one-coap

node-coap
=====

![Build
Status](https://travis-ci.org/mcollina/node-coap)

__node-coap__ is a client and server library for CoAP modeled after the http module.

* Introduction
* Installation
* Basic Example
* Proxy features
* API
* Contributing
* License & copyright



Introduction

What is CoAP?
> Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a software protocol
intended to be used in very simple electronics devices that allows them
to communicate interactively over the Internet. - Wikipedia

This library follows:
* draft-18 of CoAP.
* observe-11
for the observe specification.
* block-14 for
the blockwise specification.

It does not parse the protocol but it use
CoAP-packet instead.

If you need a command line interface for CoAP, check out
coap-cli.

node-coap is an OPEN Open Source Project, see the Contributing section to find out what this means.

Installation

``
$ npm install coap --save
`




Basic Example

The following example opens a UDP server and sends a
CoAP message to it:

`js
var coap = require('coap')
, server = coap.createServer()

server.on('request', function(req, res) {
res.end('Hello ' + req.url.split('/')[1] + '\n')
})

// the default CoAP port is 5683
server.listen(function() {
var req = coap.request('coap://localhost/Matteo')

req.on('response', function(res) {
res.pipe(process.stdout)
res.on('end', function() {
process.exit(0)
})
})

req.end()
})
`

or on IPv6:

`js
var coap = require('coap')
, server = coap.createServer({ type: 'udp6' })

server.on('request', function(req, res) {
res.end('Hello ' + req.url.split('/')[1] + '\n')
})

// the default CoAP port is 5683
server.listen(function() {
var req = coap.request('coap://[::1]/Matteo')

req.on('response', function(res) {
res.pipe(process.stdout)
res.on('end', function() {
process.exit(0)
})
})

req.end()
})
`



Proxy features


The library now comes with the ability to behave as a COAP proxy for other COAP endpoints. In order to activate the
proxy features, create the server with the proxy option activated.

A proxy-enabled service behaves as usual for all requests, except for those coming with the Proxy-Uri option. This
requests will be redirected to the URL specified in the option, and the response from this option will, in turn, be
redirected to the caller. In this case, the proxy server handler is not called at all (redirection is automatic).

You can find an example of how this mechanism works in examples/proxy.js. This example features one target server
that writes all the information it receives along with the origin port and a proxy server. Once the servers are up:

- Ten requests are sent directly to the server (without reusing ports)
- Ten requests are sent through the proxy (without reusing ports)

The example shows that the target server sees the last ten requests as coming from the same port (the proxy), while the
first ten come from different ports.




API

* coap.request()
* coap.createServer()
* IncomingMessage
* OutgoingMessage
* ObserveReadStream
* ObserveWriteStream
* coap.registerOption()
* coap.ignoreOption()
* coap.registerFormat()
* coap.Agent
* coap.globalAgent
* coap.globalAgentIPv6
* coap.updateTiming
* coap.defaultTiming

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

Execute a CoAP request. url can be a string or an object.
If it is a string, it is parsed using require('url').parse(url).
If it is an object:

- host: A domain name or IP address of the server to issue the request
to.
Defaults to 'localhost'.
- hostname: To support url.parse() hostname is preferred over
host
- port: Port of remote server. Defaults to 5683.
- method: A string specifying the CoAP request method. Defaults to
'GET'.
- confirmable: send a CoAP confirmable message (CON), defaults to
true.
- observe: send a CoAP observe message, allowing the streaming of
updates from the server.
- pathname: Request path. Defaults to '/'. Should not include query string
- query: Query string. Defaults to ''. Should not include the path,
e.g. 'a=b&c=d'
- options: object that includes the CoAP options, for each key-value
pair the setOption() will be called.
- headers: alias for options, but it works only if options is
missing.
- agent: Controls Agent behavior. Possible values:
* undefined (default): use globalAgent, a single socket for all
concurrent requests.
* Agent object: explicitly use the passed in Agent.
* false: opts out of socket reuse with an Agent, each request uses a
new UDP socket.
- proxyUri: adds the Proxy-Uri option to the request, so if the request is sent to a
proxy (or a server with proxy features) the request will be forwarded to the selected URI.
The expected value is the URI of the target. E.g.: 'coap://192.168.5.13:6793'
- multicast: If set to true, it forces request to be multicast. Several response events
will be emitted for each received response. It's user's responsibility to set proper multicast host parameter
in request configuration. Default false.
- multicastTimeout: time to wait for multicast reponses in milliseconds. It is only applicable in case if multicast is true. Default 20000 ms.
- retrySend: overwrite the default maxRetransmit, useful when you want to use a custom retry count for a request


coap.request() returns an instance of href='#incoming'>OutgoingMessage.
If you need
to add a payload, just pipe into it.
Otherwise, you __must__ call end to submit the request.

