How can I send a message on connect event (SockJS, STOMP, Spring)? - spring

Question

I am connection through SockJS over STOMP to my Spring backend. Everything work fine, the configuration works well for all browsers etc. However, I cannot find a way to send an initial message. The scenario would be as follows:
The client connects to the topic
function connect() {
var socket = new SockJS('http://localhost:8080/myEndpoint');
stompClient = Stomp.over(socket);
stompClient.connect({}, function(frame) {
setConnected(true);
console.log('Connected: ' + frame);
stompClient.subscribe('/topic/notify', function(message){
showMessage(JSON.parse(message.body).content);
});
});
}
and the backend config looks more or less like this:
#Configuration
#EnableWebSocketMessageBroker
public class WebSocketAppConfig extends AbstractWebSocketMessageBrokerConfigurer {
...
#Override
public void registerStompEndpoints(final StompEndpointRegistry registry) {
registry.addEndpoint("/myEndpoint").withSockJS();
}
I want to send to the client an automatic reply from the backend (on the connection event) so that I can already provide him with some dataset (e.g. read sth from the db) without the need for him (the client) to send a GET request (or any other). So to sum up, I just want to send him a message on the topic with the SimMessagingTemplate object just after he connected.
Usually I do it the following way, e.g. in a REST controller, when the template is already autowired:
#Autowired
private SimpMessagingTemplate template;
...
template.convertAndSend(TOPIC, new Message("it works!"));
How to achieve this on connect event?
UPDATE
I have managed to make it work. However, I am still a bit confused with the configuration. I will show here 2 configurations how the initial message can be sent:
1) First solution
JS part
stompClient.subscribe('/app/pending', function(message){
showMessage(JSON.parse(message.body).content);
});
stompClient.subscribe('/topic/incoming', function(message){
showMessage(JSON.parse(message.body).content);
});
Java part
#Controller
public class WebSocketBusController {
#SubscribeMapping("/pending")
Configuration
#Override
public void configureMessageBroker(final MessageBrokerRegistry config) {
config.enableSimpleBroker("/topic");
config.setApplicationDestinationPrefixes("/app");
}
... and other calls
template.convertAndSend("/topic/incoming", outgoingMessage);
2) Second solution
JS part
stompClient.subscribe('/topic/incoming', function(message){
showMessage(JSON.parse(message.body).content);
})
Java part
#Controller
public class WebSocketBusController {
#SubscribeMapping("/topic/incoming")
Configuration
#Override
public void configureMessageBroker(final MessageBrokerRegistry config) {
config.enableSimpleBroker("/topic");
// NO APPLICATION PREFIX HERE
}
... and other calls
template.convertAndSend("/topic/incoming", outgoingMessage);
SUMMARY:
The first case uses two subscriptions - this I wanted to avoid and thought this can be managed with one only.
The second one however has no prefix for application. But at least I can have a single subscription to listen on the provided topic as well as send initial message.

Answer 1

If you just want to send a message to the client upon connection, use an appropriate ApplicationListener:
#Component
public class StompConnectedEvent implements ApplicationListener<SessionConnectedEvent> {
private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(StompConnectedEvent.class);
#Autowired
private Controller controller;
#Override
public void onApplicationEvent(SessionConnectedEvent event) {
log.debug("Client connected.");
// you can use a controller to send your msg here
}
}

Answer 2

You can't do that on connect, however the #SubscribeMapping does the stuff in that case.
You just need to mark the service method with that annotation and it returns a result to the subscribe function.
From Spring Reference Manual:
An #SubscribeMapping annotation can also be used to map subscription requests to #Controller methods. It is supported on the method level, but can also be combined with a type level #MessageMapping annotation that expresses shared mappings across all message handling methods within the same controller.
By default the return value from an #SubscribeMapping method is sent as a message directly back to the connected client and does not pass through the broker. This is useful for implementing request-reply message interactions; for example, to fetch application data when the application UI is being initialized. Or alternatively an #SubscribeMapping method can be annotated with #SendTo in which case the resulting message is sent to the "brokerChannel" using the specified target destination.
UPDATE
Referring to this example: https://github.com/revelfire/spring4Test how would that be possible to send anything when the line 24 of the index.html is invoked: stompClient.subscribe('/user/queue/socket/responses' ... from the spring controllers?
Well, look like this:
#SubscribeMapping("/queue/socket/responses")
public List<Employee> list() {
return getEmployees();
}
The Stomp client part remains the same.