Which Websocket Library to Use in Android App

Android library for WSS (Secure Web Socket)

Did you try https://github.com/TooTallNate/Java-WebSocket

I haven't used it myself, but it looks promising.

WebSocket library for Android, iOS and Flash

iOS 4.2 and above have native WebSockets support.

For Android devices with Flash support (or any browser with Flash) you can use web-socket-js. Socket.IO actually includes web-socket-js as one of the transports that can be enabled.

See caniuse.com for an up-to-date list of browsers and mobile devices with native WebSockets support.

Update:

For native iOS applications (Objective-C) check out UnittWebSocketClient. One caveat: I looked in the code and it uses the HyBi-07 version of the protocol which is more recent than the Hixie-76 version currently supported by most browsers. However, if the server you are connecting to supports HyBi-07 or later it shouldn't be a problem.

Android c# Websocket tutorial

There's no need to concern C# in Android even the server is written in C# as the websocket protocol can be implemented in any programming language.

Besides of your learning materials, if your server should be written in C# and Android have to connect to it, shortest path to achieve is to use SignalR project.

check out SignalR Project link (http://signalr.net/)

SignalR use WebSocket as main protocol and http long-polling technology as a fallback. And, Android library named SignalA is supported also. I tested it and was happy to use it last year. The fallback(long-polling) is important as Android does not support WebSocket protocol in all versions.

If long-polling is not your option (it can consume cellular data plan more than expected), then you can try to create your own communication rule with raw WebSocket protocol, For that, use Java-WebSocket project in Android and many C# libraries are introduced in CodeProject.

What is a simple way to implement a websocket client in Android? Is the following example correct?

I already resolved the problem by using another class, that handles the websocket client:

    import android.app.Activity;
    import android.app.Fragment;
    import android.os.Build;
    import android.os.Bundle;
    import android.util.Log;
    import android.view.LayoutInflater;
    import android.view.Menu;
    import android.view.MenuItem;
    import android.view.View;
    import android.view.ViewGroup;
    import android.widget.EditText;
    import android.widget.TextView;

    import org.java_websocket.client.WebSocketClient;
    import org.java_websocket.handshake.ServerHandshake;

    import java.net.URI;
    import java.net.URISyntaxException;

    public class MainActivity extends Activity {
        private WebSocketClient mWebSocketClient;

        @Override
        protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
            setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

            connectWebSocket();

            if (savedInstanceState == null) {
                getFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
                        .add(R.id.container, new PlaceholderFragment())
                        .commit();
            }
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

            // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
            getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
            return true;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
            // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
            // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
            // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
            switch (item.getItemId()) {
                case R.id.action_settings:
                    return true;
            }
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }

        /**
         * A placeholder fragment containing a simple view.
         */
        public static class PlaceholderFragment extends Fragment {

            public PlaceholderFragment() {
            }

            @Override
            public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                    Bundle savedInstanceState) {
                View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_main, container, false);
                return rootView;
            }
        }

        private void connectWebSocket() {
            URI uri;
            try {
                uri = new URI("ws://192.168.1.135:9000/");
            } catch (URISyntaxException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                return;
            }

            mWebSocketClient = new WebSocketClient(uri) {
                @Override
                public void onOpen(ServerHandshake serverHandshake) {
                    Log.i("Websocket", "Opened");
                    mWebSocketClient.send("Hello from " + Build.MANUFACTURER + " " + Build.MODEL);
                }

                @Override
                public void onMessage(String s) {
                    final String message = s;
                    runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                        @Override
                        public void run() {
                            TextView textView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.messages);
                            textView.setText(textView.getText() + "\n" + message);
                        }
                    });
                }

                @Override
                public void onClose(int i, String s, boolean b) {
                    Log.i("Websocket", "Closed " + s);
                }

                @Override
                public void onError(Exception e) {
                    Log.i("Websocket", "Error " + e.getMessage());
                }
            };
            mWebSocketClient.connect();
        }

        public void sendMessage(View view) {
            EditText editText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.message);
            mWebSocketClient.send(editText.getText().toString());
            editText.setText("");
        }
    }

For anyone that is interested, I've used a Websocket-ChatServer written in PHP:

<?php
$r = $_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR'];
if($r=="::1") $r="localhost";

$host = $r; //'localhost'; //host
$port = '9000'; //port
$null = NULL; //null var

//Create TCP/IP sream socket
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);
//reuseable port
socket_set_option($socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1);

//bind socket to specified host
socket_bind($socket, 0, $port);

//listen to port
socket_listen($socket);

//create & add listning socket to the list
$clients = array($socket);

//start endless loop, so that our script doesn't stop
while (true) {
    //manage multipal connections
    $changed = $clients;
    //returns the socket resources in $changed array
    socket_select($changed, $null, $null, 0, 10);

    //check for new socket
    if (in_array($socket, $changed)) {
        $socket_new = socket_accept($socket); //accpet new socket
        $clients[] = $socket_new; //add socket to client array

