feat: Enhance WebSocket transport with advanced features

[yashksaini-coder]

Fixes: #938

Added WebSocket Transport Improvements

• Added WebSocketConnectionManager for better connection handling and lifecycle management
• Implemented WebSocketListenerConfig for flexible transport configuration
• Added SOCKS proxy support for WebSocket connections
• Enhanced connection tracking and statistics
• Improved error handling and connection cleanup

This PR improves the WebSocket transport implementation with better connection management,
configuration options, and monitoring capabilities.

[yashksaini-coder]

@acul71 I would like you to take the point on this PR I'm occupied next week, so I may not be able to put more work into it. I've raised the PR and implemented the WebSocket implementation.

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Great, thank you so much for sharing. Appreciate your wonderful efforts.

@acul71 will collaborate with you to get this PR to a production stage.

We need this PR ready for final review + merge before the next py-libp2p release in 2+ weeks.

@yashksaini-coder : Wish to share that I re-ran the CI/CD pipeline and found important issues and tests failing.

Please collaborate with @acul71 and @bomanaps to get this resolved.

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Thank you so much to you and @acul71 for your efforts. Appreciate it.

It took me sometime to reach this PR as there were close to 12+ PRs in the review queue. Did re-run the CI/CD pipeline and important test cases are passing. Did notice some good number of test cases are failing too.

Wish if you could collaborate with @acul71 and arrive at a good conclusion on this PR soon.

Lets try and complete this before the next release of py-libp2p planned in 1.5+ weeks.

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Sure, I'll also request @sumanjeet0012, @Winter-Soren and @lla-dane to help you in this initiative. Please add them as collaborators.

@acul71 will collaborate soon. @pacrob is already reviewing a good number of PRs with us.

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Appreciate your efforts. Not to worry :)

[asmit27rai]

@asmit27rai Could we get an update on current status, what have you planned and worked on so far ?

Sorry @yashksaini-coder , I was unavailable for some time.
Will discuss on the discord.

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Wish if you could collaborate with @asmit27rai and @acul71; resolve the CI/CD issues and remaining features.

Re-ran the CI/CD pipeline. Quite a significant number of issues remaining.

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Appreciate your efforts. Looking forward to arriving at a good conclusion on the issue.

[yashksaini-coder]

@asmit27rai Hi could you please sign your commits, as it will help us in github ci action script checks

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Wish if the CI/CD issues could be resolved.

[seetadev]

@yashksaini-coder : Appreciate the efforts by you and @asmit27rai

[yashksaini-coder]

@yashksaini-coder : Appreciate the efforts by you and @asmit27rai

Yes sir working on it

[acul71]

AI Pull Request Review: PR #964 - feat: Enhance WebSocket transport with advanced features

PR: #964
Author: @yashksaini-coder
Issue: #938
Date: 2025-01-17
Status: Open

---

1. Summary of Changes

This PR implements comprehensive enhancements to the WebSocket transport implementation in py-libp2p, addressing issue #938 which tracks missing features compared to the Go implementation. The PR adds significant functionality including connection management, SOCKS proxy support, AutoTLS, advanced configuration options, and improved error handling.

Key Components Added:

1. Configuration Management (libp2p/transport/websocket/transport.py):

   • WebsocketConfig dataclass with comprehensive configuration options
   • WebsocketListenerConfig for listener-specific settings
   • Factory functions: WithProxy(), WithProxyFromEnvironment(), WithAutoTLS()
   • Configuration validation and error handling

2. Connection Management (libp2p/transport/websocket/manager.py):

   • WebSocketConnectionManager for managing multiple connections
   • Connection pooling, cleanup, and statistics tracking
   • Resource limits and automatic cleanup of inactive connections

3. SOCKS Proxy Support (libp2p/transport/websocket/proxy.py):

   • SOCKSConnectionManager supporting SOCKS4, SOCKS4a, and SOCKS5 protocols
   • Authentication support for SOCKS5
   • Environment variable proxy configuration

4. AutoTLS Support (libp2p/transport/websocket/autotls.py):

   • Automatic TLS certificate generation and management
   • Certificate storage and renewal
   • Browser integration support

5. Enhanced Connection Class (libp2p/transport/websocket/connection.py):

   • WebSocketStats dataclass for connection statistics
   • Improved error handling and connection lifecycle management
   • Activity monitoring and ping/pong support

6. Advanced TLS Configuration (libp2p/transport/websocket/tls_config.py):

   • WebSocketTLSConfig for advanced TLS settings
   • SNI support and client/server TLS configuration

7. Comprehensive Examples:

   • examples/browser_wss_demo.py - Browser WSS integration
   • examples/chat_websocket/main.py - Production chat application
   • examples/proxy_websocket_demo.py - SOCKS proxy demonstration
   • examples/websocket_comprehensive_demo.py - Comprehensive feature demo
   • examples/wss_demo.py - WSS client/server example
   • examples/autotls_browser/ - AutoTLS browser integration
   • examples/websocket_mvp/ - MVP WebSocket examples

