Book excerpt: Until recently, creating desktop-like applications in the browser meant using inefficient Ajax or Comet technologies to communicate with the server. With this practical guide, you’ll learn how to use WebSocket, a protocol that enables the client and server to communicate with each other on a single connection simultaneously. No more asynchronous communication or long polling! For developers with a good grasp of JavaScript (and perhaps Node.js), author Andrew Lombardi provides useful hands-on examples throughout the book to help you get up to speed with the WebSocket API. You’ll also learn how to use WebSocket with Transport Layer Security (TLS). Learn how to use WebSocket API events, messages, attributes, and methods within your client application Build bi-directional chat applications on the client and server with WebSocket as the communication layer Create a subprotocol over WebSocket for STOMP 1.0, the Simple Text Oriented Messaging Protocol Use options for older browsers that don’t natively support WebSocket Protect your WebSocket application against various attack vectors with TLS and other tools Debug applications by learning aspects of the WebSocket lifecycle