsocketRails callback, even inside an EventMachine, or how should I implement a Websocket Client in Ruby itself.

My last attempt to have a ruby client can be found in this gist, and this is a sample output:

ruby client.rb ws://localhost:3000/websocket
[:open, {"upgrade"=>"websocket", "connection"=>"Upgrade", "sec-websocket-accept"=>"zNTdGvxFKJeP+1PyGf27T4x2PGo="}]

JSON message is
[["client_connected", {"id"=>nil, "channel"=>nil, "user_id"=>nil, "data"=>{"connection_id"=>"4b7b91001befb160d17b"}, "success"=>nil, "result"=>nil, "token"=>nil, "server_token"=>nil}]]

client id is 4b7b91001befb160d17b
[:message, "[[\"client_connected\",{\"id\":null,\"channel\":null,\"user_id\":null,\"data\":{\"connection_id\":\"4b7b91001befb160d17b\"},\"success\":null,\"result\":null,\"token\":null,\"server_token\":null}]]"]

JSON message is
[["websocket_rails.ping", {"id"=>nil, "channel"=>nil, "user_id"=>nil, "data"=>{}, "success"=>nil, "result"=>nil, "token"=>nil, "server_token"=>nil}]]

Sending ["pong",{}]
[:message, "[[\"websocket_rails.ping\",{\"id\":null,\"channel\":null,\"user_id\":null,\"data\":{},\"success\":null,\"result\":null,\"token\":null,\"server_token\":null}]]"]
[:close, 1006, ""]

While the log of websocket-rails is:

I [2015-06-27 02:08:45.250] [ConnectionManager] Connection opened: #<Connection::2b3dddaf3ec4ed5e3550>
I [2015-06-27 02:08:45.251] [Dispatcher] Started Event: client_connected
I [2015-06-27 02:08:45.251] [Dispatcher] Name: client_connected
I [2015-06-27 02:08:45.251] [Dispatcher] Data: {"connection_id"=>"2b3dddaf3ec4ed5e3550"}
I [2015-06-27 02:08:45.251] [Dispatcher] Connection: #<Connection::2b3dddaf3ec4ed5e3550>
I [2015-06-27 02:08:45.251] [Dispatcher] Event client_connected Finished in 0.000174623 seconds
I [2015-06-27 02:09:05.252] [ConnectionManager] Connection closed: #<Connection::2b3dddaf3ec4ed5e3550>
I [2015-06-27 02:09:05.252] [Dispatcher] Started Event: client_disconnected
I [2015-06-27 02:09:05.252] [Dispatcher] Name: client_disconnected
I [2015-06-27 02:09:05.252] [Dispatcher] Connection: #<Connection::2b3dddaf3ec4ed5e3550>
I [2015-06-27 02:09:05.253] [Dispatcher] Event client_disconnected Finished in 0.000236669 seconds

Probably I'm missing somethig very stupid, so I'm here to ask your help!

Answer 1

You can use Iodine as a websocket client (I'm the author):

require 'iodine/http'
# prevents the Iodine's server from running
Iodine.protocol = :timer
# starts Iodine while the script is still running
Iodine.force_start!
options = {}
options[:on_open] = Proc.new {puts 'Connection Open'; write "Hello World!" }
options[:on_close] = Proc.new {puts 'Connection Closed'}
options[:on_message] = Proc.new {|data| puts "I got: #{data}" }

# connect to an echo server for demo. Use the blocking method:
websocket = Iodine::Http::WebsocketClient.connect "wss://echo.websocket.org/", options
websocket << "sending data"
sleep 0.5
websocket.close

As an aside note, reading around I noticed that the websocket-rails gem isn't being updated all that much. See this question

As an alternative, you can run websockets inside your Rails app by using the Plezi framework (I'm the author).

It's quite easy to use both frameworks at the same time on the same server. This way you can use your Rails model's code inside your Plezi Websocket controller.

Because Plezi will manage the websockets and Rails will probably render the 404 Not Found page, Plezi's routes will take precedence... but as long as your routes don't override each other, you're golden.

Notice that to allow both apps to run together, Plezi will force you to use Iodine server as your Rack server. To avoid this you can use the Placebo API and run Plezi on a different process.

You can read more the framework's README file.