[c#] Creating a "Hello World" WebSocket example

I don't understand why I cannot make the following code work. I want to connect with JavaScript to my server console application. And then send data to the server.

Here is the server code:

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {            
        TcpListener server = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1"), 9998);
        server.Start();
        var client = server.AcceptTcpClient();
        var stream = client.GetStream();

        while (true)
        {
            var buffer = new byte[1024]; 
            // wait for data to be received
            var bytesRead = stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);                
            var r = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer);
            // write received data to the console
            Console.WriteLine(r.Substring(0, bytesRead));
        }
    }

and here is the JavaScript:

        var ws = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:9998/service");
        ws.onopen = function () {
            ws.send("Hello World"); // I WANT TO SEND THIS MESSAGE TO THE SERVER!!!!!!!!
        };

        ws.onmessage = function (evt) {
            var received_msg = evt.data;
            alert("Message is received...");
        };
        ws.onclose = function () {
            // websocket is closed.
            alert("Connection is closed...");
        };

When I run that code this is what happens:

Note that when I run the JavaScript the server accepts and successfully establishes a connection. JavaScript is not able to send data though. Whenever I place the send method it will not send even though a connection is established. How can I make this work?

WebSockets are implemented with a protocol that involves handshake between client and server. I don't imagine they work very much like normal sockets. Read up on the protocol, and get your application to talk it. Alternatively, use an existing WebSocket library, or .Net4.5beta which has a WebSocket API.

(Posted answer on behalf of the OP).

I am able to send data now. This is my new version of the program thanks to your answers and the code of @Maksims Mihejevs.

Server

using System;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Net;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Threading;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static Socket serverSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, 
        SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.IP);
        static private string guid = "258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11";

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {            
            serverSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 8080));
            serverSocket.Listen(128);
            serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);            
            Console.Read();
        }

        private static void OnAccept(IAsyncResult result)
        {
            byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
            try
            {
                Socket client = null;
                string headerResponse = "";
                if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
                {
                    client = serverSocket.EndAccept(result);
                    var i = client.Receive(buffer);
                    headerResponse = (System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer)).Substring(0,i);
                    // write received data to the console
                    Console.WriteLine(headerResponse);

                }
                if (client != null)
                {
                    /* Handshaking and managing ClientSocket */

                    var key = headerResponse.Replace("ey:", "`")
                              .Split('`')[1]                     // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ== \r\n .......
                              .Replace("\r", "").Split('\n')[0]  // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
                              .Trim();

                    // key should now equal dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
                    var test1 = AcceptKey(ref key);

                    var newLine = "\r\n";

                    var response = "HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols" + newLine
                         + "Upgrade: websocket" + newLine
                         + "Connection: Upgrade" + newLine
                         + "Sec-WebSocket-Accept: " + test1 + newLine + newLine
                         //+ "Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: chat, superchat" + newLine
                         //+ "Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13" + newLine
                         ;

                    // which one should I use? none of them fires the onopen method
                    client.Send(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(response));

                    var i = client.Receive(buffer); // wait for client to send a message

                    // once the message is received decode it in different formats
                    Console.WriteLine(Convert.ToBase64String(buffer).Substring(0, i));                    

                    Console.WriteLine("\n\nPress enter to send data to client");
                    Console.Read();

                    var subA = SubArray<byte>(buffer, 0, i);
                    client.Send(subA);
                    Thread.Sleep(10000);//wait for message to be send


                }
            }
            catch (SocketException exception)
            {
                throw exception;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
                {
                    serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
                }
            }
        }

        public static T[] SubArray<T>(T[] data, int index, int length)
        {
            T[] result = new T[length];
            Array.Copy(data, index, result, 0, length);
            return result;
        }

        private static string AcceptKey(ref string key)
        {
            string longKey = key + guid;
            byte[] hashBytes = ComputeHash(longKey);
            return Convert.ToBase64String(hashBytes);
        }

        static SHA1 sha1 = SHA1CryptoServiceProvider.Create();
        private static byte[] ComputeHash(string str)
        {
            return sha1.ComputeHash(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(str));
        }
    }
}

JavaScript:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function connect() {
            var ws = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8080/service");
            ws.onopen = function () {
                alert("About to send data");
                ws.send("Hello World"); // I WANT TO SEND THIS MESSAGE TO THE SERVER!!!!!!!!
                alert("Message sent!");
            };

            ws.onmessage = function (evt) {
                alert("About to receive data");
                var received_msg = evt.data;
                alert("Message received = "+received_msg);
            };
            ws.onclose = function () {
                // websocket is closed.
                alert("Connection is closed...");
            };
        };


    </script>
</head>
<body style="font-size:xx-large" >
    <div>
    <a href="#" onclick="connect()">Click here to start</a></div>
</body>
</html>

When I run that code I am able to send and receive data from both the client and the server. The only problem is that the messages are encrypted when they arrive to the server. Here are the steps of how the program runs:

Note how the message from the client is encrypted.

