An important challenge to adoption is the lack of support for WebSocket in some browsers. Notably the first Internet Explorer version to support WebSocket is version 10 (see http://caniuse.com/websockets for support by browser versions). Furthermore, some restrictive proxies may be configured in ways that either preclude the attempt to do HTTP upgrade or otherwise break connection after some time because it has remained opened for too long. A good overview on this topic from Peter Lubbers is available in the InfoQ article "How HTML5 Web Sockets Interact With Proxy Servers".

Therefore to build a WebSocket application today, fallback options are required to simulate the WebSocket API where necessary. Spring Framework provides such transparent fallback options based on the SockJS protocol. These options can be enabled through configuration and do not require modifying the application otherwise.

Aside from short-to-midterm adoption challenges, using WebSocket brings up important design considerations that are important to recognize early on, especially in contrast to what we know about building web applications today.

Today REST is a widely accepted, understood, and supported architecture for building web applications. It is an architecture that relies on having many URLs (nouns), a handful of HTTP methods (verbs), and other principles such as using hypermedia (links), remaining stateless, etc.

By contrast a WebSocket application may use a single URL only for the initial HTTP handshake. All messages thereafter share and flow on the same TCP connection. This points to an entirely different, asynchronous, event-driven, messaging architecture. One that is much closer to traditional messaging applications (e.g. JMS, AMQP).

Spring Framework 4 includes a new spring-messaging module with key abstractions from the Spring Integration project such as Message, MessageChannel, MessageHandler and others that can serve as a foundation for such a messaging architecture. The module also includes a set of annotations for mapping messages to methods, similar to the Spring MVC annotation based programming model.

WebSocket does imply a messaging architecture but does not mandate the use of any specific messaging protocol. It is a very thin layer over TCP that transforms a stream of bytes into a stream of messages (either text or binary) and not much more. It is up to applications to interpret the meaning of a message.

Unlike HTTP, which is an application-level protocol, in the WebSocket protocol there is simply not enough information in an incoming message for a framework or container to know how to route it or process it. Therefore WebSocket is arguably too low level for anything but a very trivial application. It can be done, but it will likely lead to creating a framework on top. This is comparable to how most web applications today are written using a web framework rather than the Servlet API alone.

For this reason the WebSocket RFC defines the use of sub-protocols. During the handshake, client and server can use the header Sec-WebSocket-Protocol to agree on a sub-protocol, i.e. a higher, application-level protocol to use. The use of a sub-protocol is not required, but even if not used, applications will still need to choose a message format that both client and server can understand. That format can be custom, framework-specific, or a standard messaging protocol.

Spring Framework provides support for using STOMP — a simple, messaging protocol originally created for use in scripting languages with frames inspired by HTTP. STOMP is widely support and well suited for use over WebSocket and over the web.

With all the design considerations surrounding the use of WebSocket, it is reasonable to ask when is it appropriate to use?

The best fit for WebSocket is in web applications where client and server need to exchange events at high frequency and at low latency. Prime candidates include but are not limited to applications in finance, games, collaboration, and others. Such applications are both very sensitive to time delays and also need to exchange a wide variety of messages at high frequency.

For other application types, however, this may not be the case. For example, a news or social feed that shows breaking news as they become available may be perfectly okay with simple polling once every few minutes. Here latency is important, but it is acceptable if the news takes a few minutes to appear.

Even in cases where latency is crucial, if the volume of messages is relatively low (e.g. monitoring network failures) the use of long polling should be considered as a relatively simple alternative that works reliably and is comparable by efficiency (again assuming the volume of messages is relatively low).

It is the combination of both low latency and high frequency of messages that can make the use of the WebSocket protocol critical. Even in such applications, the choice remains whether all client-server communication should be done through WebSocket messages as opposed to using HTTP and REST? The answer is going to vary by application, however, it is likely that some functionality may be exposed over both WebSocket and as a REST API in order to provide clients with alternatives. Furthermore, a REST API call may need to broadcast a message to interested clients connected via WebSocket.

Spring Framework allows @Controller and @RestController classes to have both HTTP request handling and WebSocket message handling methods. Furthermore, a Spring MVC request handling method, or any application method for that matter, can easily broadcast a message to all interested WebSocket clients or to a specific user.

Creating a WebSocket server is as simple as implementing WebSocketHandler or more likely extending either TextWebSocketHandler or BinaryWebSocketHandler:

import org.springframework.web.socket.WebSocketHandler;
import org.springframework.web.socket.WebSocketSession;
import org.springframework.web.socket.TextMessage;

public class MyHandler extends TextWebSocketHandler {

    @Override
    public void handleTextMessage(WebSocketSession session, TextMessage message) {
        // ...
    }

}

There is dedicated WebSocket Java-config and XML namespace support for mapping the above WebSocket handler at a specific URL:

import org.springframework.web.socket.config.annotation.EnableWebSocket;
import org.springframework.web.socket.config.annotation.WebSocketConfigurer;
import org.springframework.web.socket.config.annotation.WebSocketHandlerRegistry;

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void registerWebSocketHandlers(WebSocketHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addHandler(myHandler(), "/myHandler");
    }

    @Bean
    public WebSocketHandler myHandler() {
        return new MyHandler();
    }

}

XML configuration equivalent:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket-4.0.xsd">

    <websocket:handlers>
        <websocket:mapping path="/myHandler" handler="myHandler"/>
    </websocket:handlers>

    <bean id="myHandler" class="org.springframework.samples.MyHandler"/>

</beans>

The above is for use in Spring MVC applications and should be included in the configuration of a DispatcherServlet. However, Spring’s WebSocket support does not depend on Spring MVC. It is relatively simple to integrate a WebSocketHandler into other HTTP serving environments with the help of WebSocketHttpRequestHandler.

