socket.io-compact-parser

A super efficient, high-performance binary parser for Socket.IO based on the MessagePack specification.

This parser is designed to be a modern, lightweight replacement for the default JSON parser, significantly reducing the payload size of your real-time communication.

Current State & Roadmap

Current version: 1.0.0

• Fully implements the Socket.IO Parser API.
• Powered by notepack.io for ultra-fast MessagePack encoding/decoding.
• Bundles @socket.io/component-emitter for a seamless browser experience.
• Supports both ES Modules (ESM) and CommonJS (CJS).

Roadmap:

• Implementation of custom dictionary-based text compression to further reduce string overhead.
• Integration with native browser CompressionStream API for large payloads.

Installation

Node.js (npm)

npm install socket.io-compact-parser

Browser (CDN)

You can include the parser directly in your HTML via unpkg. It is bundled as a UMD module, making it available as a global variable.

<script src="https://unpkg.com/socket.io-compact-parser/dist/browser.min.js"></script>

Usage

Node.js Server (ESM)

import { Server } from "socket.io";
import CompactParser from "socket.io-compact-parser";

const io = new Server(server, {
  parser: CompactParser
});

Client (Module)

import { io } from "socket.io-client";
import CompactParser from "socket.io-compact-parser";

const socket = io({
  parser: CompactParser
});

Client (Browser Global)

<script src="/socket.io/socket.io.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/socket.io-compact-parser/dist/browser.min.js"></script>
<script>
  const socket = io({
    parser: SocketIOCompactParser
  });
</script>

Why use this parser?

The default Socket.IO parser uses JSON, which is text-based and can become quite large when sending complex objects or binary data. By using MessagePack via socket.io-compact-parser, your data is converted into a compact binary format, leading to:

• Lower bandwidth usage.
• Faster serialization/deserialization.
• Better handling of binary data (Buffers/Uint8Arrays).

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Contributors

• Wilco Joosen (computer-wilco) - Lead Developer