Issue

Since you are using WebSocket, spender is correct. After recieving the initial data from the WebSocket, you need to send the handshake message from the C# server before any further information can flow.

HTTP/1.1 101 Web Socket Protocol Handshake
Upgrade: websocket
Connection: Upgrade
WebSocket-Origin: example
WebSocket-Location: something.here
WebSocket-Protocol: 13

Something along those lines.

You can do some more research into how WebSocket works on w3 or google.

Links and Resources

Here is a protocol specifcation: http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hixie-thewebsocketprotocol-76#section-1.3

List of working examples:

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/5866975/184746
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/2212752/184746
• http://ashishware.com/websocksample.shtml
• http://www.sencha.com/forum/showthread.php?99842-WebSocket-server-in-C

I couldnt find a simple working example anywhere (as of Jan 19), so here is an updated version. I have chrome version 71.0.3578.98.

C# Websocket server :

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

namespace WebSocketServer
{
    class Program
    {
    static Socket serverSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.IP);
    static private string guid = "258EAFA5-E914-47DA-95CA-C5AB0DC85B11";

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        serverSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 8080));
        serverSocket.Listen(1); //just one socket
        serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
        Console.Read();
    }

    private static void OnAccept(IAsyncResult result)
    {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
        try
        {
            Socket client = null;
            string headerResponse = "";
            if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
            {
                client = serverSocket.EndAccept(result);
                var i = client.Receive(buffer);
                headerResponse = (System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer)).Substring(0, i);
                // write received data to the console
                Console.WriteLine(headerResponse);
                Console.WriteLine("=====================");
            }
            if (client != null)
            {
                /* Handshaking and managing ClientSocket */
                var key = headerResponse.Replace("ey:", "`")
                          .Split('`')[1]                     // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ== \r\n .......
                          .Replace("\r", "").Split('\n')[0]  // dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
                          .Trim();

                // key should now equal dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
                var test1 = AcceptKey(ref key);

                var newLine = "\r\n";

                var response = "HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols" + newLine
                     + "Upgrade: websocket" + newLine
                     + "Connection: Upgrade" + newLine
                     + "Sec-WebSocket-Accept: " + test1 + newLine + newLine
                     //+ "Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: chat, superchat" + newLine
                     //+ "Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13" + newLine
                     ;

                client.Send(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(response));
                var i = client.Receive(buffer); // wait for client to send a message
                string browserSent = GetDecodedData(buffer, i);
                Console.WriteLine("BrowserSent: " + browserSent);

                Console.WriteLine("=====================");
                //now send message to client
                client.Send(GetFrameFromString("This is message from server to client."));
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);//wait for message to be sent
            }
        }
        catch (SocketException exception)
        {
            throw exception;
        }
        finally
        {
            if (serverSocket != null && serverSocket.IsBound)
            {
                serverSocket.BeginAccept(null, 0, OnAccept, null);
            }
        }
    }

    public static T[] SubArray<T>(T[] data, int index, int length)
    {
        T[] result = new T[length];
        Array.Copy(data, index, result, 0, length);
        return result;
    }

    private static string AcceptKey(ref string key)
    {
        string longKey = key + guid;
        byte[] hashBytes = ComputeHash(longKey);
        return Convert.ToBase64String(hashBytes);
    }

    static SHA1 sha1 = SHA1CryptoServiceProvider.Create();
    private static byte[] ComputeHash(string str)
    {
        return sha1.ComputeHash(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(str));
    }

