actix-extras/guide/src/qs_9.md

WebSockets

Actix supports WebSockets out-of-the-box. It is possible to convert request's Payload to a stream of ws::Message with a ws::WsStream and then use stream combinators to handle actual messages. But it is simplier to handle websocket communications with http actor.

extern crate actix;
extern crate actix_web;

use actix::*;
use actix_web::*;

/// Define http actor
struct Ws;

impl Actor for Ws {
    type Context = HttpContext<Self>;
}

/// Define Handler for ws::Message message
# impl StreamHandler<ws::Message> for Ws {}
impl Handler<ws::Message> for Ws {
    fn handle(&mut self, msg: ws::Message, ctx: &mut HttpContext<Self>) -> Response<Self, ws::Message>
    {
        match msg {
            ws::Message::Ping(msg) => ws::WsWriter::pong(ctx, &msg),
            ws::Message::Text(text) => ws::WsWriter::text(ctx, &text),
            ws::Message::Binary(bin) => ws::WsWriter::binary(ctx, bin),
            _ => (),
        }
        Self::empty()
    }
}

fn main() {
    Application::new()
      .resource("/ws/", |r| r.f(|req| ws::start(req, Ws)))  // <- register websocket route
      .finish();
}

Simple websocket echo server example is available in examples directory.

Example chat server with ability to chat over websocket connection or tcp connection is available in websocket-chat directory