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* Add Server::CustomRoute() for HTTP methods outside the built-in set parse_request_line validates the request method against a fixed whitelist and rejects anything else with 400 before routing runs. That blocks WebDAV, where PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, MKCOL, COPY, MOVE, LOCK and UNLOCK are ordinary methods defined by RFC 4918, and it blocks extension methods such as UPnP's SUBSCRIBE. The need has been open since #847. Registering a handler is now what makes the server accept a method: svr.CustomRoute("PROPFIND", "/dav/:id", handler); Because custom methods go through the normal dispatch path, patterns work the way they do for Get() and friends, and the request body is available in req.body. Serving these methods through set_pre_routing_handler was never enough: the body has not been read at that point, so PROPPATCH and LOCK, which require one, could not be implemented at all. A HandlerWithContentReader overload is available too. The content reader gate in routing() also fires when a custom method carries no body, matching what expect_content() does unconditionally for POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE, so a body-less PROPFIND (RFC 4918 treats one as allprop) reaches its handler instead of falling through to 404. Method names are validated as RFC 9110 tokens, and the ten built-in methods are refused. Seven of them are dispatched by the if/else chain in routing() before the custom tables are consulted, so a route registered for one could never fire; CONNECT, TRACE and PRI carry protocol-level meaning this library does not route. A refused registration makes is_valid() return false, so listen() fails rather than starting a server holding a handler that would never run. This is also why SSLServer::is_valid() now chains to Server::is_valid() instead of only checking ctx_. Servers that never call CustomRoute() keep the previous per-request cost: the built-in method set is checked first and short-circuits, and the custom lookup returns early on an empty map. * Add cookbook recipe for custom HTTP methods The CustomRoute() docs were a section inside S01, which pushed that page to 90 lines, the longest in the cookbook, and mixed a separate feature into a page about registering GET/POST/PUT/DELETE handlers. Move the section into its own recipe and give it room for the part that was missing: the OPTIONS handler returning DAV: and Allow, which WebDAV clients probe for before anything else. S01 goes back to 68 lines and keeps a pointer to the new page. The recipe is titled after the API rather than after WebDAV, and says outright that generating the 207 Multi-Status XML, interpreting Depth and managing locks are the reader's job. Routing the method is all the library does. S23 takes order 42, so the TLS, SSE and WebSocket recipes shift to 43-57. That only moves the sort key. Filenames, the T01/E01/W01 labels, the published URLs and every cross-reference are untouched.
2.7 KiB
title, order, status
| title | order | status |
|---|---|---|
| W01. Implement a WebSocket Echo Server and Client | 52 | draft |
WebSocket is a protocol for two-way messaging between client and server. cpp-httplib provides APIs for both sides. Let's start with the simplest example: an echo server.
Server: echo server
#include <httplib.h>
int main() {
httplib::Server svr;
svr.WebSocket("/echo", [](const httplib::Request &req, httplib::ws::WebSocket &ws) {
std::string msg;
while (ws.is_open()) {
auto result = ws.read(msg);
if (result == httplib::ws::ReadResult::Fail) {
break;
}
ws.send(msg); // echo back what we received
}
});
svr.listen("0.0.0.0", 8080);
}
Register a WebSocket handler with svr.WebSocket(). By the time the handler runs, the WebSocket handshake is already complete. Inside the loop, just ws.read() and ws.send() to get a working echo.
The read() return value is a ReadResult enum:
ReadResult::Text: received a text messageReadResult::Binary: received a binary messageReadResult::Fail: error, or connection closed
Client: talk to the echo server
#include <httplib.h>
int main() {
httplib::ws::WebSocketClient cli("ws://localhost:8080/echo");
if (!cli.connect()) {
std::cerr << "failed to connect" << std::endl;
return 1;
}
cli.send("Hello, WebSocket!");
std::string msg;
if (cli.read(msg) != httplib::ws::ReadResult::Fail) {
std::cout << "received: " << msg << std::endl;
}
cli.close();
}
Use a ws:// (plain) or wss:// (TLS) URL. Call connect() to do the handshake, then send() and read() work the same as on the server side.
Text vs. binary
send() has two overloads that let you choose the frame type.
ws.send("Hello"); // text frame
ws.send(binary_data, binary_data_size); // binary frame
The std::string overload sends as text; the const char* + size overload sends as binary. A bit subtle, but once you know it, it's intuitive. See W04. Send and receive binary frames for details.
Thread pool implications
A WebSocket handler holds its worker thread for the entire life of the connection — one connection per thread. For many concurrent clients, configure a dynamic thread pool.
svr.new_task_queue = [] {
return new httplib::ThreadPool(8, 128);
};
See S21. Configure the thread pool.
Note: To run WebSocket over HTTPS, use
httplib::SSLServerinstead ofhttplib::Server— the sameWebSocket()handler just works. On the client side, use awss://URL. For CA and client certificate configuration, see W05. Configure TLS for wss:// Connections.