The easiest way to customize the initial HTTP WebSocket handshake request is through a HandshakeInterceptor, which exposes "before" and "after" the handshake methods. Such an interceptor can be used to preclude the handshake or to make any attributes available to the WebSocketSession. For example, there is a built-in interceptor for passing HTTP session attributes to the WebSocket session:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void registerWebSocketHandlers(WebSocketHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addHandler(new MyHandler(), "/myHandler")
            .addInterceptors(new HttpSessionHandshakeInterceptor());
    }

}

And the XML configuration equivalent:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket-4.0.xsd">

    <websocket:handlers>
        <websocket:mapping path="/myHandler" handler="myHandler"/>
        <websocket:handshake-interceptors>
            <bean class="org.springframework.web.socket.server.support.HttpSessionHandshakeInterceptor"/>
        </websocket:handshake-interceptors>
    </websocket:handlers>

    <bean id="myHandler" class="org.springframework.samples.MyHandler"/>

</beans>

A more advanced option is to extend the DefaultHandshakeHandler that performs the steps of the WebSocket handshake, including validating the client origin, negotiating a sub-protocol, and others. An application may also need to use this option if it needs to configure a custom RequestUpgradeStrategy in order to adapt to a WebSocket server engine and version that is not yet supported (also see Section 21.2.4, “Deployment Considerations” for more on this subject). Both the Java-config and XML namespace make it possible to configure a custom HandshakeHandler.

Spring provides a WebSocketHandlerDecorator base class that can be used to decorate a WebSocketHandler with additional behavior. Logging and exception handling implementations are provided and added by default when using the WebSocket Java-config or XML namespace. The ExceptionWebSocketHandlerDecorator catches all uncaught exceptions arising from any WebSocketHandler method and closes the WebSocket session with status 1011 that indicates a server error.

The Spring WebSocket API is easy to integrate into a Spring MVC application where the DispatcherServlet serves both HTTP WebSocket handshake as well as other HTTP requests. It is also easy to integrate into other HTTP processing scenarios by invoking WebSocketHttpRequestHandler. This is convenient and easy to understand. However, special considerations apply with regards to JSR-356 runtimes.

The Java WebSocket API (JSR-356) provides two deployment mechanisms. The first involves a Servlet container classpath scan (Servlet 3 feature) at startup; and the other is a registration API to use at Servlet container initialization. Neither of these mechanism make it possible to use a single "front controller" for all HTTP processing — including WebSocket handshake and all other HTTP requests — such as Spring MVC’s DispatcherServlet.

This is a significant limitation of JSR-356 that Spring’s WebSocket support addresses by providing a server-specific RequestUpgradeStrategy even when running in a JSR-356 runtime. At present such support is available on Tomcat 7.0.47+, Jetty 9.1+, GlassFish 4.0+, and WildFly 8.0+. Additional support will be added as more WebSocket runtimes become available.

A secondary consideration is that Servlet containers with JSR-356 support are expected to perform an SCI scan that can slow down application startup, in some cases dramatically. If a significant impact is observed after an upgrade to a Servlet container version with JSR-356 support, it should be possible to selectively enable or disable web fragments (and SCI scanning) through the use of an <absolute-ordering /> element in web.xml:

<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
        http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"
    version="3.0">

    <absolute-ordering/>

</web-app>

You can then selectively enable web fragments by name, such as Spring’s own SpringServletContainerInitializer that provides support for the Servlet 3 Java initialization API, if required:

<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
        http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"
    version="3.0">

    <absolute-ordering>
        <name>spring_web</name>
    </absolute-ordering>

</web-app>

Each underlying WebSocket engine exposes configuration properties that control runtime characteristics such as the size of message buffer sizes, idle timeout, and others.

For Tomcat, WildFly, and Glassfish add a ServletServerContainerFactoryBean to your WebSocket Java config:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketConfigurer {

    @Bean
    public ServletServerContainerFactoryBean createWebSocketContainer() {
        ServletServerContainerFactoryBean container = new ServletServerContainerFactoryBean();
        container.setMaxTextMessageBufferSize(8192);
        container.setMaxBinaryMessageBufferSize(8192);
        return container;
    }

}

or WebSocket XML namespace:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket.xsd">

    <bean class="org.springframework...ServletServerContainerFactoryBean">
        <property name="maxTextMessageBufferSize" value="8192"/>
        <property name="maxBinaryMessageBufferSize" value="8192"/>
    </bean>

</beans>

For Jetty, you’ll need to supply a pre-configured Jetty WebSocketServerFactory and plug that into Spring’s DefaultHandshakeHandler through your WebSocket Java config:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void registerWebSocketHandlers(WebSocketHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addHandler(echoWebSocketHandler(),
            "/echo").setHandshakeHandler(handshakeHandler());
    }

    @Bean
    public DefaultHandshakeHandler handshakeHandler() {

        WebSocketPolicy policy = new WebSocketPolicy(WebSocketBehavior.SERVER);
        policy.setInputBufferSize(8192);
        policy.setIdleTimeout(600000);

        return new DefaultHandshakeHandler(
                new JettyRequestUpgradeStrategy(new WebSocketServerFactory(policy)));
    }