If hostname is a IPv6 address then the payload is sent through a
IPv6 UDP socket, dubbed in node.js as 'udp6'.

#### Event: 'response'

function (response) { }

Emitted when a response is received.
response is
an instance of href='#incoming'>IncomingMessage.

If the observe flag is specified, the 'response' event
will return an instance of
ObserveReadStream.
Which represent the updates coming from the server, according to the
observe spec.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

Returns a new CoAP Server object.

The requestListener is a function which is automatically
added to the 'request' event.

The constructor can be given an optional options object, containing one of the following options:
* type: indicates if the server should create IPv4 connections (udp4) or IPv6 connections (udp6). Defaults
to udp4.
* proxy: indicates that the server should behave like a proxy for incoming requests containing the Proxy-Uri header.
An example of how the proxy feature works, refer to the example in the /examples folder. Defaults to false.
* multicastAddress: Optional. Use this in order to force server to listen on multicast address
* multicastInterface: Optional. Use this in order to force server to listen on multicast interface. This is only applicable
if multicastAddress is set. If absent, server will try to listen multicastAddress on all available interfaces
* piggybackReplyMs: set the number of milliseconds to wait for a
piggyback response. Default 50.
* sendAcksForNonConfirmablePackets: Optional. Use this to suppress sending ACK messages for non-confirmable packages

#### Event: 'request'

function (request, response) { }

Emitted each time there is a request.
request is an instance of href='#incoming'>IncomingMessage and response is
an instance of href='#outgoing'>OutgoingMessage.

If the observe flag is specified, the response variable
will return an instance of ObserveWriteStream.
Each write(data) to the stream will cause a new observe message sent
to the client.

#### server.listen(port, [address], [callback])

Begin accepting connections on the specified port and hostname. If the
hostname is omitted, the server will accept connections directed to any
IPv4 or IPv6 address by passing null as the address to the underlining socket.

To listen
to a unix socket, supply a filename instead of port and hostname.

A custom socket object can be passed as a port parameter. This custom socket
must be an instance of EventEmitter which emits message, error and
close events and implements send(msg, offset, length, port, address, callback)
function, just like dgram.Socket.
In such case, the custom socket must be pre-configured manually, i.e. CoAP server
will not bind, add multicast groups or do any other configuration.

This function is asynchronous.

#### server.close([callback])

Closes the server.

This function is synchronous, but it provides an asynchronous callback
for convenience.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

An OutgoingMessage object is returned by coap.request or
emitted by the coap.createServer 'response' event.
It may be used to access response status, headers and data.

It implements the Writable
Stream interface, as well as the
following additional properties, methods and events.

#### message.code

The CoAP code ot the message.
It is HTTP-compatible, as it can be passed 404.

#### message.statusCode

(same as message.code)


#### message.setOption(name, value)

Sets a single option value.
All the options are in binary format, except for
'Content-Format', 'Accept', 'Max-Age' and 'ETag'.
See registerOption
to know how to register more.

Use an array of buffers
if you need to send multiple options with the same name.

If you need to pass a custom option, pass a string containing a
a number as key and a Buffer as value.

Example:

message.setOption("Content-Format", "application/json");

or

message.setOption("555", [new Buffer('abcde'),new Buffer('ghi')]);

setOption is also aliased as setHeader for HTTP API
compatibility.

Also, 'Content-Type' is aliased to 'Content-Format' for HTTP
compatibility.

Since v0.7.0, this library supports blockwise transfers, you can trigger
them by adding a req.setOption('Block2', new Buffer([0x2])) to the
output of request.

See the
spec
for all the possible options.

#### message.reset()
Returns a Reset COAP Message to the sender. The RST message will appear as an empty message with code 0.00 and the
reset flag set to true to the caller. This action ends the interaction with the caller.

#### message.writeHead(code, headers)
Functions somewhat like http's writeHead() function. If code is does not match the CoAP code mask of #.##, it is coerced into this mask. headers is an object with keys being the header names, and values being the header values.

#### message.on('timeout', function(err) { })
Emitted when the request does not receive a response or acknowledgement within a transaction lifetime.
Error object with message No reply in XXXs and retransmitTimeout property is provided as a parameter.

#### message.on('error', function(err) { })
Emitted when an error occurs. This can be due to socket error, confirmable message timeout or any other generic error.
Error object is provided, that describes the error.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

An IncomingMessage object is created by coap.createServer or
coap.request
and passed as the first argument to the 'request' and 'response' event
respectively. It may be used to access response status, headers and data.