        $header = socket_read($socket_new, 1024); //read data sent by the socket
        perform_handshaking($header, $socket_new, $host, $port); //perform websocket handshake

        socket_getpeername($socket_new, $ip); //get ip address of connected socket
        $response = mask(json_encode(array('type'=>'system', 'message'=>$ip.' connected'))); //prepare json data
        send_message($response); //notify all users about new connection

        //make room for new socket
        $found_socket = array_search($socket, $changed);
        unset($changed[$found_socket]);
    }

    //loop through all connected sockets
    foreach ($changed as $changed_socket) { 

        //check for any incomming data
        while(socket_recv($changed_socket, $buf, 1024, 0) >= 1)
        {
            $received_text = unmask($buf); //unmask data
            $tst_msg = json_decode($received_text); //json decode 
            $user_name = $tst_msg->name; //sender name
            $user_message = $tst_msg->message; //message text
            $user_color = $tst_msg->color; //color

            //prepare data to be sent to client
            $response_text = mask(json_encode(array('type'=>'usermsg', 'name'=>$user_name, 'message'=>$user_message, 'color'=>$user_color)));
            send_message($response_text); //send data
            break 2; //exist this loop
        }

        $buf = @socket_read($changed_socket, 1024, PHP_NORMAL_READ);
        if ($buf === false) { // check disconnected client
            // remove client for $clients array
            $found_socket = array_search($changed_socket, $clients);
            socket_getpeername($changed_socket, $ip);
            unset($clients[$found_socket]);

            //notify all users about disconnected connection
            $response = mask(json_encode(array('type'=>'system', 'message'=>$ip.' disconnected')));
            send_message($response);
        }
    }
}
// close the listening socket
socket_close($sock);

function send_message($msg)
{
    global $clients;
    foreach($clients as $changed_socket)
    {
        @socket_write($changed_socket,$msg,strlen($msg));
    }
    return true;
}

//Unmask incoming framed message
function unmask($text) {
    $length = ord($text[1]) & 127;
    if($length == 126) {
        $masks = substr($text, 4, 4);
        $data = substr($text, 8);
    }
    elseif($length == 127) {
        $masks = substr($text, 10, 4);
        $data = substr($text, 14);
    }
    else {
        $masks = substr($text, 2, 4);
        $data = substr($text, 6);
    }
    $text = "";
    for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($data); ++$i) {
        $text .= $data[$i] ^ $masks[$i%4];
    }
    return $text;
}

//Encode message for transfer to client.
function mask($text)
{
    $b1 = 0x80 | (0x1 & 0x0f);
    $length = strlen($text);

    if($length <= 125)
        $header = pack('CC', $b1, $length);
    elseif($length > 125 && $length < 65536)
        $header = pack('CCn', $b1, 126, $length);
    elseif($length >= 65536)
        $header = pack('CCNN', $b1, 127, $length);
    return $header.$text;
}

//handshake new client.
function perform_handshaking($receved_header,$client_conn, $host, $port)
{
    $headers = array();
    $lines = preg_split("/\r\n/", $receved_header);
    foreach($lines as $line)
    {
        $line = chop($line);
        if(preg_match('/\A(\S+): (.*)\z/', $line, $matches))
        {
            $headers[$matches[1]] = $matches[2];
        }
    }

    $secKey = $headers['Sec-WebSocket-Key'];
    $secAccept = base64_encode(pack('H*', sha1($secKey . '258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11')));
    //hand shaking header
    $upgrade  = "HTTP/1.1 101 Web Socket Protocol Handshake\r\n" .
    "Upgrade: websocket\r\n" .
    "Connection: Upgrade\r\n" .
    "WebSocket-Origin: $host\r\n" .
    "WebSocket-Location: ws://$host:$port/demo/shout.php\r\n".
    "Sec-WebSocket-Accept:$secAccept\r\n\r\n";
    socket_write($client_conn,$upgrade,strlen($upgrade));
}

In order to start the websocket server it's needed to run a console command like this: php -q myserver.php

How to use HiveMQ over websocket on Android

you just need to add the webSocketConfig to the builder, something like this:

        Mqtt3Client client = Mqtt3Client.builder()
            .identifier(UUID.randomUUID().toString())
            .serverAddress(new InetSocketAddress("localhost", 443))
            .sslWithDefaultConfig()
this line-> .webSocketConfig(MqttWebSocketConfig.builder().subprotocol("mqtt").serverPath("/mqtt").build())
            .buildAsync();

But I'm think you can't add custom headers yet, see https://github.com/hivemq/hivemq-mqtt-client/issues/457.

Greetings,

Michael

Can I connect with WebSocket in an Android app?

A simple google search for 'android websockets' turned up this. He is referring to a GitHub project called websocket-android-phonegap.

Which libraries I need to create a websocket client in Android

Here is a elab's github project which creates a sample application, including the server side code.

Or you can look into a library of android-websockets created by koush. It has good amount of documentation.

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For more information, try out these projects and post more specific questions if you face any problem while implementing.

Good luck

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