Allow simpler direct data access

[r1chardj0n3s]

The current module makes working directly with the raw data coming from the socket tricky. I would like to add an option to not automatically JSON encode/decode the data being sent and retrieved. This would be defaulted to enabling the parsing, for backwards compatibility.

[wilk]

JSON is good for sending complex data through the network.
What's the alternative for non-JSON encoded data?
Which is the encoding that ng-websocket needs to send data with the disabled JSON flag?

[r1chardj0n3s]

Hi, I agree JSON is a good idea, but in my use case the websocket is a terminal connection to a virtual machine serial console - raw terminal data :)

[wilk]

Ok but how do you send complex data through the network?

For instance, this is how ng-websocket sends data via websocket:

var ws = new WebSocket(url),
      complexData = {a:10, b:'hello', c:{ca:20, cb: 'world'}, d: ['a', 'b', 10, {da: 15}]};

ws.send(JSON.stringify(complexData));

What's your way?

[r1chardj0n3s]

My current use-case is just the console connection, like so:

      var socket = $websocket.$new(scope.connection.url, ['binary', 'base64']);
      ...
      term.on('data', function (data) {
        socket.$$ws.send(data);
      });
      socket.$on('$message', function (message) {
        if (message instanceof Blob) {
          var f = new FileReader();
          f.onload = function () {term.write(f.result); };
          f.readAsText(message);
        } else {
          term.write(message);
        }
      });

(from https://github.com/r1chardj0n3s/angboard/blob/master/app/scripts/directives/console.js)