How can I use a websocket with c++

Question

I'm fairly new to c++ and I'm wondering how can I use web sockets with it, I've used web sockets in NodeJs and JavaScript and I want to go on to use them with c++.

Answer 1

Sockets are not part of the C++ standard library yet. But Boost has Boost.Asio, a cross platform library for talking TCP/IP and UDP among other things. There's this great open source library called Beast which handles not only WebSocket but HTTP as well, and its built on top of Boost.Asio. Here's the library home page: http://vinniefalco.github.io/

Here's a complete, compiling example program that talks WebSocket:

#include <beast/to_string.hpp>
#include <beast/websocket.hpp>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
    // Normal boost::asio setup
    std::string const host = "echo.websocket.org";
    boost::asio::io_service ios;
    boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver r(ios);
    boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket sock(ios);
    boost::asio::connect(sock,
        r.resolve(boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::query{host, "80"}));

    // WebSocket connect and send message using beast
    beast::websocket::stream<boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket&> ws(sock);
    ws.handshake(host, "/");
    ws.write(boost::asio::buffer("Hello, world!"));

    // Receive WebSocket message, print and close using beast
    beast::streambuf sb;
    beast::websocket::opcode op;
    ws.read(op, sb);
    ws.close(beast::websocket::close_code::normal);
    std::cout << to_string(sb.data()) << "\n";
}