}

or WebSocket XML namespace:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket.xsd">

    <websocket:handlers>
        <websocket:mapping path="/echo" handler="echoHandler"/>
        <websocket:handshake-handler ref="handshakeHandler"/>
    </websocket:handlers>

    <bean id="handshakeHandler" class="org.springframework...DefaultHandshakeHandler">
        <constructor-arg ref="upgradeStrategy"/>
    </bean>

    <bean id="upgradeStrategy" class="org.springframework...JettyRequestUpgradeStrategy">
        <constructor-arg ref="serverFactory"/>
    </bean>

    <bean id="serverFactory" class="org.eclipse.jetty...WebSocketServerFactory">
        <constructor-arg>
            <bean class="org.eclipse.jetty...WebSocketPolicy">
                <constructor-arg value="SERVER"/>
                <property name="inputBufferSize" value="8092"/>
                <property name="idleTimeout" value="600000"/>
            </bean>
        </constructor-arg>
    </bean>

</beans>

The goal of SockJS is to let applications use a WebSocket API but fall back to non-WebSocket alternatives when necessary at runtime, i.e. without the need to change application code.

SockJS consists of:

SockJS is designed for use in browsers. It goes to great lengths to support a wide range of browser versions using a variety of techniques. For the full list of SockJS transport types and browsers see the SockJS client page. Transports fall in 3 general categories: WebSocket, HTTP Streaming, and HTTP Long Polling. For an overview of these categories see this blog post.

The SockJS client begins by sending "GET /info" to obtain basic information from the server. After that it must decide what transport to use. If possible WebSocket is used. If not, in most browsers there is at least one HTTP streaming option and if not then HTTP (long) polling is used.

All transport requests have the following URL structure:

http://host:port/myApp/myEndpoint/{server-id}/{session-id}/{transport}

The WebSocket transport needs only a single HTTP request to do the WebSocket handshake. All messages thereafter are exchanged on that socket.

HTTP transports require more requests. Ajax/XHR streaming for example relies on one long-running request for server-to-client messages and additional HTTP POST requests for client-to-server messages. Long polling is similar except it ends the current request after each server-to-client send.

SockJS adds minimal message framing. For example the server sends the letter o ("open" frame) initially, messages are sent as a["message1","message2"] (JSON-encoded array), the letter h ("heartbeat" frame) if no messages flow for 25 seconds by default, and the letter c ("close" frame) to close the session.

To learn more run an example in a browser and watch HTTP requests. The SockJS client allows fixing the list of transports so it is possible to see each transport one at a time. The SockJS client also provides a debug flag which enables helpful messages in the browser console. On the server side enable TRACE logging for org.springframework.web.socket. For even more detail refer to the SockJS protocol narrated test.

SockJS is easy to enable through a configuration:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void registerWebSocketHandlers(WebSocketHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addHandler(myHandler(), "/myHandler").withSockJS();
    }

    @Bean
    public WebSocketHandler myHandler() {
        return new MyHandler();
    }

}

and the XML configuration equivalent:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket-4.0.xsd">

    <websocket:handlers>
        <websocket:mapping path="/myHandler" handler="myHandler"/>
        <websocket:sockjs/>
    </websocket:handlers>

    <bean id="myHandler" class="org.springframework.samples.MyHandler"/>

</beans>

The above is for use in Spring MVC applications and should be included in the configuration of a DispatcherServlet. However, Spring’s WebSocket and SockJS support does not depend on Spring MVC. It is relatively simple to integrate into other HTTP serving environments with the help of SockJsHttpRequestHandler.

On the browser side, applications can use the sockjs-client that emulates the W3C WebSocket API and communicates with the server to select the best transport option depending on the browser it’s running in. Review the sockjs-client page and the list of transport types supported by browser. The client also provides several configuration options, for example, to specify which transports to include.

Internet Explorer 8 and 9 are and will remain common for some time. They are a key reason for having SockJS. This section covers important considerations about running in those browsers.

SockJS client supports Ajax/XHR streaming in IE 8, 9 via Microsoft’s XDomainRequest. That works across domains but does not support sending cookies. Cookies are very often essential for Java applications. However since the SockJS client can be used with many server types (not just Java ones), it needs to know whether cookies do matter. If so the SockJS client prefers Ajax/XHR for streaming or otherwise it relies on a iframe-based technique.

The very first "/info" request from the SockJS client is a request for information that can influence the client’s choice of transports. One of those details is whether the server application relies on cookies, e.g. for authentication purposes or clustering with sticky sessions. Spring’s SockJS support includes a property called sessionCookieNeeded. It is enabled by default since most Java applications rely on the JSESSIONID cookie. If your application does not need it, you can turn off this option and the SockJS client should choose xdr-streaming in IE 8 and 9.

If you do use an iframe-based transport, and in any case, it is good to know that browsers can be instructed to block the use of iframes on a given page by setting the HTTP response header X-Frame-Options to DENY, SAMEORIGIN, or ALLOW-FROM <origin>. This is used to prevent clickjacking.

If your application adds the X-Frame-Options response header (as it should!) and relies on an iframe-based transport, you will need to set the header value to SAMEORIGIN or ALLOW-FROM <origin>. Along with that the Spring SockJS support also needs to know the location of the SockJS client because it is loaded from the iframe. By default the iframe is set to download the SockJS client from a CDN location. It is a good idea to configure this option to a URL from the same origin as the application.

