Send And Receive Binary Data Over Web Sockets In Javascript

Web Sockets are a powerful tool in web development that allow for real-time, bidirectional communication between a client and a server. One common use case for Web Sockets is sending and receiving binary data. In this article, we will explore how you can send and receive binary data over Web Sockets using JavaScript.

To get started, you first need to establish a Web Socket connection between the client and the server. You can create a new Web Socket instance in JavaScript by simply providing the URL of the server you want to connect to. For example:

const socket = new WebSocket('ws://example.com');

In the above code snippet, we create a new WebSocket instance that connects to `ws://example.com`. Make sure to replace this URL with the actual URL of your server.

Once the Web Socket connection is established, you can start sending and receiving binary data. To send binary data, you can use the `WebSocket.send()` method. This method takes a `Blob`, `ArrayBuffer`, or `ArrayBufferView` object as its argument. Here's an example of sending binary data:

const buffer = new ArrayBuffer(8);
const view = new Int32Array(buffer);
view[0] = 42;

socket.send(buffer);

In the code above, we create a new `ArrayBuffer` with a length of 8 bytes and fill it with an integer value of 42. We then send this binary data over the Web Socket connection.

On the server side, you need to handle incoming binary data. When the server receives binary data from the client, it can process and respond accordingly. Similarly, the client can also receive binary data from the server using the `WebSocket.onmessage` event handler. Here's an example of receiving binary data:

socket.onmessage = (event) => {
  const data = event.data;
  if (data instanceof ArrayBuffer) {
    // Handle binary data
    const view = new Int32Array(data);
    console.log('Received binary data:', view[0]);
  }
};

In the code snippet above, we set up an `onmessage` event handler to handle incoming messages. We check if the received data is an `ArrayBuffer`, and if so, we interpret it as binary data and display it in the console.

Sending and receiving binary data over Web Sockets in JavaScript opens up a wide range of possibilities for real-time communication and data exchange. Whether you are building a chat application, a multiplayer game, or a data visualization tool, understanding how to work with binary data over Web Sockets is a valuable skill to have. So go ahead, experiment with sending and receiving binary data over Web Sockets in your next project!