# Websockets - Crow
Websockets are a way of connecting a client and a server without the request response nature of HTTP.

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# Websockets

Websockets are a way of connecting a client and a server without the request response nature of HTTP.

## Routes

To create a websocket in Crow, you need a websocket route.
A websocket route differs from a normal route quite a bit. It uses a slightly altered `CROW_WEBSOCKET_ROUTE(app, "/url")` macro, which is then followed by a series of methods (with handlers inside) for each event. These are (sorted by order of execution):

- `onaccept([&](const crow::request& req, void** userdata){handler code goes here})`
- `onopen([&](crow::websocket::connection& conn){handler code goes here})`
- `onmessage([&](crow::websocket::connection& conn, const std::string& message, bool is_binary){handler code goes here})`
- `onerror([&](crow::websocket::connection& conn, const std::string& error_message){handler code goes here})`
- `onclose([&](crow::websocket::connection& conn, const std::string& reason){handler code goes here})`

Note

`onaccept` must return a boolean. In case `false` is returned, the connection is shut down, deleted, and no further communication is done.

Warning

By default, Crow allows clients to send unmasked websocket messages. This is useful for debugging, but goes against the protocol specifications. Production Crow applications should enforce the protocol by adding `#define CROW_ENFORCE_WS_SPEC` to their source code.

These event methods and their handlers can be chained. The full route should look similar to this:

    CROW_WEBSOCKET_ROUTE(app, "/ws")
        .onopen([&](crow::websocket::connection& conn){
                do_something();
                })
        .onclose([&](crow::websocket::connection& conn, const std::string& reason){
                do_something();
                })
        .onmessage([&](crow::websocket::connection& /*conn*/, const std::string& data, bool is_binary){
                    if (is_binary)
                        do_something(data);
                    else
                        do_something_else(data);
                });

## Maximum payload size

master

The maximum payload size that a connection accepts can be adjusted either globally by using `app.websocket_max_payload(<value in bytes>)` or per route by using `CROW_WEBSOCKET_ROUTE(app, "/url").max_payload(<value in bytes>)`. In case a message was sent that exceeded the limit. The connection would be shut down and `onerror` would be triggered.

Note

By default, this limit is disabled. To disable the global setting in specific routes, you only need to call `CROW_WEBSOCKET_ROUTE(app, "/url").max_payload(UINT64_MAX)`.

For more info about websocket routes go here.

For more info about websocket connections go here.