In Java config this can be done as shown below. The XML namespace provides a similar option on the <websocket:sockjs> element:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void registerStompEndpoints(StompEndpointRegistry registry) {
        registry.addEndpoint("/portfolio").withSockJS()
                .setClientLibraryUrl("http://localhost:8080/myapp/js/sockjs-client.js");
    }

    // ...

}

The SockJS protocol requires servers to send heartbeat messages to preclude proxies from concluding a connection is hung. The Spring SockJS configuiration has a property called heartbeatTime that can be used to customize the frequency. By default a heartbeat is sent after 25 seconds assuming no other messages were sent on that connection. This 25 seconds value is in line with the following IETF recommendation for public Internet applications.

The Spring SockJS support also allows configuring the TaskScheduler to use for scheduling heartbeats tasks. The task scheduler is backed by a thread pool with default settings based on the number of available processors. Applications should consider customizing the settings according to their specific needs.

HTTP streaming and HTTP long polling SockJS transports require a connection to remain open longer than usual. For an overview of these techniques see this blog post.

In Servlet containers this is done through Servlet 3 async support that allows exiting the Servlet container thread processing a request and continuing to write to the response from another thread.

A specific issue is the Servlet API does not provide notifications for a client that has gone away, see SERVLET_SPEC-44. However, Servlet containers raise an exception on subseqeunt attempts to write to the response. Since Spring’s SockJS Service support sever-sent heartbeats (every 25 seconds by default), that means a client disconnect is usually detected within that time period or earlier if a message are sent more frequently.

The SockJS protocol uses CORS for cross-domain support in the XHR streaming and polling transports. Therefore CORS headers are added automatically unless the presence of CORS headers in the response is detected. So if an application is already configured to provide CORS support, e.g. through a Servlet Filter, Spring’s SockJsService will skip this part.

The following is the list of headers and values expected by SockJS:

For the exact implementation see addCorsHeaders in AbstractSockJsService as well as the TransportType enum in the source code.

Alternatively if the CORS configuration allows it consider excluding URLs with the SockJS endpoint prefix thus letting Spring’s SockJsService handle it.

A SockJS Java client is provided in order to connect to remote SockJS endpoints without using a browser. This can be especially useful when there is a need of bidirectional communication between 2 servers over a public network, i.e. where network proxies may preclude the use of the WebSocket protocol. A SockJS Java client is also very useful for testing purposes for example to simulate a large number of concurrent users.

The SockJS Java client supports the "websocket", "xhr-streaming", and "xhr-polling" transports. The remaining ones only make sense for use in a browser.

The WebSocketTransport can be configured with:

An XhrTransport by definition supports both "xhr-streaming" and "xhr-polling" since from a client perspective there is no difference other than in the URL used to connect to the server. At present there are two implementations:

The example below shows how to create a SockJS client and connect to a SockJS endpoint:

List<Transport> transports = new ArrayList<>(2);
transports.add(new WebSocketTransport(StandardWebSocketClient()));
transports.add(new RestTemplateXhrTransport());

SockJsClient sockJsClient = new SockJsClient(transports);
sockJsClient.doHandshake(new MyWebSocketHandler(), "ws://example.com:8080/sockjs");

To use the SockJsClient for simulating a large number of concurrent users you will need to configure the underlying HTTP client (for XHR transports) to allow a sufficient number of connections and threads. For example with Jetty:

HttpClient jettyHttpClient = new HttpClient();
jettyHttpClient.setMaxConnectionsPerDestination(1000);
jettyHttpClient.setExecutor(new QueuedThreadPool(1000));

Consider also customizing these server-side SockJS related properties (see Javadoc for details):

@Configuration
public class WebSocketConfig extends WebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurationSupport {

    @Override
    public void registerStompEndpoints(StompEndpointRegistry registry) {
        registry.addEndpoint("/sockjs").withSockJS()
            .setStreamBytesLimit(512 * 1024)
            .setHttpMessageCacheSize(1000)
            .setDisconnectDelay(30 * 1000);
    }

    // ...

}

STOMP is a simple messaging protocol originally created for scripting languages (such as Ruby, Python and Perl) to connect to enterprise message brokers. It is designed to address a subset of commonly used patterns in messaging protocols. STOMP can be used over any reliable 2-way streaming network protocol such as TCP and WebSocket.

STOMP is a frame based protocol with frames modelled on HTTP. This is the structure of a frame:

COMMAND
header1:value1
header2:value2

Body^@

For example, a client can use the SEND command to send a message or the SUBSCRIBE command to express interest in receiving messages. Both of these commands require a "destination" header that indicates where to send a message to, or likewise what to subscribe to.

Here is an example of a client sending a request to buy stock shares:

SEND
destination:/queue/trade
content-type:application/json
content-length:44

{"action":"BUY","ticker":"MMM","shares",44}^@

Here is an example of a client subscribing to receive stock quotes:

SUBSCRIBE
id:sub-1
destination:/topic/price.stock.*

^@

STOMP servers can use the MESSAGE command to broadcast messages to all subscribers. Here is an example of a server sending a stock quote to a subscribed client:

MESSAGE
message-id:nxahklf6-1
subscription:sub-1
destination:/topic/price.stock.MMM

{"ticker":"MMM","price":129.45}^@

The above overview is intended to provide the most basic understanding of the STOMP protocol. It is recommended to review the protocol specification, which is easy to follow and manageable in terms of size.

