About Kaazing WebSocket Gateway
This document contains the following sections:
- What are HTML5 and WebSocket?
- What is Kaazing WebSocket Gateway?
- How Do I Use Kaazing WebSocket Gateway?
What are HTML5 and WebSocket?
HTML5 is a revision to HTML designed to simplify life for web designers and developers. Part of that simplification comes from new communications libraries including the WebSocket API.
WebSocket is a full-duplex single socket connection over which messages can be sent between a client and a server. The WebSocket standard simplifies much of the complexity around bi-directional web communication and connection management.
For more information about HTML5, see the W3C HTML5 Specification. For more information about WebSocket, see the W3C WebSocket API Specification or websockets.org.
What is Kaazing WebSocket Gateway?
Kaazing WebSocket Gateway is an HTML5-compliant WebSocket server, with emulation to support today's pre-HTML5 browsers. The Gateway provides a bridge between WebSocket clients and your back-end systems, servers, and applications. This enables you to implement your own custom protocol or run an existing protocol over WebSocket.
The Gateway adds several features that go beyond the basic WebSocket specification:- Client libraries that provide the WebSockets API on modern desktop browsers, mobile browsers, and legacy browsers (even Microsoft Internet Exporer 6)
- Support for both TCP (point to point) and UDP (broadcast) communications via WebSocket
- Fallback mechanisms to keep the connection alive even through firewalls and proxies that may interfere with WebSocket communications
- Load-balancing among multiple gateways

How Do I Use Kaazing WebSocket Gateway?
If you are an administrator or need to perform administration tasks, see:
- Setting Up Kaazing WebSocket Gateway: To install the Gateway and view the out of the box demos
- Checklist: Configure Kaazing WebSocket Gateway: To learn about the Gateway configuration elements and Checklist: Troubleshoot Kaazing WebSocket Gateway to learn how to troubleshoot the Gateway
- Security with the Gateway: To learn how to implement security with the Gateway
- Checklist: Configure Kaazing WebSocket Gateway for High Availability
- Checklist: Manage Kaazing WebSocket Gateway: To learn how to manage and monitor Kaazing WebSocket Gateway sessions
- Integrate Kaazing WebSocket Gateway into an Internal Network: To learn how to configure network protocol binding on the Gateway
If you are a developer who wants to use Kaazing WebSocket Gateway with your application, see:
- Checklist: Build JavaScript Clients Using Kaazing WebSocket Gateway if you are a JavaScript developer who wants to use WebSocket with a JavaScript application
- Checklist: Build Objective-C (iOS) Clients Using Kaazing WebSocket Gateway if you are an iOS developer who wants to use WebSocket with an iOS application
- Checklist: Build Android Clients Using Kaazing WebSocket Gateway if you are an Android developer who wants to use WebSocket with an Android application
- Checklist: Build Flash Clients Using Kaazing WebSocket Gateway if you are a Flash developer who wants to use WebSocket with a Flash application
- How to Build Clients with Google Web Toolkit Using Kaazing WebSocket Gateway if you are a Java developer who uses GWT and wants to use WebSocket with a Java application
- Checklist: Build Microsoft .NET and Silverlight Clients Using Kaazing WebSocket Gateway if you are a Microsoft .NET or Silverlight developer who wants to use WebSocket with a .NET or Silverlight application
- Checklist: Build Java Clients Using Kaazing WebSocket Gateway if you are a Java developer who wants to use WebSocket with a Java applet
- How to Implement a Protocol Client if you are a developer that wants to learn how to create a client for any framed protocol and how to ensure your client can handle frame boundaries in stream-based data correctly.
Feedback?
Contact us at doc@kaazing.com or register for the Kaazing forums.