RatchetPHP unable to send messages to all clients in loop

Question

I'm using Ratchet PHP to send messages to clients, and I'm using

$server->loop->addPeriodicTimer(1, function () use ($row, $server) {...

To send a message every second. I can echo the message and the MySQL query works, but I am unable to actually access the clients object in $server, I can get to $server->app, but then when I do ->clients after that, it tells me that $clients doesn't exist.

To clarify, this isn't a problem when I don't use new HttpServer(...) but, without it, the browser console says the websocket handshake isn't valid, so that isn't a good workaround.

I've used print_r($server) and have confirmed that the clients object is inside a _httpServer:protected item. If I can access this, I'd be able to send messages, I think.

The code for the actual server video-server.php:

<?php
include "../../include/db.info.php";

use Ratchet\Server\IoServer;
use Ratchet\Http\HttpServer;
use Ratchet\WebSocket\WsServer;
use React\EventLoop\Factory;
use MyApp\Chat;

require dirname(__DIR__) . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$server = IoServer::factory(
                new HttpServer(
                new WsServer(
                new Chat()
                )
                ), 888
);

$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;port=3306;dbname=erewhon", "root", "");

$getUsername = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM messages WHERE id=201");
$getUsername->execute();

$row = $getUsername->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

$server->loop->addPeriodicTimer(1, function () use ($row, $server) {        
    /*foreach ($server->app->component->clients as $client) {                  
            $client->send("hello client");          
    }*/
    print_r($server->app);
});

$server->run();
?>

The code for the classes file, chat.php:

<?php
namespace MyApp;
header("Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8");


//include "../../db.info.php";


use Ratchet\MessageComponentInterface;
use Ratchet\ConnectionInterface;

class Chat implements MessageComponentInterface {


    public $clients;

    public function __construct() {
        $this->clients = new \SplObjectStorage;
        echo "Congratulations! the server is now running\n";
    }

    public function onOpen(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
        // Store the new connection to send messages to later
        $this->clients->attach($conn);

        echo "New connection! ({$conn->resourceId})\n";
    }

    public function onMessage(ConnectionInterface $from, $msg) {
        //dont need this
    }

    public function onClose(ConnectionInterface $conn) {
        // The connection is closed, remove it, as we can no longer send it messages
        $this->clients->detach($conn);

        echo "Connection {$conn->resourceId} has disconnected\n";
    }

    public function onError(ConnectionInterface $conn, \Exception $e) {
        echo "An error has occurred: {$e->getMessage()}\n";

        $conn->close();
    }

}
?>

I define and set the clients in a separate class, `chat.php`, in the function `onConnect`, it's added to the $server object. I know that works, because I'm using virtually identical code in another websocket application I'm running. — fate.299792458, Jul 16 '18 at 17:25

Felippe Duarte · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-20T22:11:59.750

It seems that you can't get that data the way you want. The HttpServer define a protected variable.

protected $_httpServer; //<--- protected, you can't read from outside.
public function __construct(HttpServerInterface $component) {
    $this->_httpServer = $component;
    $this->_reqParser  = new HttpRequestParser;
}

But, you can pass a instance of Chat and keep track of it. It will point to the same memory address.

Make a try:

$chat = new Chat(); //<--- ADD THIS LINE
$server = IoServer::factory(
            new HttpServer(
              new WsServer(
                $chat //<----- USE HERE
              )
            ), 888
          );

....

$server->loop->addPeriodicTimer(1, function () use ($row, $server, $chat) {        
    /*foreach ($server->app->component->clients as $client) {                  
        $client->send("hello client");          
    }*/
    print_r($server->app);
    print_r($chat->clients); // <---- PRINT HERE TO GET THE INFO
});

fate.299792458 · Answer 2 · 2018-07-20T22:12:19.873

0

I've got my original answer below just in case, but I'd like to highlight that the accepted answer is the correct method, just don't forget to pass it to `use`

I know I probably shouldn't have done this to work around my problem, but it resolved it, so it is sufficient:

I went to vendor\cboden\ratchet\src\Ratchet\Http and edited HttpServer.php, specifically the variable protected $_httpServer, and changed it to public $_httpServer, which I probably shouldn't have, but that resolved my problem.

I could access the clients item by doing $server->app->_httpServer->component->clients.

Thanks to Felippe Duarte for highlighting this attribute, I didn't think of that.

edited Jul 20 '18 at 22:12

answered Jul 16 '18 at 18:05

fate.299792458

3
2

Don't do this. Try the solution I gave to you. Doing what you just did will generate future errors, will break the app whenever you try to update this library. – Felippe Duarte Jul 16 '18 at 18:06
I did indeed try what you said, but it did not work, so I had to resort to this – fate.299792458 Jul 16 '18 at 20:27
@fate.299792458 As Felippe said doing this will only cause you problems. If you ever run composer update your changes will be lost. You need to pass $chat into the use statement and then access $chat->clients. Alternatively you could pass the $loop into your chat app and set the timer in the constructor there. – MC57 Jul 20 '18 at 19:41
Silly me, that did it, I totally forgot to pass it to the `use`, this is definitely incorrect – fate.299792458 Jul 20 '18 at 22:10

RatchetPHP unable to send messages to all clients in loop

2 Answers2

I've got my original answer below just in case, but I'd like to highlight that the accepted answer is the correct method, just don't forget to pass it to use

I've got my original answer below just in case, but I'd like to highlight that the accepted answer is the correct method, just don't forget to pass it to `use`