The following summarizes the benefits for an application from using STOMP over WebSocket:

Most importantly the use of STOMP (vs plain WebSocket) enables the Spring Framework to provide a programming model for application-level use in the same way that Spring MVC provides a programming model based on HTTP.

The Spring Framework provides support for using STOMP over WebSocket through the spring-messaging and spring-websocket modules. It’s easy to enable it.

Here is an example of configuring a STOMP WebSocket endpoint with SockJS fallback options. The endpoint is available for clients to connect to at URL path /app/portfolio:

import org.springframework.web.socket.config.annotation.EnableWebSocketMessageBroker;
import org.springframework.web.socket.config.annotation.StompEndpointRegistry;

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void configureMessageBroker(MessageBrokerRegistry config) {
        config.setApplicationDestinationPrefixes("/app");
        config.enableSimpleBroker("/queue", "/topic");
    }

    @Override
    public void registerStompEndpoints(StompEndpointRegistry registry) {
        registry.addEndpoint("/portfolio").withSockJS();
    }

    // ...

}

XML configuration equivalent:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket-4.0.xsd">

    <websocket:message-broker application-destination-prefix="/app">
        <websocket:stomp-endpoint path="/portfolio">
            <websocket:sockjs/>
        </websocket:stomp-endpoint>
        <websocket:simple-broker prefix="/queue, /topic"/>
        ...
    </websocket:message-broker>

</beans>

On the browser side, a client might connect as follows using stomp.js and the sockjs-client:

var socket = new SockJS("/spring-websocket-portfolio/portfolio");
var stompClient = Stomp.over(socket);

stompClient.connect({}, function(frame) {
}

Or if connecting via WebSocket (without SockJS):

var socket = new WebSocket("/spring-websocket-portfolio/portfolio");
var stompClient = Stomp.over(socket);

stompClient.connect({}, function(frame) {
}

Note that the stompClient above does not need to specify a login and passcode headers. Even if it did, they would be ignored, or rather overridden, on the server side. See the sections Section 21.4.8, “Connections To Full-Featured Broker” and Section 21.4.10, “Authentication” for more information on authentication.

When a STOMP endpoint is configured, the Spring application acts as the STOMP broker to connected clients. It handles incoming messages and sends messages back. This section provides a big picture overview of how messages flow inside the application.

The spring-messaging module contains a number of abstractions that originated in the Spring Integration project and are intended for use as building blocks in messaging applications:

The provided STOMP over WebSocket config, both Java and XML, uses the above to assemble a concrete message flow including the following 3 channels:

Messages on the "clientInboundChannel" can flow to annotated methods for application handling (e.g. a stock trade execution request) or can be forwarded to the broker (e.g. client subscribing for stock quotes). The STOMP destination is used for simple prefix-based routing. For example the "/app" prefix could route messages to annotated methods while the "/topic" and "/queue" prefixes could route messages to the broker.

When a message-handling annotated method has a return type, its return value is sent as the payload of a Spring Message to the "brokerChannel". The broker in turn broadcasts the message to clients. Sending a message to a destination can also be done from anywhere in the application with the help of a messaging template. For example a an HTTP POST handling method can broadcast a message to connected clients or a service component may periodically broadcast stock quotes.

Below is a simple example to illustrate the flow of messages:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void registerStompEndpoints(StompEndpointRegistry registry) {
        registry.addEndpoint("/portfolio");
    }

    @Override
    public void configureMessageBroker(MessageBrokerRegistry registry) {
        registry.setApplicationDestinationPrefixes("/app");
        registry.enableSimpleBroker("/topic");
    }

}

@Controller
public class GreetingController {

    @MessageMapping("/greeting") {
    public String handle(String greeting) {
        return "[" + getTimestamp() + ": " + greeting;
    }

}

The following explains the message flow for the above exmaple:

The next section provides more details on annotated methods including the kinds of arguments and return values supported.

The @MessageMapping annotation is supported on methods of @Controller classes. It can be used for mapping methods to message destinations and can also be combined with the type-level @MessageMapping for expressing shared mappings across all annotated methods within a controller.

By default destination mappings are treated as Ant-style, slash-separated, path patterns, e.g. "/foo*", "/foo/**". etc. They can also contain template variables, e.g. "/foo/{id}" that can then be referenced via @DestinationVariable-annotated method arguments.

The following method arguments are supported for @MessageMapping methods:

The return value from an @MessageMapping method is converted with a org.springframework.messaging.converter.MessageConverter and used as the body of a new message that is then sent, by default, to the "brokerChannel" with the same destination as the client message but using the prefix "/topic" by default. An @SendTo message level annotation can be used to specify any other destination instead.

An @SubscribeMapping annotation can also be used to map subscription requests to @Controller methods. It is supported on the method level, but can also be combined with a type level @MessageMapping annotation that expresses shared mappings across all message handling methods within the same controller.

By default the return value from an @SubscribeMapping method is sent as a message directly back to the connected client and does not pass through the broker. This is useful for implementing request-reply message interactions; for example, to fetch application data when the application UI is being initialized. Or alternatively an @SubscribeMapping method can be annotated with @SendTo in which case the resulting message is sent to the "brokerChannel" using the specified target destination.

