websocket_core 1.2.0

Core WebSocket Backend for Dart — explicit, performant, no magic abstractions. Pure dart:io WebSocket with session management, reconnection, rooms and protocol versioning.

1.2.0

• Major DX Improvements:

  • Request-Response (RPC) Pattern: Added client.request() method that returns a Future. Clients can now await responses from the server, behaving like a standard HTTP call but over the persistent WebSocket connection.
  • Auto-Reply Handler: Server handlers can now return Future<dynamic> (e.g., a Map or List). If a value is returned, the server automatically sends it back to the client as a response. This eliminates the need to manually construct WsMessage for simple replies.
  • Controllers: Introduced WsController abstract class and server.registerController() to better organize route logic in larger applications.

• Client:

  • Added _pendingRequests management to WsClient.
  • Added internal UuidGenerator for correlation IDs in requests.
  • Updated WsClient to automatically match responses using correlationId.

• Server:

  • Updated WsHandler typedef to allow dynamic return types.
  • Updated WsDispatcher to process return values and automatically reply to the client using the incoming message's correlationId.

• Documentation:

  • Added Lifecycle Diagram using MermaidJS to visualize Session vs Connection.
  • Added Deployment Guide for Nginx and Docker.
  • Added Error Codes reference table.
  • Updated Cookbook with RPC and Controller examples.

1.1.0

• New Features:
  • Detached Mode: start(bindServer: false) allows using WsServer with external HTTP servers (like shelf or dart:io).
  • Added handleRequest(HttpRequest) to manually process WebSocket upgrades.

1.0.0

• Initial release of websocket_core.
• Core Features:
  • Pure dart:io WebSocket transport (zero external dependencies).
  • Explicit connection and session management (Session > Connection model).
  • Protocol versioning support.
  • Logical rooms system tracking sessions instead of sockets.
  • Pluggable authentication interface.
  • Configurable Heartbeat (ping/pong) and timeout detection.
  • Robust reconnection handling with state preservation.
  • Event Dispatcher with middleware support.
  • Rate Limiting middleware for abuse protection.
  • Typed exceptions for better error handling.
  • Interfaces for scalability (Pub/Sub and Metrics logic).