Does boost::asio support websockets?

Question

I posted a question earlier asking why does my server (written in C++ and boost::asio) can\'t connect with a client (written in Javascript). Is the problem that

Answer 1

Boost.Asio doesn't directly support WebSocket but there's this great open source library out there which is very closely modeled to Boost.Asio and works the way that you expect. You might give it a try, its header-only and uses just boost. It comes with example code and documentation: http://vinniefalco.github.io/

Here's a complete program that sends a message to the echo server:

#include <beast/websocket.hpp>
#include <beast/buffers_debug.hpp>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
    // Normal boost::asio setup
    std::string const host = "echo.websocket.org";
    boost::asio::io_service ios;
    boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver r(ios);
    boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket sock(ios);
    boost::asio::connect(sock,
        r.resolve(boost::asio::ip::tcp::resolver::query{host, "80"}));

    using namespace beast::websocket;

    // WebSocket connect and send message using beast
    stream<boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket&> ws(sock);
    ws.handshake(host, "/");
    ws.write(boost::asio::buffer("Hello, world!"));

    // Receive WebSocket message, print and close using beast
    beast::streambuf sb;
    opcode op;
    ws.read(op, sb);
    ws.close(close_code::normal);
    std::cout <<
        beast::debug::buffers_to_string(sb.data()) << "\n";
}