6

Background

I have a Node.js server using socket.io that accepts connections from clients via HTTPS.

I know this server works as I am able to connect to it via browser.

Problem

The problem is that I can't create a node app to connect to this server as a client.

I am using the following code:

const io = require("socket.io-client");

const socket = io.connect("https://my.website.com:3002", { secure: true, reconnect: true });

socket.on("connect", function(){
    console.log("connected");
});

socket.on("disconnect", function(){
    console.log("disconnected");
});

socket.on("error", console.error);

The server registers no connections, and this app logs no errors. It would seem that I am connecting to the wrong server, but this same URL works just fine when I use a browser.

Research

I have searched github and the official docs for an answer. Even similar questions from stackoverflow seem to not work:

Question

What am I doing wrong ?

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5
  • I have the exact same code on browser and it works. This is what I find hard to understand. Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 13:40
  • btw running your code results in no output for me too :D Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 13:50
  • 1
    I got an output adding: socket.on("connect_error", function(e){ console.log("connect_error", e); }); and waiting 20 sec. Looks like the error event is not emited for all types of errors -.- Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 13:56
  • 1
    @RolandStarke That information is quite precious. Thanks ! Commented Dec 7, 2017 at 14:14
  • I think it might be important to mention specifically the use of https in the title, as I spent 2 days hunting for this solution Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 4:52

2 Answers 2

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20

Answer

After realising, that not all errors feed into the "error" event ( special thanks to @RolandStarke ) I found that I was having a consistent XHR pool request:

{ Error: xhr poll error
    at XHR.Transport.onError (/Users/pedro/Workspace/backend-stresser/node_modules/engine.io-client/lib/transport.js:64:13)
    at Request.<anonymous> (/Users/pedro/Workspace/backend-stresser/node_modules/engine.io-client/lib/transports/polling-xhr.js:128:10)
    at Request.Emitter.emit (/Users/pedro/Workspace/backend-stresser/node_modules/component-emitter/index.js:133:20)
    at Request.onError (/Users/pedro/Workspace/backend-stresser/node_modules/engine.io-client/lib/transports/polling-xhr.js:310:8)
    at Timeout._onTimeout (/Users/pedro/Workspace/backend-stresser/node_modules/engine.io-client/lib/transports/polling-xhr.js:257:18)
    at ontimeout (timers.js:469:11)
    at tryOnTimeout (timers.js:304:5)
    at Timer.listOnTimeout (timers.js:264:5) type: 'TransportError', description: 503 }

Once I had this information, I made a quick search and found a solution to this issue, which seems to be a bug:

The code I am now using is:

const socket = io.connect("https://my.website.com:3002", { secure: true, reconnection: true, rejectUnauthorized: false });

And it works as expected.

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4 Comments

After 2 days of bashing my head against a wall, this answer saved my arse. NONE of the other examples/answers that I found show how to do it with https
Good to know I helped :P
@Flame_Phoenix I am getting Parse Error HPE_INVALID_CONSTANT any clue?
For me the key is rejectUnauthorized: false because I'm using a self signed certificate.
3

I have used this code in my client side and it worked:

import io from "socket.io-client"
const SERVER = "http://localhost:5000"
const socket = io(SERVER, { transports: ["websocket"] })
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1 Comment

Adding transports parameters in socket constructor helped me a lot! Thanks!

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