JSF 2.3 - Conditionally open/close a websocket channel

Read also:

WebSocket integration by Arjan Tijms

JSF 2.3 - The WebSocket Quickstart under Payara

JSF 2.3 - Explicitly open/close a websocket channel
JSF 2.3 - Firing one-time push when the web socket channel has been opened
JSF 2.3 - Multiple File Upload with HTML 5, AJAX and upload progress bar via web sockets

In this post, you will see how to conditionally open/close a channel. In order to accomplish this, we place the condition on the connected attribute via a ValueExpression. This attribute (condition) will be evaluated at each AJAX request, and if the value of this EL expression becomes false during an AJAX request then the push connection will explicitly be closed during oncomplete of that AJAX request.

In the JSF 2.3 - The WebSocket Quickstart under Payara post, we are pushing a message that indicates the current server time in format, hh:mm:ss. Let's re-write that example for limiting the pushing service only between 8-9 AM (PM).

The relevant part of the JSF page will look like this (notice the connected attribute at work):

<h:form>               

 <h:commandButton value="Clock" action="#{pushBean.clockAction()}">

  <f:ajax render="@form"/>

 </h:commandButton>

 Service status:

 <h:outputText value="#{pushBean.info}"/>

</h:form>

<f:websocket channel="clock"

             connected="#{pushBean.connected}"

             onopen="websocketOpenListener"

             onclose="websocketCloseListener"

             onmessage="socketListener" />     

On server-side we implement the condition logic as follows:

@Named

@ApplicationScoped

public class PushBean implements Serializable {

 private static final Logger LOG = Logger.getLogger(PushBean.class.getName());

 @Inject

 @Push(channel = "clock")

 private PushContext push;

 private boolean connected;

 private String info;

 private String time;

 private void pingClock() {

  Calendar now = Calendar.getInstance();

  int hour = now.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);

  connected = (hour >= 8) && (hour < 9);

  if (connected) {

      time = now.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY) + ":"

              + now.get(Calendar.MINUTE) + ":" + now.get(Calendar.SECOND);

      info = "Service is available";

  } else {

      time = null;

      info = "Service is available only between 8-9 AM/PM";

  }

 }

 public void clockAction() {

  pingClock();

  if (time != null) {

      LOG.log(Level.INFO, "Time: {0}", time);

      push.send(time);

  }

 }

 public boolean isConnected() {

  return connected;

 }

 public void setConnected(boolean connected) {

  this.connected = connected;

 }

 public String getInfo() {

  return info;

 }

}

So, the connected attribute will be set initially to false (default it is true meaning auto-connect). Furthermore, the attribute is evaluated to true only between the 8:00:00 - 8:59:59 server-time. This means that the first AJAX request that take place after 8:00:00 and before 8:59:59 will open the connection, while the first AJAX request that take place after 8:59:59 will close the connection.

The figures below shows a flow of usage:

-request fired before 8:00:00

-request fired after 8:00:00 opens the connection

- between 8:00:00 and 8:59:59 the connection is open

-after 8:59:59, the first request close the connection

The complete application is available here.