WebSocket from scratch. In Node.js

ws.js

const http = require('http')
const crypto = require('crypto')

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  console.log('got request', req.url)
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' })
  res.end('okay')
})

server.on('upgrade', function (req, socket) {
  if (req.headers.upgrade !== 'websocket') {
    socket.end('HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request')
    return
  }
  // Read the websocket key provided by the client:
  const acceptKey = req.headers['sec-websocket-key']
  // Generate the response value to use in the response:
  const hash = generateAcceptValue(acceptKey)
  // Write the HTTP response into an array of response lines:
  const responseHeaders = [
    'HTTP/1.1 101 Web Socket Protocol Handshake',
    'Upgrade: WebSocket',
    'Connection: Upgrade',
        `Sec-WebSocket-Accept: ${hash}`
  ]
  // Write the response back to the client socket, being sure to append two
  // additional newlines so that the browser recognises the end of the response
  // header and doesn't continue to wait for more header data:
  socket.write(responseHeaders.join('\r\n') + '\r\n\r\n')

  socket.on('data', (buffer) => {
    const message = parseMessage(buffer)
    if (message) {
      // For our convenience, so we can see what the client sent
      console.log(message)
      // We'll just send a hardcoded message in this example
      socket.write(constructReply({ message: 'Hello from the server!' }))
    } else if (message === null) {
      console.log('WebSocket connection closed by the client.')
    }
  })

  function constructReply (data) {
    // Convert the data to JSON and copy it into a buffer
    const json = JSON.stringify(data)
    const jsonByteLength = Buffer.byteLength(json)
    // Note: we're not supporting > 65535 byte payloads at this stage
    const lengthByteCount = jsonByteLength < 126 ? 0 : 2
    const payloadLength = lengthByteCount === 0 ? jsonByteLength : 126
    const buffer = Buffer.alloc(2 + lengthByteCount + jsonByteLength)
    // Write out the first byte, using opcode `1` to indicate that the message
    // payload contains text data
    buffer.writeUInt8(0b10000001, 0)
    buffer.writeUInt8(payloadLength, 1)
    // Write the length of the JSON payload to the second byte
    let payloadOffset = 2
    if (lengthByteCount > 0) {
      buffer.writeUInt16BE(jsonByteLength, 2)
      payloadOffset += lengthByteCount
    }
    // Write the JSON data to the data buffer
    buffer.write(json, payloadOffset)
    return buffer
  }

  function parseMessage (buffer) {
    const firstByte = buffer.readUInt8(0)
    // const isFinalFrame = Boolean((firstByte >>> 7) & 0x1)
    // const [reserved1, reserved2, reserved3] = [
    //   Boolean((firstByte >>> 6) & 0x1),
    //   Boolean((firstByte >>> 5) & 0x1),
    //   Boolean((firstByte >>> 4) & 0x1)
    // ]
    const opCode = firstByte & 0xf
    // We can return null to signify that this is a connection termination frame
    if (opCode === 0x8) return null
    // We only care about text frames from this point onward
    if (opCode !== 0x1) return
    const secondByte = buffer.readUInt8(1)
    const isMasked = Boolean((secondByte >>> 7) & 0x1)
    // Keep track of our current position as we advance through the buffer
    let currentOffset = 2
    let payloadLength = secondByte & 0x7f
    if (payloadLength > 125) {
      if (payloadLength === 126) {
        payloadLength = buffer.readUInt16BE(currentOffset)
        currentOffset += 2
      } else {
        // 127
        // If this has a value, the frame size is ridiculously huge!
        // const leftPart = buffer.readUInt32BE(currentOffset)
        // const rightPart = buffer.readUInt32BE((currentOffset += 4))
        // Honestly, if the frame length requires 64 bits, you're probably doing it wrong.
        // In Node.js you'll require the BigInt type, or a special library to handle this.
        throw new Error('Large payloads not currently implemented')
      }
    }

    let maskingKey
    if (isMasked) {
      maskingKey = buffer.readUInt32BE(currentOffset)
      currentOffset += 4
    }

    // Allocate somewhere to store the final message data
    const data = Buffer.alloc(payloadLength)
    // Only unmask the data if the masking bit was set to 1
    if (isMasked) {
      // Loop through the source buffer one byte at a time, keeping track of which
      // byte in the masking key to use in the next XOR calculation
      for (let i = 0, j = 0; i < payloadLength; ++i, j = i % 4) {
        // Extract the correct byte mask from the masking key
        const shift = j === 3 ? 0 : (3 - j) << 3
        const mask =
                    (shift === 0 ? maskingKey : maskingKey >>> shift) & 0xff
        // Read a byte from the source buffer
        const source = buffer.readUInt8(currentOffset++)
        // XOR the source byte and write the result to the data
        data.writeUInt8(mask ^ source, i)
      }
    } else {
      // Not masked - we can just read the data as-is
      buffer.copy(data, 0, currentOffset++)
    }

    return data.toString('utf8')
  }
})

// Don't forget the hashing function described earlier:
function generateAcceptValue (acceptKey) {
  return crypto
    .createHash('sha1')
    .update(acceptKey + '258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11', 'binary')
    .digest('base64')
}

server.listen(8080)