websocket++ using fastcgi++'s session example

Question

I'm brand new to c++ and know next to nothing about web protocols or websockets, so this may seem ridiculous.

I make websites that are 100% ajax and want to incorporate websockets. Fastcgi++ is everything I could hope for for the ajax demands, but it doesn't have websockets, and I chose websocket++ over libwebsockets since websocket++ is more or less a simple #include, so I assumed that I could incorporate it into fastcgi++.

I think I've figured out fastcgi++, and it looks like most of the action happens in Fastcgipp::Request then Fastcgipp::Http::Sessions for session data http://www.nongnu.org/fastcgipp/doc/2.1/a00005.html; however, I think I have to do the same thing with websocket++'s server::handler for handling the websocket https://github.com/zaphoyd/websocketpp/wiki/Creating-Applications-using-WebSocket--, and now I'm lost at sea.

Enter my complete inexperience with c++: I think I have to use virtual inheritance, but I have no idea. Also, if I could even properly "subclass" both, how do I make sure that they don't run over each other?

Please show me a basic example of how websocket++ can use fastcgi++'s session management.

Answer 1

A WebSocket connection cannot be processed by an HTTP request/response workflow. In order to use something like fastcgi++ with both regular HTTP requests and with WebSocket requests it would need to have some way of recognizing a WebSocket handshake and piping that off to another handler instead of processing it as HTTP. I don't see an obvious pass through mode of that sort in its documentation, but I could be missing something.

If such a feature exists, WebSocket++ can be used in stream mode where it disables all of its network elements and just processes streams of bytes piped in from another networking library.

Some alternatives:

• WebSocket++ supports HTTP pass through. This is essentially the opposite of what is described above. WebSocket++ would be used as the networking layer. It would process incoming WebSocket connections and would pass off HTTP requests to some other subsystem.
• WebSocket++ and fastcgi++ could be run on different ports or different hostnames. This could be done in the same program or separate programs. With client side requests directed to the appropriate host/port.

Disclaimer: I am the author of WebSocket++