Socket.io reconnection causes new username - javascript

I am creating a chat in node.js and socket.io.
When a user opens my application, I ping the server and ask it to let the user join a specific room and set a random username (which can be edited at a later stage).
I use this
io.on('connection', (socket) => {
socket.on('join room', (roomId, callback) => {
// leave and join room
if (socket.roomId) {
socket.leave(socket.roomId);
}
socket.roomId = roomId;
socket.join(roomId);
// set username
if (!socket.username) {
socket.username = getRandomUsername();
}
});
});
It seems to work, but I have experienced situation where I have had the application running for a long time, and suddenly the user's username has changed.
I am suspecting this to occur because the user has lost connection, and socket.io have tried reconnecting. When the user has reconnected, the original socket is lost (and therefore it has no username), and a new username is assigned to the new socket, which overrides the original client socket.
Is there a problem with my code by assigning a random username to the user like this? It is somehow the same Google Docs does when the user is not signed in (they often give you an animal's name).
How can I solve the problem? I would very much like to avoid using cookies. An option could probably be to tell the client that it lost connection, and it has to reload the page, and then ask the server to get the same username.
I already save the assigned username on the client with this code:
const socket = io();
let username = null;
socket.on('connect', function() {
socket.emit('join room', roomId, function (newUsername) {
username = newUsername;
});
});
(...)

Related

How to get Socket to send to the requesting client only?

I am having an issue practicing with socket.io. I have a function set up, where on connection, the users data is refreshed, only it seems to only be happening AFTER the initial connection.
When one user connects, nothing on new user refreshes. Aditional new user connects, Old connection refreshes, but new connection remains untouched.
Am I not able to send data during connection?
This is just some simple practice for me, trying to get better with websockets, and can't seem to get past the general broadcast.emit.
I have tried socket.to(socket.id).broadcast.emit, of course, however no luck there either. You will see in my code.
// Setup socket.io
socketIo.on('connection', socket => {
getDataByUser(user, socket)
socket.on('disconnect', function() {
delete CLIENTS[socket.id];
console.log(`${username} disconnected`)
});
function getDataByUser(user, socket) {
var items = [1,2,3];
items.forEach(element => {
socket.broadcast.emit('server:data', element)
socket.broadcast.to(socket.id).emit('data', 'for your eyes only');
});
}
As you can see in the getData function, I use both a general emit, and an emit to, in order to test it. I have proper listeners set up, however the socket itself is only refreshed apon a new connection. Perhaps this is only called when socket a makes a new connection?
I would like to have this function called imediately apon socket connection. for only the user who has connected. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I think the way you can deal with this is to not broadcast it.
Try to emit only to the socket who got connected at that time.
I did not get what you are trying to achieve so if the code below does not resolve you problem please say what output do you expect.
socketIo.on('connection', socket => {
var items = [1,2,3];
items.forEach(element => {
socket.emit('server:data', element)
socket.emit('data', 'for your eyes only');
});
socket.on('disconnect', function() {
socket.disconnect();
console.log(`${username} disconnected`)
});
when you use the socket object you adress to that client only...the one who establised the connection.

socket.io - How to join a room

I am writing a chatting app. Right now, when a new conversation between user A and user b is initiated by user A, user A sendS a socket message to server with user B's userId.
The Server checks whether there's a conversation existing between the two users, if not, creates one, and have user A join the new conversation(clientA.join(newConversationId)). But I don't know how to have user B join the room too if user B actually has a connected socket now.
What I think might work is keeping an object mapping userId to socket.id, so I can get user B's socket id by B's userId sent along with A's origin message. And then I'll get B's socket by its socket ID, and have it join the conversation too.
The problem is, I don't know how to get a socket by a socket ID. I don't think there's an official document of this. Or is there other better way to deal with something like this?
Yes, you have to keep track of your users id.
This code may help you a little with that.
var io = require("socket.io").listen(conf.port);
var customIds = [];
io.on("connection", function (socket) {
socket.on("login" function (data) {
customIds[socket.id] = data.userId;
});
/**
* Executes when a client disconnect.
* It deletes this client and updates and emits the client new client list
*/
socket.on("disconnect", function () {
// leave the current room
//socket.leave(socket.room);
// emit event
//socket.broadcast.to(socket.room).emit("clientDisconnected",customIds[socket.id]));
// delete the custom id from the custom id array.
customIds.splice(socket.id, 1);
});
}
You can also save your userid like this (Do not modify socket.id)
socket.userId=XXXX
Get a list of clients and look for the user id you need
io.sockets.clients();