It implements the Readable
Stream interface, as well as the
following additional methods and properties.

#### message.payload

The full payload of the message, as a Buffer.

#### message.options

All the CoAP options, as parsed by
CoAP-packet.

All the options are in binary format, except for
'Content-Format', 'Accept' and 'ETag'.
See registerOption() to know how to register more.

See the
spec
for all the possible options.

#### message.headers

All the CoAP options that can be represented in a human-readable format.
Currently they are only 'Content-Format', 'Accept' and
'ETag'.
See to know how to register more.

Also, 'Content-Type' is aliased to 'Content-Format' for HTTP
compatibility.

#### message.code

The CoAP code of the message.

#### message.method

The method of the message, it might be
'GET', 'POST', 'PUT', 'DELETE' or null.
It is null if the CoAP code cannot be parsed into a method, i.e. it is
not in the '0.' range.

#### message.url

The URL of the request, e.g.
'coap://localhost:12345/hello/world?a=b&b=c'.

#### message.rsinfo

The sender informations, as emitted by the socket.
See the dgram docs for details

#### message.outSocket

Information about the socket used for the communication (address and port).


-------------------------------------------------------



$3

An ObserveReadStream object is created by coap.request to handle
_observe_ requests.
It is passed as the first argument to the 'response' event.
It may be used to access response status, headers and data as they are
sent by the server.
__Each new observe message from the server is a new 'data' event__.

It implements the Readable
Stream
and IncomingMessage interfaces, as well as the
following additional methods, events and properties.

#### close()

Closes the stream.

#### message.rsinfo

The sender's information, as emitted by the socket.
See the dgram docs for details

#### message.outSocket

Information about the socket used for the communication (address and port).

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

An ObserveWriteStream object is
emitted by the coap.createServer 'response' event as a response
object.
It may be used to set response status, headers and stream changing data
to the client.

Each new write() call is a __new message__ being sent to the client.

It implements the Writable
Stream
and OutgoingMessage interfaces, as well as the
following additional methods and properties.

#### Event: 'finish'

Emitted when the client is not sending 'acks' anymore for the sent
messages.

#### reset()
Returns a Reset COAP Message to the sender. The RST message will appear as an empty message with code 0.00 and the
reset flag set to true to the caller. This action ends the interaction with the caller.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

Register a new option to be converted to string and added to the
message.headers.
toBinary is a function that accept a string and returns a Buffer.
toString is a function that accept a Buffer and returns a String.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

Explicitly ignore an option; useful for compatibility with http-based
modules.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

Register a new format to be interpreted and sent in CoAP
Content-Format option.
Each format is identified by a number, see the Content-Format
registry.

These are the defaults formats:
`js
registerFormat('text/plain', 0)
registerFormat('application/link-format', 40)
registerFormat('application/xml', 41)
registerFormat('application/octet-stream', 42)
registerFormat('application/exi', 47)
registerFormat('application/json', 50)
`

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

An Agent encapsulate an UDP Socket. It uses a combination of messageId
and token to distinguish between the different exchanges.
The socket will auto-close itself when no more exchange are in place.

By default, no UDP socket are open, and it is opened on demand to send
the messages.

Opts is an optional object with the following optional properties:

* type: 'udp4' or 'udp6' if we want an Agent on an IPv4 or IPv6
UDP socket.

* socket: use existing socket instead of creating a new one.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

The default Agent for IPv4.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

The default Agent for IPv6.

-------------------------------------------------------



$3

You can update the CoAP timing settings, take a look at the examples:

`js
var coapTiming = {
ackTimeout:0.25,
ackRandomFactor: 1.0,
maxRetransmit: 3,
maxLatency: 2,
piggybackReplyMs: 10
};
coap.updateTiming(coapTiming);
``

-------------------------------------------------------

$3

Reset the CoAP timings to the default values

Contributing

__node-coap__ is an OPEN Open Source Project. This means that:

> Individuals making significant and valuable contributions are given commit-access to the project to contribute as they see fit. This project is more like an open wiki than a standard guarded open source project.

See the CONTRIBUTING.md file for more details.

Contributors

__node-coap__ is only possible due to the excellent work of the following contributors:

Matteo Collina	GitHub/mcollina	Twitter/@matteocollina
Nguyen Quoc Dinh	GitHub/nqd	Twitter/@nqdinh
Daniel Moran Jimenez	GitHub/dmoranj	Twitter/@erzeneca
Ignacio Martín	href="https://github.com/neich">GitHub/neich	Twitter/@natxupitxu
Christopher Hiller	GitHub/boneskull	Twitter/@b0neskull

LICENSE

MIT, see LICENSE.md file.