Driving SPDY Server Push

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Last night, I hacked together an integration test for SPDY server push in node-spdy. Today I would like to use that (and the non-push integration test) to drive an implementation that works.

First up, I try including a "push" callback among the server options:

    options = {
      push: function(req, c, createPushStream) {
        var push_stream = createPushStream(req, c, "http://example.com/foo");
        push_stream.write("push data");
        push_stream.end();
      },
//...
    };

Those options are fed into the createServer function in the vows.js topic:

vows.describe('SPDY/basic test').addBatch({
  'spdy.createServer': {
    topic: function() {
      return spdy.createServer(options);
    }

The request, connect middleware object and createPushStream function passed in feel heavy handed. An arity of three is never a good thing. Still, it is driven by working code:

Response.prototype._push = function(filename, url) {
  var push_stream = createPushStream(this.cframe, this.c, url);

  push_stream.write(fs.readFileSync(filename));

  // TODO: Combine FIN & write? (once push stream is working)
  push_stream.end();
};

So maybe that will be ok...?

At any rate, I implement with:

Response.prototype._pushStuff = function() {
  if (this._pushed) return false;
  if (this.streamID != 1) return false;

  this.pushStuff(this.cframe, this.c, createPushStream);
  // this._push("pub/style.css", "https://localhost:8081/style.css");
  // this._push("pub/spdy.jpg", "https://localhost:8081/spdy.jpg");

  this._pushed = true;
};

If the options do not include a push callback, then an empty anonymous function is called:

var Response = exports.Response = function(cframe, c) {
//...
  this.pushStuff = function() {};
//...
};

With that, I have both integration tests (push and non-push) passing. Yay!

But that callback with three parameters is bugging me. I would much rather have something that is closer to the now commented out _push method:

  // this._push("pub/style.css", "https://localhost:8081/style.css");
  // this._push("pub/spdy.jpg", "https://localhost:8081/spdy.jpg");

Hrm... I wonder if I call the push callback with just the response object, might that work? It is worth a try, if nothing else. In the Response class, I switch up the push callback to:

Response.prototype._pushStuff = function() {
  if (this._pushed) return false;
  if (this.streamID != 1) return false;

  this.pushStuff(this);

  this._pushed = true;
};

An arity of one is much nicer. But how would the callback now look? Actually not too bad:

      push: function(pusher) {
        pusher.push("pub/style.css", "http://example.com/foo");
      },

Oooh. Both the callback and the callback context got simpler. I like that.

With the integration tests still passing, I would like to try this out with Chrome for a quick sanity check. I copy test/spdy-server.js to test/spdy-push-server.js and change the ports from 8081 to 8082 (I may want to run them side-by-side):

server.listen(8082, function() {
  console.log('TLS NPN Server is running on port : %d', 8082);
});

I add the appropriate push callback as well and start up the server:

➜  node-spdy git:(push-stream) ✗ node test/spdy-push-server.js
TLS NPN Server is running on port : 8082

Nice. That seems to work. The web page shows when I load it up, but...

...checking it out in the SPDY tab of about:net-internals, I see:

t=1307502498585 [st= 42]     SPDY_SESSION_PUSHED_SYN_STREAM  
                             --> associated_stream = 1
                             --> flags = 2
                             --> status: 200
                                 url: https://localhost:8081/style.css
                                 version: http/1.1
                             --> id = 2
t=1307502498585 [st= 42]     SPDY_SESSION_SEND_RST_STREAM  
                             --> status = 3
                             --> stream_id = 2

Bah! Something is not working there.

Hey wait a second, why is that URL being pushed out with a port of 8081? Heh. That would do it.

After switching everything in test/spdy-push-server.js to 8082, I reload and see a right proper SPDY session in the SPDY tab:

#####
# Push the CSS
t=1307503216226 [st= 42]     SPDY_SESSION_PUSHED_SYN_STREAM  
                             --> associated_stream = 1
                             --> flags = 2
                             --> status: 200
                                 url: https://localhost:8082/style.css
                                 version: http/1.1
                             --> id = 2

# CSS data here...

#####
# Push the background JPEG
t=1307503216236 [st= 52]     SPDY_SESSION_PUSHED_SYN_STREAM  
                             --> associated_stream = 1
                             --> flags = 2
                             --> status: 200
                                 url: https://localhost:8082/spdy.jpg
                                 version: http/1.1
                             --> id = 4


# Image data here...


#####
# It's legit!
t=1307503216250 [st= 66]     SPDY_STREAM_ADOPTED_PUSH_STREAM

Nice. But...

...dang. Now that I think about it, there was another reason to include the request in the push callback—it can be used to conditionally push streams.

I will add that back in tomorrow and also take some time to review my work.


Day #43