8. Interop Testing (libp2p/transport/websocket/interop_tests/):

   • JavaScript and Python node implementations
   • Bidirectional communication tests
   • Cross-language compatibility validation

9. Comprehensive Test Suites:

   • test_websocket.py - Basic WebSocket transport tests
   • test_websocket_integration.py - Integration tests (1009 lines)
   • test_websocket_p2p.py - P2P integration tests
   • test_proxy.py - SOCKS proxy tests
   • test_autotls.py - AutoTLS tests

Files Changed:

• 54 files changed: 11,768 insertions(+), 705 deletions(-)
• Major additions in libp2p/transport/websocket/ (new modules and enhancements)
• Comprehensive test coverage across all new features
• Multiple production-ready examples

Breaking Changes:

None identified. This is a feature addition that maintains backward compatibility with existing WebSocket transport usage.

---

2. Strengths

Architecture and Design

• Well-structured modules: Clear separation of concerns between configuration, connection management, proxy support, and TLS handling
• Comprehensive configuration system: Dataclass-based configuration with validation and factory functions
• Production-ready features: Connection limits, timeouts, statistics tracking, and resource management
• Backward compatibility: Maintains existing API while adding new features

Implementation Quality

• Type hints: Comprehensive type annotations throughout the codebase
• Error handling: Custom exception classes and proper error propagation
• Resource management: Proper cleanup and lifecycle management for connections
• Statistics tracking: Detailed connection statistics for monitoring and debugging

Feature Completeness

• SOCKS proxy support: Full implementation of SOCKS4/4a/5 with authentication
• AutoTLS: Automatic certificate generation and management for browser integration
• Advanced TLS configuration: SNI support and flexible TLS settings
• Connection management: Pooling, cleanup, and resource limits
• Comprehensive examples: Multiple production-ready examples demonstrating all features

Testing

• Comprehensive test coverage: 91 tests passing across multiple test suites
• Integration tests: Extensive integration tests for real-world scenarios
• Interop testing: Cross-language compatibility validation with JavaScript
• Proxy tests: Dedicated tests for SOCKS proxy functionality
• AutoTLS tests: Tests for certificate generation and management

Documentation

• Comprehensive docstrings: Well-documented classes and methods
• Usage examples: Multiple examples demonstrating different use cases
• Interop documentation: Clear documentation for cross-language testing

---

3. Issues Found

Critical

3.1 Missing Newsfragment (BLOCKER)

• File: newsfragments/
• Issue: CRITICAL/BLOCKER - No newsfragment file exists for PR feat: Enhance WebSocket transport with advanced features #964
• Impact: PR cannot be approved without a valid newsfragment (mandatory requirement)
• Suggestion: Create newsfragments/964.feature.rst (or 938.feature.rst if using issue number) with user-facing description of WebSocket transport enhancements. The file must:
  • Follow format <ISSUE>.<TYPE>.rst (e.g., 964.feature.rst)
  • Contain ReST-formatted user-facing description
  • End with a newline character
  • Focus on user impact, not implementation details
• Action Required: PR approval is blocked until newsfragment is added

3.2 Type Checking Error

• File: libp2p/transport/websocket/interop_tests/py_node/py_websocket_node.py
• Line(s): 176
• Issue: Mypy error: Library stubs not installed for "requests"
• Error: error: Library stubs not installed for "requests" [import-untyped]
• Impact: make pr fails due to type checking error
• Suggestion: Add types-requests to dev dependencies or add # type: ignore[import-untyped] comment if types are not needed

3.3 Integration Test Failures

• File: tests/core/transport/websocket/test_websocket_integration.py
• Issue: 7 out of 98 tests failing in integration test suite
• Failures:
  1. test_websocket_echo_protocol_plaintext - Stream read timeout
  2. test_websocket_echo_protocol_noise - Connection upgrade failure
  3. test_websocket_bidirectional_communication - Stream read timeout
  4. test_websocket_multiple_streams - Expected 5 results, got 0
  5. test_websocket_large_message - Large message read timeout
  6. test_websocket_connection_lifecycle - Stream read timeout
  7. test_websocket_multiple_connections - ExceptionGroup with sub-exceptions
• Impact: Core functionality not working as expected in integration scenarios
• Suggestion: Investigate and fix the underlying issues causing timeouts and connection failures. The failures suggest problems with:
  • Stream read operations timing out
  • Connection upgrade process failing
  • Multiple stream handling
  • Large message handling

Major

3.4 Security Upgrade Failures (From PR Comments)

• File: libp2p/transport/websocket/transport.py, libp2p/transport/websocket/listener.py
• Issue: According to PR comments from @acul71, WebSocket connections fail during security upgrade phase
• Error Pattern: failed to upgrade security for peer at /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/0/ws
• Impact: Prevents actual libp2p protocol message exchange despite successful WebSocket handshake
• Suggestion: Investigate integration with libp2p security layer (Noise/TLS). The WebSocket transport layer works, but security upgrade fails. May need to coordinate with PR Implement complete libp2p Noise protocol extensions #926 (Noise module) for proper integration.