What if you wanted to send messages to connected clients from any part of the application? Any application component can send messages to the "brokerChannel". The easiest way to do that is to have a SimpMessagingTemplate injected, and use it to send messages. Typically it should be easy to have it injected by type, for example:

@Controller
public class GreetingController {

    private SimpMessagingTemplate template;

    @Autowired
    public GreetingController(SimpMessagingTemplate template) {
        this.template = template;
    }

    @RequestMapping(value="/greetings", method=POST)
    public void greet(String greeting) {
        String text = "[" + getTimestamp() + "]:" + greeting;
        this.template.convertAndSend("/topic/greetings", text);
    }

}

But it can also be qualified by its name "brokerMessagingTemplate" if another bean of the same type exists.

The built-in, simple, message broker handles subscription requests from clients, stores them in memory, and broadcasts messages to connected clients with matching destinations. The broker supports path-like destinations, including subscriptions to Ant-style destination patterns.

The simple broker is great for getting started but supports only a subset of STOMP commands (e.g. no acks, receipts, etc), relies on a simple message sending loop, and is not suitable for clustering. Instead, applications can upgrade to using a full-featured message broker.

Check the STOMP documentation for your message broker of choice (e.g. RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, or other), install and run the broker with STOMP support enabled. Then enable the STOMP broker relay in the Spring configuration instead of the simple broker.

Below is example configuration that enables a full-featured broker:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void registerStompEndpoints(StompEndpointRegistry registry) {
        registry.addEndpoint("/portfolio").withSockJS();
    }

    @Override
    public void configureMessageBroker(MessageBrokerRegistry registry) {
        registry.enableStompBrokerRelay("/topic", "/queue");
        registry.setApplicationDestinationPrefixes("/app");
    }

}

XML configuration equivalent:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket-4.0.xsd">

    <websocket:message-broker application-destination-prefix="/app">
        <websocket:stomp-endpoint path="/portfolio" />
            <websocket:sockjs/>
        </websocket:stomp-endpoint>
        <websocket:stomp-broker-relay prefix="/topic,/queue" />
    </websocket:message-broker>

</beans>

The "STOMP broker relay" in the above configuration is a Spring MessageHandler that handles messages by forwarding them to an external message broker. To do so it establishes TCP connections to the broker, forwards all messages to it, and reversely forwards all messages received from the broker to clients through their WebSocket sessions. Essentially it acts as a "relay" forwarding messages in both directions.

Furthermore, application components (e.g. HTTP request handling methods, business services, etc) can also send messages to the broker relay, as described in Section 21.4.5, “Sending Messages”, in order to broadcast messages to subscribed WebSocket clients.

In effect, the broker relay enables robust and scalable message broadcasting.

A STOMP broker relay maintains a single "system" TCP connection to the broker. This connection is used for messages originating from the server-side application only, not for receiving messages. You can configure the STOMP credentials for this connection, i.e. the STOMP frame login and passcode headers. This is exposed in both the XML namespace and the Java config as the systemLogin/systemPasscode properties with default values guest/guest.

The STOMP broker relay also creates a separate TCP connection for every connected WebSocket client. You can configure the STOMP credentials to use for all TCP connections created on behalf of clients. This is exposed in both the XML namespace and the Java config as the clientLogin/clientPasscode properties with default values guest/guest.

The STOMP broker relay also sends and receives heartbeats to and from the message broker over the "system" TCP connection. You can configure the intervals for sending and receiving heartbeats (10 seconds each by default). If connectivity to the broker is lost, the broker relay will continue to try to reconnect, every 5 seconds, until it succeeds.

The STOMP broker relay can also be configured with a virtualHost property. The value of this property will be set as the host header of every CONNECT frame and may be useful for example in a cloud environment where the actual host to which the TCP connection is established is different from the host providing the cloud-based STOMP service.

Although slash-separated path patterns are familiar to web developers, in messaging it is common to use "." as separator for example in the names of topics, queues, exchanges, etc. Applications can also switch to using "." (dot) instead of "/" (slash) as the separator in @MessageMapping mappings by configuring a custom AntPathMatcher.

In Java config:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebsocketConfig extends AbstractWebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {

  // ...

  @Override
  public void configureMessageBroker(MessageBrokerRegistry registry) {
    registry.enableStompBrokerRelay("/queue/", "/topic/");
    registry.setApplicationDestinationPrefixes("/app");
    registry.setPathMatcher(new AntPathMatcher("."));
  }

}

In XML config:

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
  xsi:schemaLocation="
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket.xsd">

  <websocket:message-broker application-destination-prefix="/app" path-matcher="pathMatcher">
    <websocket:stomp-endpoint path="/stomp" />
    <websocket:simple-broker prefix="/topic, /queue"/>
  </websocket:message-broker>

  <bean id="pathMatcher" class="org.springframework.util.AntPathMatcher">
    <constructor-arg index="0" value="." />
  </bean>

</beans>

And below is a simple example to illustrate a controller with "." separator:

@Controller
@MessageMapping("foo")
public class FooController {

  @MessageMapping("bar.{baz}")
  public void handleBaz(@DestinationVariable String baz) {
  }

}

If the application prefix is set to "/app" then the foo method is effectively mapped to "/app/foo.bar.{baz}".

In a WebSocket-style application it is often useful to know who sent a message. Therefore some form of authentication is needed to establish the user identity and associate it with the current session.

Existing Web applications already use HTTP based authentication. For example Spring Security can secure the HTTP URLs of the application as usual. Since a WebSocket session begins with an HTTP handshake, that means URLs mapped to STOMP/WebSocket are already automatically protected and require authentication. Moreover the page that opens the WebSocket connection is itself likely protected and so by the time of the actual handshake, the user should have been authenticated.

