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WebSocket API

The Spring Framework provides a WebSocket API that you can use to write client- and server-side applications that handle WebSocket messages.

`WebSocketHandler`

See equivalent in the Reactive stack

Creating a WebSocket server is as simple as implementing WebSocketHandler or, more likely, extending either TextWebSocketHandler or BinaryWebSocketHandler. The following example uses TextWebSocketHandler:

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 configuration and XML namespace support for mapping the preceding WebSocket handler to a specific URL, as the following example shows:

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();
	}

}

The following example shows the XML configuration equivalent of the preceding example:

<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
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
		http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket.xsd">

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

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

</beans>

The preceding example 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.

When using the WebSocketHandler API directly vs indirectly, e.g. through the STOMP messaging, the application must synchronize the sending of messages since the underlying standard WebSocket session (JSR-356) does not allow concurrent sending. One option is to wrap the WebSocketSession with ConcurrentWebSocketSessionDecorator.

WebSocket Handshake

See equivalent in the Reactive stack

The easiest way to customize the initial HTTP WebSocket handshake request is through a HandshakeInterceptor, which exposes methods for “before” and “after” the handshake. You can use such an interceptor to preclude the handshake or to make any attributes available to the WebSocketSession. The following example uses a built-in interceptor to pass 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());
	}

}

The following example shows the XML configuration equivalent of the preceding example:

<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
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
		http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket.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 other details. 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 (see Deployment for more on this subject). Both the Java configuration and XML namespace make it possible to configure a custom HandshakeHandler.

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

Deployment

The Spring WebSocket API is easy to integrate into a Spring MVC application where the DispatcherServlet serves both HTTP WebSocket handshake and 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 Jakarta WebSocket API (JSR-356) provides two deployment mechanisms. The first involves a Servlet container classpath scan (a Servlet 3 feature) at startup. The other is a registration API to use at Servlet container initialization. Neither of these mechanism makes 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 with server-specific RequestUpgradeStrategy implementations even when running in a JSR-356 runtime. Such strategies currently exist for Tomcat, Jetty, GlassFish, WebLogic, WebSphere, and Undertow (and WildFly). As of Jakarta WebSocket 2.1, a standard request upgrade strategy is available which Spring chooses on Jakarta EE 10 based web containers such as Tomcat 10.1 and Jetty 12.

A secondary consideration is that Servlet containers with JSR-356 support are expected to perform a ServletContainerInitializer (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 the <absolute-ordering /> element in web.xml, as the following example shows:

<web-app xmlns="https://jakarta.ee/xml/ns/jakartaee"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="
		https://jakarta.ee/xml/ns/jakartaee
		https://jakarta.ee/xml/ns/jakartaee/web-app_5_0.xsd"
	version="5.0">

	<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. The following example shows how to do so:

<web-app xmlns="https://jakarta.ee/xml/ns/jakartaee"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="
		https://jakarta.ee/xml/ns/jakartaee
		https://jakarta.ee/xml/ns/jakartaee/web-app_5_0.xsd"
	version="5.0">

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

</web-app>

Configuring the Server

See equivalent in the Reactive stack

You can configure of the underlying WebSocket server such as input message buffer size, idle timeout, and more.

For Jakarta WebSocket servers, you can add a ServletServerContainerFactoryBean to your Java configuration. For example:

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

Or to your XML configuration:

<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
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
		http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
		https://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 client Jakarta WebSocket configuration, use ContainerProvider.getWebSocketContainer() in Java configuration, or WebSocketContainerFactoryBean in XML.

For Jetty, you can supply a Consumer callback to configure the WebSocket server:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSocket
public class WebSocketConfig implements WebSocketConfigurer {

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

	@Bean
	public DefaultHandshakeHandler handshakeHandler() {
		JettyRequestUpgradeStrategy strategy = new JettyRequestUpgradeStrategy();
		strategy.addWebSocketConfigurer(configurable -> {
				policy.setInputBufferSize(8192);
				policy.setIdleTimeout(600000);
		});
		return new DefaultHandshakeHandler(strategy);
	}

}

When using STOMP over WebSocket, you will also need to configure STOMP WebSocket transport properties.

Allowed Origins

See equivalent in the Reactive stack

As of Spring Framework 4.1.5, the default behavior for WebSocket and SockJS is to accept only same-origin requests. It is also possible to allow all or a specified list of origins. This check is mostly designed for browser clients. Nothing prevents other types of clients from modifying the Origin header value (see RFC 6454: The Web Origin Concept for more details).

The three possible behaviors are:

Allow only same-origin requests (default): In this mode, when SockJS is enabled, the Iframe HTTP response header X-Frame-Options is set to SAMEORIGIN, and JSONP transport is disabled, since it does not allow checking the origin of a request. As a consequence, IE6 and IE7 are not supported when this mode is enabled.
Allow a specified list of origins: Each allowed origin must start with http:// or https://. In this mode, when SockJS is enabled, IFrame transport is disabled. As a consequence, IE6 through IE9 are not supported when this mode is enabled.
Allow all origins: To enable this mode, you should provide * as the allowed origin value. In this mode, all transports are available.

You can configure WebSocket and SockJS allowed origins, as the following example shows:

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").setAllowedOrigins("https://mydomain.com");
	}

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

}

The following example shows the XML configuration equivalent of the preceding example:

<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
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
		http://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket
		https://www.springframework.org/schema/websocket/spring-websocket.xsd">

	<websocket:handlers allowed-origins="https://mydomain.com">
		<websocket:mapping path="/myHandler" handler="myHandler" />
	</websocket:handlers>

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

</beans>