Question

There is an issue of how to share buffers between node.js and the browser containing binary data. I’m pretty happy with Socket.io as a transport layer but the issue is that there is no porting of the Buffer class for the browser. Not something I can find anyways

I’ve also came across binary.js and I was wondering if there is a good way to combine them having the socket.io as the transport layer and the Binary.js as the data medium. I also saw this question, which is kind of on topic but doesn’t really resolve the issue.

I know socket.io added binary support but I haven’t found any documentation on the topic.

Update:

It seems that binary.js will not be the solution. The basic requirement that I want is to share the same capabilities that Buffer has in node with the browser.

My needs consist of two things:

1. Handle the buffer in the same manner in both Server and Browser.

2. support Binary data.

I will probably use Array Buffer.

Edit:
Since node.js run over V8 you can use ArrayBuffer. It seems as if the issue is solved. Yet, from what I know, node people decided that it’s a good idea to create a buffer module and manage it in the C bindings they created (from a talk given by Ryan Dahl). I think this has to do with how buffering is done over the network. This means ArrayBuffer is still not a good data medium to share between server and browser.

Answer 1

browser-buffer emulates Node’s Buffer API in the browser.

It’s backed by a Uint8Array, so browser support is sketchy.