When a WebSocket handshake is made and a new WebSocket session created, Spring’s WebSocket support automatically transfers the java.security.Principal from the HTTP request to the WebSocket session. After that every message flowing through the application on that WebSocket session is enriched with the user information. It’s present in the message as a header. Controller methods can access the current user by adding a method argument of type javax.security.Principal.

Note that even though the STOMP CONNECT frame has "login" and "passcode" headers that can be used for authentication, Spring’s STOMP WebSocket support ignores them and currently expects users to have been authenticated already via HTTP.

In some cases it may be useful to assign an identity to WebSocket session even when the user has not formally authenticated. For example a mobile app might assign some identity to anonymous users, perhaps based on geographical location. The do that currently, an application can sub-class DefaultHandshakeHandler and override the determineUser method. The custom handshake handler can then be plugged in (see examples in Section 21.2.4, “Deployment Considerations”).

An application can send messages targeting a specific user. Spring’s STOMP support recognizes destinations prefixed with "/user/". For example, a client might subscribe to the destination "/user/queue/position-updates". This destination will be handled by the UserDestinationMessageHandler and transformed into a destination unique to the user session, e.g. "/queue/position-updates-user123". This provides the convenience of subscribing to a generically named destination while at the same time ensuring no collisions with other users subscribing to the same destination so that each user can receive unique stock position updates.

On the sending side messages can be sent to a destination such as "/user/{username}/queue/position-updates", which in turn will be translated by the UserDestinationMessageHandler into one or more destinations, one for each session associated with the user. This allows any component within the application to send messages targeting a specific user without necessarily knowing anything more than their name and the generic destination. This is also supported through an annotation as well as a messaging template.

For example message-handling method can send messages to the user associated with the message being handled through the @SendToUser annotation:

@Controller
public class PortfolioController {

    @MessageMapping("/trade")
    @SendToUser("/queue/position-updates")
    public TradeResult executeTrade(Trade trade, Principal principal) {
        // ...
        return tradeResult;
    }
}

If the user has more than one sessions, by default all of the sessions subscribed to the given destination are targeted. However sometimes, it may be necessary to target only the session that sent the message being handled. This can be done by setting the broadcast attribute to false, for example:

@Controller
public class MyController {

    @MessageMapping("/action")
    public void handleAction() throws Exception{
        // raise MyBusinessException here
    }

    @MessageExceptionHandler
    @SendToUser(value="/queue/errors", broadcast=false)
    public ApplicationError handleException(MyBusinessException exception) {
        // ...
        return appError;
    }
}

It is also possible to send a message to user destinations from any application component by injecting the SimpMessageTemplate created by the Java config or XML namespace, for example (the bean name is "brokerMessagingTemplate` if required for qualification with @Qualifier):

@Service
public class TradeServiceImpl implements TradeService {

	private final SimpMessageTemplate messagingTemplate;

	@Autowired
	public TradeServiceImpl(SimpMessageTemplate messagingTemplate) {
		this.messagingTemplate = messagingTemplate;
	}

	// ...

	public void afterTradeExecuted(Trade trade) {
		this.messagingTemplate.convertAndSendToUser(
				trade.getUserName(), "/queue/position-updates", trade.getResult());
	}
}

Several ApplicationContext events (listed below) are published and can be received by implementing Spring’s ApplicationListener interface.

Furthermore, an application can directly intercept every incoming and outgoing message by registering a ChannelInterceptor on the respective message channel. For example to intercept inbound messages:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebsocketConfig extends AbstractWebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {

  @Override
  public void configureClientInboundChannel(ChannelRegistration registration) {
    registration.setInterceptors(new MyChannelInterceptor());
  }
}

A custom ChannelInterceptor can extend the empty method base class ChannelInterceptorAdapter and use StompHeaderAccessor or SimpMessageHeaderAccessor to access information about the message.

public class MyChannelInterceptor extends ChannelInterceptorAdapter {

  @Override
  public Message<?> preSend(Message<?> message, MessageChannel channel) {
    StompHeaderAccessor accessor = StompHeaderAccessor.wrap(message);
    StompCommand command = accessor.getStompCommand();
    // ...
    return message;
  }
}

Each WebSocket session has a map of attributes. The map is attached as a header to inbound client messages and may be accessed from a controller method, for example:

@Controller
public class MyController {

    @MessageMapping("/action")
    public void handle(SimpMessageHeaderAccessor headerAccessor) {
        Map<String, Object> attrs = headerAccessor.getSessionAttributes();
        // ...
    }
}

It is also possible to declare a Spring-managed bean in the "websocket" scope. WebSocket-scoped beans can be injected into controllers and any channel interceptors registered on the "clientInboundChannel". Those are typically singletons and live longer than any individual WebSocket session. Therefore you will need to use a scope proxy mode for WebSocket-scoped beans:

@Component
@Scope(value="websocket", proxyMode = ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS)
public class MyBean {

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        // Invoked after dependencies injected
    }

    // ...

    @PreDestroy
    public void destroy() {
        // Invoked when the WebSocket session ends
    }
}

@Controller
public class MyController {

    private final MyBean myBean;

    @Autowired
    public MyController(MyBean myBean) {
        this.myBean = myBean;
    }

    @MessageMapping("/action")
    public void handle() {
        // this.myBean from the current WebSocket session
    }
}

As with any custom scope, Spring initializes a new MyBean instance the first time it is accessed from the controller and stores the instance in the WebSocket session attributes. The same instance is returned subsequently until the session ends. WebSocket-scoped beans will have all Spring lifecycle methods invoked as shown in the examples above.

