WebSocket

WebSocket is a computer communications protocol, providing a bidirectional communication channel over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. The protocol was standardized by the IETF as in 2011. The current specification allowing web applications to use this protocol is known as WebSockets. It is a living standard maintained by the WHATWG and a successor to The WebSocket API from the W3C.

Key facts

Protocol.name: WebSocket
Protocol.image: WebSocket colored logo.svg
Protocol.caption: The WebSocket logo
Protocol.industry: Computer science
Protocol.connector: TCP

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Wikidata facts

Official website: websockets.spec.whatwg.org

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Stack Exchange tag: stackoverflow.com/tags/websocket
uses: Transmission Control Protocol
described at URL: websockets.spec.whatwg.org
source code repository URL: github.com/whatwg/websockets
protocol: Transmission Control Protocol

Sources (2)

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Encyclopedic overview

21 sections

Contents

History
Web API
Client example
WebSocket interface
Protocol
Opening handshake
Frame-based message
Frame structure
Opcodes
Client-to-server masking
Status codes
Compression extension
Server implementation example
Browser support
Server implementations
Security considerations
Proxy traversal
See also
Notes
References
External links

WebSocket is distinct from HTTP used to serve most webpages. Although they are different, states that WebSocket "is designed to work over HTTP ports 443 and 80 as well as to support HTTP proxies and intermediaries", making the WebSocket protocol compatible with HTTP. To achieve compatibility, the WebSocket handshake uses the HTTP Upgrade header to change from the HTTP protocol to the WebSocket protocol.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “WebSocket” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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