Book Image

Getting Started with HTML5 WebSocket Programming

By : Vangos Pterneas
Book Image

Getting Started with HTML5 WebSocket Programming

By: Vangos Pterneas

Overview of this book

<p>WebSockets are capable of bi-directional, full-duplex communication over a persistent TCP connection They provide many benefits compared to the alternatives (for example, long-polling or Comet), such as lower overhead, persistent connections, and low latency. In short, it is the most technically challenging HTML5 feature to implement, but for truly interactive websites, it's a technology worth learning.</p> <p>Getting Started with HTML5 WebSocket Programming gives you the true power of bi-directional communication, implemented by using the brand new HTML5 WebSocket API. You’ll learn how to configure the server and clients, how to transmit different types of data and how to secure the whole system.</p> <p>This book will introduce you to the WebSocket world. We start by introducing the WebSocket API, and continue with practical, real-world examples until we can determine how to build multi-functional web apps for any type of device.</p> <p>You will learn how to configure a web client and a web server that will help you send messages to others using easy-to-use mechanisms. We will also find out how different data types, such as images and videos, can be transferred with little effort. We present additional fallback techniques and solutions for older browsers too. Finally, we will secure our clients from malicious attacks and other threats.</p>
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

Going native


So, what if your application supports device-specific or offline features, and you still want to use WebSockets when the web is available?

You go native.

Fortunately, all of the major mobile platforms support WebSockets, so you need to make absolutely no changes in your server code! After all, HTML5 is a front-end client just like iPhone or iPad. Using the same techniques as the JavaScript samples, you are going to build the same application in Objective-C. The process is similar to any other mobile platform, so do not worry if you are not familiar with the Objective-C concept.

Creating the project

To begin with, open XCode, the development environment provided by Apple for building iOS apps. Eclipse and Visual Studio are the Android and Windows equivalents.

Follow the given steps for creating the project

  1. Launch XCode and click on Create a new XCode project. The following screenshot shows XCode launch screen:

  2. Create a single view application. Provide a name, along with company and...