I am using the Poco C++ libraries to setup a websocket server, which clients can connect to and stream some data to their webinterface. So I have a loop which continuously sends data and I also want to listen if the clients closes the connection by using the receiveFrame() function, for the rest, the client is totally passive and doesn't send any data or whatsoever. The problem is that receiveFrame() blocks the connection, which is not what I want. I basically want to check if the client has not yet called the close() javascript function and stop streaming data if it has. I tried using

ws.setBlocking(false);

But now receiveFrame throws an exception every time it is called. I also tried removing receiveFrame entirely, which works if the connection is terminated by closing the browser but if the client calls the function close(), the server still tries to send data to the client. So how can I pull this off? Is there somehow a way to check if there are client frames to be received and if not to just continue?

I am using the Poco C++ libraries to setup a websocket server, which clients can connect to and stream some data to their webinterface. So I have a loop which continuously sends data and I also want to listen if the clients closes the connection by using the receiveFrame() function, for the rest, the client is totally passive and doesn't send any data or whatsoever. The problem is that receiveFrame() blocks the connection, which is not what I want. I basically want to check if the client has not yet called the close() javascript function and stop streaming data if it has. I tried using

ws.setBlocking(false);

But now receiveFrame throws an exception every time it is called. I also tried removing receiveFrame entirely, which works if the connection is terminated by closing the browser but if the client calls the function close(), the server still tries to send data to the client. So how can I pull this off? Is there somehow a way to check if there are client frames to be received and if not to just continue?

• javascript
• c++
• websocket
• poco-libraries

2 Answers 2

You can repeatedly call Socket::select() (with timeout) in a separate thread; when you detect a readable socket, call receiveFrame(). In spite of the misleading name, Socket::select() call wraps epoll() or poll() on platforms where those are available.

You can also implement this in somewhat more plicated but perhaps a more elegant fashion with Poco::NotificationQueues, posting a notification every time when a socket is readable and reading data in the handler.

setBlocking() does not do what you would expect it to. Here's a little info on it: http://www.scottklement./rpg/socktut/nonblocking.html

What you probably want to do is use setReceiveTimeout() on your socket to control how long it will wait for before giving you back control. Then test your response and loop everything if needed. The Poco docs have more info on how to use that part of the API. Just look up WebSockets.