Node.js: Simple TCP Server & Client and Promisify the Client

In this post, you will see an example of simple TCP server and client in traditional javascript way and in ES6 way. Node.js has net module which provides an asynchronous network API for creating stream-based TCP or IPC servers and clients. We are going to use it to implement TCP server and client. This post is updated with Node v6.11.2.

TCP Server:

Here is an example of TCP server in Node.js:

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var net = require('net');   // Configuration parameters var HOST = 'localhost'; var PORT = 1234;   // Create Server instance var server = net.createServer(onClientConnected);    server.listen(PORT, HOST, function() {    console.log('server listening on %j', server.address()); });   function onClientConnected(sock) {    var remoteAddress = sock.remoteAddress + ':' + sock.remotePort;   console.log('new client connected: %s', remoteAddress);     sock.on('data', function(data) {     console.log('%s Says: %s', remoteAddress, data);     sock.write(data);     sock.write(' exit');   });   sock.on('close',  function () {     console.log('connection from %s closed', remoteAddress);   });   sock.on('error', function (err) {     console.log('Connection %s error: %s', remoteAddress, err.message);   }); };

TCP Client:

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var net = require('net');   var HOST = 'localhost'; var PORT = 1234;   var client = new net.Socket();   client.connect(PORT, HOST, function() {     console.log('Client connected to: ' + HOST + ':' + PORT);     // Write a message to the socket as soon as the client is connected, the server will receive it as message from the client     client.write('Hello World!');   });   client.on('data', function(data) {        console.log('Client received: ' + data);      if (data.toString().endsWith('exit')) {        client.destroy();     } });   // Add a 'close' event handler for the client socket client.on('close', function() {     console.log('Client closed'); });   client.on('error', function(err) {     console.error(err); });

Output:

Server:

D:\node>node server.js
server listening on {"address":"127.0.0.1","family":"IPv4","port":1234}
new client connected: 127.0.0.1:62682
127.0.0.1:62682 Says: Hello World!
connection from 127.0.0.1:62682 closed

Client:

D:\node>node client.js
Client connected to: localhost:1234
Client received: Hello World!
Client received:  exit
Client closed

ES6 Way:

Let’s update the code in ES6 way. It is assumed you are familiar with following ES6 features:
Class
Arrow Functions
Template literals

TCP Server:

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'use strict';   // load the Node.js TCP library const net = require('net'); const PORT = 1234; const HOST = 'localhost';   class Server {  constructor(port, address) {   this.port = port || PORT;   this.address = address || HOST;      this.init();  }    init() {   let server = this;     let onClientConnected = (sock) => {      let clientName = `${sock.remoteAddress}:${sock.remotePort}`;    console.log(`new client connected: ${clientName}`);      sock.on('data', (data) => {     console.log(`${clientName} Says: ${data}`);     sock.write(data);     sock.write('exit');    });      sock.on('close', () => {     console.log(`connection from ${clientName} closed`);    });      sock.on('error', (err) => {     console.log(`Connection ${clientName} error: ${err.message}`);    });   }     server.connection = net.createServer(onClientConnected);     server.connection.listen(PORT, HOST, function() {    console.log(`Server started at: ${HOST}:${PORT}`);   });  } } module.exports = Server;

To test server, use following code in another file and run it

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const Server = require('./server'); new Server();

TCP Client:

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'use strict';   const net = require('net'); const PORT = 1234; const HOST = 'localhost';   class Client {  constructor(port, address) {   this.socket = new net.Socket();   this.address = address || HOST;   this.port = port || PORT;   this.init();  }  init() {   var client = this;     client.socket.connect(client.port, client.address, () => {    console.log(`Client connected to: ${client.address} :  ${client.port}`);    client.socket.write('Hello World!');   });     client.socket.on('data', (data) => {    console.log(`Client received: ${data}`);    if (data.toString().endsWith('exit')) {     client.socket.destroy();    }   });     client.socket.on('close', () => {    console.log('Client closed');   });     client.socket.on('error', (err) => {    console.error(err);   });    } } module.exports = Client;

To test client, use following code in another file and run it

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const Client =require('./client'); new Client();

Output:

Server:

D:\node>node serverTest.js
Server started at: localhost:1234
new client connected: 127.0.0.1:62846
127.0.0.1:62846 Says: Hello World!
connection from 127.0.0.1:62846 closed

Client:

D:\node>node clientTest.js
Client connected to: localhost :  1234
Client received: Hello World!
Client received: exit
Client closed

Promisify the Client:

In your Node application, you might need to trigger server on a particular event like on button click and you want to get ES6 Promise object for neat implementation.

See Also: JavaScript Promises: Understanding Error Handling with Example

Let’s create a method to write socket on client side and returns Promise object.

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'use strict';   const net = require('net'); const PORT = 1234; const HOST = 'localhost';   class Client {  constructor(port, address) {   this.socket = new net.Socket();   this.address = address || HOST;   this.port = port || PORT;   this.init();  }    init() {   var client = this;   client.socket.connect(client.port, client.address, () => {    console.log(`Client connected to: ${client.address} :  ${client.port}`);   });     client.socket.on('close', () => {    console.log('Client closed');   });  }    sendMessage(message) {   var client = this;   return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {      client.socket.write(message);      client.socket.on('data', (data) => {     resolve(data);     if (data.toString().endsWith('exit')) {      client.socket.destroy();     }    });      client.socket.on('error', (err) => {     reject(err);    });     });  } } module.exports = Client;

sendMessage method returns Promise object. Let’s see an example how to use it:

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const Client =require('./client'); const client = new Client(); client.sendMessage('A') .then((data)=> { console.log(`Received: ${data}`);  return client.sendMessage('B');} ) .then((data)=> { console.log(`Received: ${data}`);  return client.sendMessage('C');} ) .then((data)=> { console.log(`Received: ${data}`);  return client.sendMessage('exit');} ) .catch((err) =>{ console.error(err); })

To test, remove following line in Server code

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sock.write('exit');

Now exit is done by our code.

Output:

Server:

D:\node>node serverTest.js
Server started at: localhost:1234
new client connected: 127.0.0.1:63007
127.0.0.1:63007 Says: A
127.0.0.1:63007 Says: B
127.0.0.1:63007 Says: C
127.0.0.1:63007 Says: exit
connection from 127.0.0.1:63007 closed

Client:

D:\node>node clientTest.js
Client connected to: localhost :  1234
Received: A
Received: B
Received: C
Client closed

Conclusion:

This post has an example of TCP server and client in traditional javascript and ES6 way. Also, an example of promisifying TCP client for better architecture.

Enjoy Node.js and ES6 !!