There is no silver bullet when it comes to performance. Many factors may affect it including the size of messages, the volume, whether application methods perform work that requires blocking, as well as external factors such as network speed and others. The goal of this section is to provide an overview of the available configuration options along with some thoughts on how to reason about scaling.

In a messaging application messages are passed through channels for asynchronous executions backed by thread pools. Configuring such an application requires good knowledge of the channels and the flow of messages. Therefore it is recommended to review Section 21.4.3, “Flow of Messages”.

The obvious place to start is to configure the thread pools backing the "clientInboundChannel" and the "clientOutboundChannel". By default both are configured at twice the number of available processors.

If the handling of messages in annotated methods is mainly CPU bound then the number of threads for the "clientInboundChannel" should remain close to the number of processors. If the work they do is more IO bound and requires blocking or waiting on a database or other external system then the thread pool size will need to be increased.

On the "clientOutboundChannel" side it is all about sending messages to WebSocket clients. If clients are on a fast network then the number of threads should remain close to the number of available processors. If they are slow or on low bandwidth they will take longer to consume messages and put a burden on the thread pool. Therefore increasing the thread pool size will be necessary.

While the workload for the "clientInboundChannel" is possible to predict — after all it is based on what the application does — how to configure the "clientOutboundChannel" is harder as it is based on factors beyond the control of the application. For this reason there are two additional properties related to the sending of messages. Those are the "sendTimeLimit" and the "sendBufferSizeLimit". Those are used to configure how long a send is allowed to take and how much data can be buffered when sending messages to a client.

The general idea is that at any given time only a single thread may be used to send to a client. All additional messages meanwhile get buffered and you can use these properties to decide how long sending a message is allowed to take and how much data can be buffered in the mean time. Please review the Javadoc of XML schema for this configuration for important additional details.

Here is example configuration:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void configureWebSocketTransport(WebSocketTransportRegistration registration) {
        registration.setSendTimeLimit(15 * 1000).setSendBufferSizeLimit(512 * 1024);
    }

    // ...

}

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket-4.0.xsd">

    <websocket:message-broker>
        <websocket:transport send-timeout="15000" send-buffer-size="524288" />
        <!-- ... -->
    </websocket:message-broker>

</beans>

The WebSocket transport configuration shown above can also be used to configure the maximum allowed size for incoming STOMP messages. Although in theory a WebSocket message can be almost unlimited in size, in pracitce WebSocket servers impose limits. For example 8K on Tomcat and 64K on Jetty. For this reason STOMP clients such as stomp.js split larger STOMP messages at 16K boundaries and send them as multiple WebSocket messages thus requiring the server to buffer and re-assemble.

Spring’s STOMP over WebSocket support does this so applications can configure the maximum size for STOMP messages irrespective of WebSocket server specific message sizes. Do keep in mind that the WebSocket message size will be automatically adjusted if necessary to ensure they can carry 16K WebSocket messages at a minimum.

Here is example configuration:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void configureWebSocketTransport(WebSocketTransportRegistration registration) {
        registration.setMessageSizeLimit(128 * 1024);
    }

    // ...

}

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:websocket="http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket-4.0.xsd">

    <websocket:message-broker>
        <websocket:transport message-size="131072" />
        <!-- ... -->
    </websocket:message-broker>

</beans>

An important point about scaling is using multiple application instances. Currently it is not possible to do that with the simple broker. However when using a full-featured broker such as RabbitMQ, each application instance connects to the broker and messages broadcast from one application instance can be broadcast through the broker to WebSocket clients connected through any other application instances.

When using @EnableWebSocketMessageBroker or <websocket:message-broker> key infrastructure components automatically gather stats and counters that provide important insight into the internal state of the application. The configuration also declares a bean of type WebSocketMessageBrokerStats that gathers all available information in one place and by default logs it at INFO once every 30 minutes. This bean can be exported to JMX through Spring’s MBeanExporter for viewing at runtime for example through JDK’s jconsole. Below is a summary of the available information.

There are two main approaches to testing applications using Spring’s STOMP over WebSocket support. The first is to write server-side tests verifying the functionality of controllers and their annotated message handling methods. The second is to write full end-to-end tests that involve running a client and a server.

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary each has a place in an overall test strategy. Server-side tests are more focused and easier to write and maintain. End-to-end integration tests on the other hand are more complete and test much more but they’re also more involved to write and maintain.

The simplest form of server-side tests is to write controller unit tests. However this is not useful enough since much of what a controller does depends on its annotations. Pure unit tests simply can’t test that.

Ideally controllers under test should be invoked as they are at runtime, much like the approach to testing controllers handling HTTP requests using the Spring MVC Test framework. i.e. without running a Servlet container but relying on the Spring Framework to invoke the annotated controllers. Just like with Spring MVC Test here there are two two possible alternatives, either using a "context-based" or "standalone" setup:

Both of these setup scenarios are demonstrated in the tests for the stock portfolio sample application.

The second approach is to create end-to-end integration tests. For that you will need to run a WebSocket server in embedded mode and connect to it as a WebSocket client sending WebSocket messages containing STOMP frames. The tests for the stock portfolio sample application also demonstrate this approach using Tomcat as the embedded WebSocket server and a simple STOMP client for test purposes.