i would like to private message a user [duplicate]

I've beeen scouring the Net with no luck. I'm trying to figure out how to send a private message from one user to another. There are lots of snippets, but I'm not sure about the client/server interaction. If I have the ID of the socket I want to send to, how do I send it to the server, and how do I ensure the server only sends the message to that one receiver socket?
Is there a tutorial or walkthrough that anyone knows of?
No tutorial needed. The Socket.IO FAQ is pretty straightforward on this one:
socket.emit('news', { hello: 'world' });
EDIT: Folks are linking to this question when asking about how to get that socket object later. There is no need to. When a new client connects, save a reference to that socket on whatever object you're keeping your user information on. My comment from below:
In the top of your script somewhere, setup an object to hold your users' information.
var connectedUsers = {};
In your .on('connection') function, add that socket to your new object. connectedUsers[USER_NAME_HERE] = socket; Then you can easily retrieve it later. connectedUsers[USER_NAME_HERE].emit('something', 'something');
Here's a code snippet that should help:
Client-side (sending message)
socket.emit("private", { msg: chatMsg.val(), to: selected.text() });
where to refers to the id to send a private message to and msg is the content.
Client-side (receiving message)
socket.on("private", function(data) {
chatLog.append('<li class="private"><em><strong>'+ data.from +' -> '+ data.to +'</strong>: '+ data.msg +'</em></li>');
});
where chatLog is a div displaying the chat messages.
Server-side
client.on("private", function(data) {
io.sockets.sockets[data.to].emit("private", { from: client.id, to: data.to, msg: data.msg });
client.emit("private", { from: client.id, to: data.to, msg: data.msg });
});
Although we have nice answers here. However, I couldn't grasp the whole client server unique user identification pretty fast, so I'm posting this simple steps in order to help whoever is struggling as i did.....
At the client side, Get the user's ID, in my case I'm getting the username...
Client side user registration
//Connect socket.io
var systemUrl = 'http://localhost:4000';
var socket = io.connect(systemUrl);
//Collect User identity from the client side
var username = prompt('Enter your Username');
socket.emit('register',username);
The Listen to register on the server side to register user's socket to connected socket
Serve side code User registration
/*Craete an empty object to collect connected users*/
var connectedUsers = {};
io.on('connection',function(socket){
/*Register connected user*/
socket.on('register',function(username){
socket.username = username;
connectedUsers[username] = socket;
});
});
Send Message from the client side
$(document).on('click','.username',function(){
var username = $(this).text(),
message = prompt("type your message");
socket.emit('private_chat',{
to : username,
message : message
});
});
Receive message on server and emit it to private user
/*Private chat*/
socket.on('private_chat',function(data){
const to = data.to,
message = data.message;
if(connectedUsers.hasOwnProperty(to)){
connectedUsers[to].emit('private_chat',{
//The sender's username
username : socket.username,
//Message sent to receiver
message : message
});
}
});
Receive message on client and display it
/*Received private messages*/
socket.on('private_chat',function(data){
var username = data.username;
var message = data.message;
alert(username+': '+message);
});
This is not the best, however you can start from here....
The easiest way I can think of is to have an hash of all the users on using their id or name as the key and have their socket as part of the value then when you want to send a message to just them you pull that socket and emit on it... something like this:
users[toUser].emit('msg',"Hello, "+toUser+"!");
if you have a web site that has register users with uid then you can create a room for each user and name the room by uid of the user.
first connect client to the server using :
var socket = io('server_url');
on the server side create an event for detecting client connection:
io.on('connection', function (socket) {}
then you can emit to client inside it using socket.emit(); and ask uid of current user.
on the client side create an event for this request and then send uid of the user to server.
now on server side join the connected socket to room using :
socket.join(uid);
console.log('user ' + socket.user + ' connected \n');
now you can send private message to a user using following line:
io.to(uid).emit();
if you use the code above, it doesn't matter how many tab user has already open from your web site . each tab will connect to the same room.
in socket.io 1.0 use
io.sockets.connected[<socketid>]
you can store just socket id. like so:
var users = {};
users[USER_NAME] = socket.id;
then:
io.sockets.connected[users[USER_NAME]]
.emit('private', {
msg:'private message for user with name '+ USER_NAME
});
You can create an unique room for messaging between USER_A and USER_B and both users must join to this room. You may use an UUID as a ROOM_ID (the 'socketId' in the following example).
io.on('connection', socket => {
socket.on('message', message => {
socket.to(message.socketId).emit('message', message);
});
socket.on('join', socketId => {
socket.join(socketId);
});
});
See Joining Rooms and Emit Cheatsheet
The way I got it to work is by introducing one more event "registered user". This basically triggers on the client side as soon as there is a registered user and then emits this even and passes "currentUser._id"
Client Side:
var socket = io();
<% if (currentUser) { %>
socket.emit('registered user', "<%= currentUser._id %>");
<% } %>
Server Side: Once the "registered user" even triggers, it joins the current user socket to the new room with the name which is that user id. So basically each registered user will be in a room which is his/her uid.
socket.on('registered user', function (uid) {
socket.join(uid)
});
Server Side: One there is a message sent, I pass the id of the user the message is sent to in the msg object and then emit to that specific room.
// Private chat
socket.on('chat message', function (msg) {
const uidTo = msg.uidTo
socket.in(uidTo).emit('chat message', msg )
}); `
});

