DRESS SHOE

A rich, classy wrapper around SockJS, allowing for cross-browser namespaced channels of communication and cookie-based authorization using WebSockets and NodeJS. No Flash necessary -- just tasteful, elegant Javascript.

Requires sockjs-node on the server, and sockjs-client clientside.

SERVER API

• dressShoe(sockjs_opts) creates the server, where sockjs_opts is a hash of sockjs-node's options.
• server.authorize(callback) adds an authorization handler to the server, where the callback is of the form function(connection, cookies, accept). Calling accept() or accept(true) accepts the connection, and calling accept(false) rejects it.
• server.on(event, callback) adds an event handler to the server. The only event the server emits is "connection", which it emits upon a new connection opening. Callbacks for "connection" handlers should be of the form function(connection).
• connection.readyState() tests whether the connection is ready.
• connection.on(callback) adds an event handler to a connection. Connections emit "data" and "close" events; the former is emitted on new incoming data, and the latter is emitted on a close event. Both take handlers of the form function(data).
• connection.write(message) writes a message to a socket on the default channel.
• connection.close() manually closes a socket. This is only necessary if you want to close a socket before it's ready to close -- if it closes itself (either through calling close() on the client or timing out), the server closes the connection by itself and emits a "close" event.
• connection.channel(channelName) creates or accesses a named channel on the connection, and returns it. Channels are exactly the same as connections, but they can't close() or clear(). They will, however, emit "close" events if the connection gets closed. Channels are namespaced -- writing something on a "ninjaTurtle" channel bypasses the default channel, and a message sent on the "donatello" channel won't get picked up by the "raphael" channel (or the default channel).
• connection.clear(channelName) manually removes a channel. This is only necessary if you're making lots of short-lived channels on a long-lived connection; otherwise, just rely on the fact that channels are GCed at the same time as their parent connections.

CLIENT API

• dressShoe(url, protocol, options) creates a connection, where url is a URL pointing to a sockjs-client implementation, protocol is a list of unwanted WebSocket or WebSocket-emulating protocols, and options is a hash of sockjs-client's options.
• connection.readyState() tests whether the connection is ready.
• connection.on(event, callback) adds an event handler to a connection. Connections emit "data" and "close" events; the former is emitted on new incoming data, and the latter is emitted if the connection is terminated. Both take handlers of the form function(data).
• connection.write(message) writes a message to a socket on the default channel.
• connection.close() manually closes a connection. This is only necessary if you want to close a socket before it's ready to close -- if it closes itself (either by being terminated by the server or timing out), the client closes the connection itself and emits a "close" event.
• connection.channel(channelName) creates or accesses a named channel on the connection, and returns it. Channels are exactly the same as connections, but they can't close or clear. They will, however, emit "close" events if the connection gets closed. Channels are namespaced -- writing something on a "ninjaTurtle" channel bypasses the default channel, and a message sent on the "leonardo" channel won't get picked up by the "michaelangelo" channel (or the default channel).
• connection.clear(channelName) manually removes a channel. This is only necessary if you're making lots of short-lived channels on a long-lived connection; otherwise, just rely on the fact that channels are GCed at the same time as their parent connections.