    //Needed to decode frame
    public static string GetDecodedData(byte[] buffer, int length)
    {
        byte b = buffer[1];
        int dataLength = 0;
        int totalLength = 0;
        int keyIndex = 0;

        if (b - 128 <= 125)
        {
            dataLength = b - 128;
            keyIndex = 2;
            totalLength = dataLength + 6;
        }

        if (b - 128 == 126)
        {
            dataLength = BitConverter.ToInt16(new byte[] { buffer[3], buffer[2] }, 0);
            keyIndex = 4;
            totalLength = dataLength + 8;
        }

        if (b - 128 == 127)
        {
            dataLength = (int)BitConverter.ToInt64(new byte[] { buffer[9], buffer[8], buffer[7], buffer[6], buffer[5], buffer[4], buffer[3], buffer[2] }, 0);
            keyIndex = 10;
            totalLength = dataLength + 14;
        }

        if (totalLength > length)
            throw new Exception("The buffer length is small than the data length");

        byte[] key = new byte[] { buffer[keyIndex], buffer[keyIndex + 1], buffer[keyIndex + 2], buffer[keyIndex + 3] };

        int dataIndex = keyIndex + 4;
        int count = 0;
        for (int i = dataIndex; i < totalLength; i++)
        {
            buffer[i] = (byte)(buffer[i] ^ key[count % 4]);
            count++;
        }

        return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer, dataIndex, dataLength);
    }

    //function to create  frames to send to client 
    /// <summary>
    /// Enum for opcode types
    /// </summary>
    public enum EOpcodeType
    {
        /* Denotes a continuation code */
        Fragment = 0,

        /* Denotes a text code */
        Text = 1,

        /* Denotes a binary code */
        Binary = 2,

        /* Denotes a closed connection */
        ClosedConnection = 8,

        /* Denotes a ping*/
        Ping = 9,

        /* Denotes a pong */
        Pong = 10
    }

    /// <summary>Gets an encoded websocket frame to send to a client from a string</summary>
    /// <param name="Message">The message to encode into the frame</param>
    /// <param name="Opcode">The opcode of the frame</param>
    /// <returns>Byte array in form of a websocket frame</returns>
    public static byte[] GetFrameFromString(string Message, EOpcodeType Opcode = EOpcodeType.Text)
    {
        byte[] response;
        byte[] bytesRaw = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(Message);
        byte[] frame = new byte[10];

        int indexStartRawData = -1;
        int length = bytesRaw.Length;

        frame[0] = (byte)(128 + (int)Opcode);
        if (length <= 125)
        {
            frame[1] = (byte)length;
            indexStartRawData = 2;
        }
        else if (length >= 126 && length <= 65535)
        {
            frame[1] = (byte)126;
            frame[2] = (byte)((length >> 8) & 255);
            frame[3] = (byte)(length & 255);
            indexStartRawData = 4;
        }
        else
        {
            frame[1] = (byte)127;
            frame[2] = (byte)((length >> 56) & 255);
            frame[3] = (byte)((length >> 48) & 255);
            frame[4] = (byte)((length >> 40) & 255);
            frame[5] = (byte)((length >> 32) & 255);
            frame[6] = (byte)((length >> 24) & 255);
            frame[7] = (byte)((length >> 16) & 255);
            frame[8] = (byte)((length >> 8) & 255);
            frame[9] = (byte)(length & 255);

            indexStartRawData = 10;
        }

        response = new byte[indexStartRawData + length];

        int i, reponseIdx = 0;

        //Add the frame bytes to the reponse
        for (i = 0; i < indexStartRawData; i++)
        {
            response[reponseIdx] = frame[i];
            reponseIdx++;
        }

        //Add the data bytes to the response
        for (i = 0; i < length; i++)
        {
            response[reponseIdx] = bytesRaw[i];
            reponseIdx++;
        }

        return response;
    }
}
}

Client html and javascript:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"_x000D_
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">_x000D_
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">_x000D_
<head>_x000D_
    <script type="text/javascript">_x000D_
        var socket = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8080/websession');_x000D_
        socket.onopen = function() {_x000D_
           // alert('handshake successfully established. May send data now...');_x000D_
     socket.send("Hi there from browser.");_x000D_
        };_x000D_
  socket.onmessage = function (evt) {_x000D_
                //alert("About to receive data");_x000D_
                var received_msg = evt.data;_x000D_
                alert("Message received = "+received_msg);_x000D_
            };_x000D_
        socket.onclose = function() {_x000D_
            alert('connection closed');_x000D_
        };_x000D_
    </script>_x000D_
</head>_x000D_
<body>_x000D_
</body>_x000D_
</html>