socket.io assigning custom socket.id

I keep track the list of every users connected in the array.
So if there is a new connection, it will check whether the user is already on the list or not, if he was already on the list, then assign their socket.id with the corresponding socket.id on the list, otherwise just add them to the list.
It's for preventing same user counted as 2 user while he attempt to do multi-login.
Object.keys(client).forEach(function (key) {
if (client[key].id == data.id){
is_connected = true;
socket.id = key;
}
});
I have no problem handling the messages/chat that was sent/received by the user who attempt multi-login.
socket.on('chat', function(msg){
var data = {"name": client[socket.id].name, "message": msg};
io.emit('chat', data);
});
The io.emit for the chat message was succesfully sent to the user who attempting multi-login.
The problem I got was whenever the user decide to logout/disconnect from the server.
io.emit('user_leave', client[socket.id].id);
[Multi-Login Case] -> Multi-User and Dual-User are same user attempting Multi-Login
Whenever the Main-User disconnected from the server, the Dual-User received 'user_leave' sent by the server, because io.emit supposed to send it to all sockets.
But not otherwise, while the Sub-User disconnected from the server, the Main-user do not receive 'user_leave' emitted by the server.
*Note: Main-User is login first, then the Dual-User. So the Main-User information was saved directly in the array, while the Sub-User socket.id was assigned with the Main-User socket.id
[Update]
B2 socket.id was assigned with B1 socket.id, the io.emit for chat work perfectly while io.emit for disconnect only emitted to All except Dual-User(B2)
socket.id is used internally by socket.io for its own socket list. You cannot overwrite that or you break some of its ability to maintain its own data structures.
You have two choices:
You can use the existing socket.id value as is (without overwriting it) so you don't break existing behavior. It is already guaranteed to be unique on the server.
You can use a different property name for your own id such as socket.userId and then you won't conflict.
If you need to, you can maintain a map between your own custom id and the socket.io socket.id so you could get to one from the other.
Similar question here: Socket.io custom client ID
generateId prop of io.engine object can be used for to set the custom id.
Using this way, the all socket ids can be created on the server side without any issue.
Actually I wrote an answer for a similar question today.
An example:
var app = require('express')();
var http = require('http').Server(app);
var io = require('socket.io')(http);
io.engine.generateId = function (req) {
// generate a new custom id here
return 1
}
io.on('connection', function (socket) {
// listing the default namespace rooms
console.log("rooms: ", io.nsps["/"].adapter.rooms);
})
The console output would be as the following:
rooms: { '/#1': Room { sockets: { '/#1': true }, length: 1 } }
It seems to be it has been handled.
It must be in mind that socket id must be unpredictable and unique value with considering security and the app operations!
Extra: If socket.id is returned as undefined because of your intense processes on your generateId method, async/await combination can be used to overcome this issue on node.js version 7.6.0 and later. handshake method of node_modules/engine.io/lib/server.js file should be changed as following:
former:
Server.prototype.handshake = function (transportName, req) {
var id = this.generateId(req);
...
}
new:
Server.prototype.handshake = async function (transportName, req) {
var id = await this.generateId(req);
...
}

