Socket.IO custom parsers

Since Socket.IO version 2.0.0, you can provide your custom parser, according to the needs of your application.

Several parsers are showcased here:

• the default one: socket.io-parser
• one based on msgpack: socket.io-msgpack-parser
• one based on native JSON: socket.io-json-parser
• a custom one based on schemapack

They are tested with various payloads:

• string: ['1', '2', ... '1000']
• numeric: [1, 2, ... 1000]
• binary: Buffer.allocUnsafe(1000), where buf[i] = i

How to use

$ npm i && npm start

Results

bytes / packet	CONNECT packet	string	numeric	binary
default	1	5903	3904	43 + 1000
msgpack	20	3919	2646	1029
JSON	20	5930	3931	3625
schemapack	20	3895	2005	1005

Comparison

default parser

• supports any serializable datastructure, including Blob and File
• but binary payload is encoded as 2 packets

msgpack

• the size of payloads containing mostly numeric values will be greatly reduced
• but rely on ArrayBuffer in the browser (IE > 9)

JSON

• optimized
• but does not support binary payloads

schemapack

• the most efficient in both speed and size
• but you have to provide a schema for each packet