JavaScript code substitution on client side

I'm now learning some new technologies (such as node.js, socket.io, redis etc.) and making some simple test applications to see how it can work.
My question is about security on a client-side javascript code: for example, i have a chat-server on node.js+express and when a user connects to this chat, server should assign his registred username (authorisation through oldschool php+mysql is used) to his socket. The question is, can user modify his client-side script and connect to chat under different users' names?
Some code is given below:
(server-side part of assigning username, which is just getting the username from client-side call)
// when the client emits 'adduser', this listens and executes
socket.on('adduser', function(username){
// store the username in the socket session for this client
socket.username = username;
// store the room name in the socket session for this client
socket.room = 'General';
// add the client's username to the global list
usernames[username] = username;
// send client to room 1
socket.join('General');
// echo to client they've connected
socket.emit('updatechat', 'SERVER', 'you have connected to General');
// echo to room 1 that a person has connected to their room
socket.broadcast.to('General').emit('updatechat', 'SERVER', username + ' has connected to this room');
socket.emit('updaterooms', rooms, 'General');
});
(client-side part of sending username to server, it looks like 'var username = "User";' for a particular user)
Yii::$app->view->registerJs('var username = "'.$user->identity->username.'";', yii\web\View::POS_HEAD);
(connect function)
chat.on('connect', function(){
// call the server-side function 'adduser' and send one parameter (value of prompt)
chat.emit('adduser', username);
});
SO the question is: can user change (for example, through chrome development tools) his username in line 'var username ...' and connect to chat under the different name?
P.S. this particular situation is just an example, obviously, changed nicknames in chat are not more than a simple joke, but similar situations can appear in other projects...
Supposing your variables are protected in closures and that it's not trivial to change them by typing username='root' in the console, a user could simply replace the whole code.
Everything that happens client side is totally out of your control.
The good news is that they are solutions not involving a duplicate authentication. Supposing you already authenticate the user in your express application, you can get the session and the user from that.
See how I do it in my chat server :
var sessionSockets = new SessionSockets(io, sessionStore, cookieParser);
sessionSockets.on('connection', function (err, socket, session) {
function die(err){
console.log('ERR', err);
socket.emit('error', err.toString());
socket.disconnect();
}
if (! (session && session.passport && session.passport.user && session.room)) return die ('invalid session');
var userId = session.passport.user;
if (!userId) return die('no authenticated user in session');
... handling socket for authenticated user
});
Basically, it uses the session.socket.io module to propagate the session from the standard http requests (authenticated using passport) to the socket.io connection. And everything that isn't supposed to be provided by the user is taken from the session/db/server.

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