3.5 Listener Address Exposure Issues (From PR Comments)

• File: libp2p/transport/websocket/listener.py
• Issue: WebSocket listeners not properly exposing listen addresses
• Error Pattern: AssertionError: No WebSocket listen address found
• Impact: Tests fail because listeners don't expose their addresses correctly
• Suggestion: Ensure WebsocketListener properly tracks and exposes listen addresses via Multiaddr() method

3.6 Missing Error Documentation

• File: Multiple files
• Issue: Docstrings missing :raises: sections for exceptions
• Impact: Users don't know what exceptions to expect
• Suggestion: Add :raises: sections to docstrings documenting all possible exceptions

3.7 Incomplete Connection Manager Implementation

• File: libp2p/transport/websocket/manager.py
• Line(s): 37-48
• Issue: __aenter__ method creates a nursery but doesn't properly manage it
• Code:

  async def __aenter__(self) -> "WebSocketConnectionManager":
      """Context manager entry."""
      async with trio.open_nursery() as nursery:
          self._nursery = nursery
          nursery.start_soon(self._cleanup_loop)
      return self

• Issue: The nursery is closed immediately after __aenter__ returns, so _cleanup_loop will be cancelled
• Suggestion: Fix context manager implementation to properly manage nursery lifecycle

Minor

3.8 Incomplete TLS Config Validation

• File: libp2p/transport/websocket/transport.py
• Line(s): 74-75
• Issue: AutoTLS config validation method call appears incomplete
• Code:

  if self.autotls_config:
      self.autotls_config.validate()

• Suggestion: Verify this is complete (may be a false positive from partial file read)

3.9 Missing Type Hints in Some Places

• File: Various files
• Issue: Some return types and parameters lack type hints
• Suggestion: Add comprehensive type hints for better IDE support and type checking

---

4. Security Review

Security Considerations

4.1 SOCKS Proxy Authentication

• Risk: Credentials passed as plain tuple in configuration
• Impact: Medium - Credentials in memory, but no persistent storage
• Mitigation: Consider using a credential manager or secure storage for production use. Current implementation is acceptable for development.

4.2 AutoTLS Certificate Management

• Risk: Self-signed certificates may not be trusted by browsers
• Impact: Low - Expected behavior for development/testing
• Mitigation: Document that AutoTLS is for development/testing. Production deployments should use proper CA-signed certificates.

4.3 TLS Configuration Validation

• Risk: Invalid TLS configurations could lead to insecure connections
• Impact: Medium
• Mitigation: TLS configuration validation is implemented in WebSocketTLSConfig.validate(). Ensure all TLS settings are properly validated.

4.4 Connection Limits

• Risk: DoS via connection exhaustion
• Impact: Medium
• Mitigation: Connection limits are implemented (max_connections), which helps prevent resource exhaustion attacks.

4.5 Input Validation

• Risk: Malformed multiaddr or proxy URLs could cause issues
• Impact: Low
• Mitigation: Input validation is present in configuration validation methods.

Overall Security Assessment

The implementation includes good security practices:

• ✅ Connection limits to prevent DoS
• ✅ TLS configuration validation
• ✅ Proper error handling to prevent information leakage
• ✅ Secure credential handling (in-memory only)
• ⚠️ AutoTLS should be documented as development-only
• ⚠️ Consider adding rate limiting for connection attempts

---

5. Documentation and Examples

5.1 Documentation Quality

• ✅ Comprehensive docstrings: Well-documented classes and methods
• ✅ Usage examples: Multiple production-ready examples
• ⚠️ API Documentation: Missing :raises: sections in docstrings
• ⚠️ User-facing documentation: No documentation in docs/ directory explaining new features

5.2 Missing Documentation

• Issue: No user-facing documentation in docs/ directory explaining:
  • How to use WebSocket transport with new features
  • SOCKS proxy configuration
  • AutoTLS setup and usage
  • Advanced TLS configuration
  • Connection management best practices
• Suggestion: Add documentation to docs/ directory with:
  • Quick start guide for WebSocket transport
  • SOCKS proxy configuration guide
  • AutoTLS setup instructions
  • Advanced configuration options
  • Production deployment best practices

5.3 Example Code

• ✅ Comprehensive examples: Multiple examples demonstrating different use cases
• ✅ Production examples: Chat application and browser integration examples
• ✅ Interop examples: Cross-language compatibility examples
• Suggestion: Consider adding examples for:
  • Error handling and recovery
  • Connection pooling and management
  • Monitoring and statistics usage

---

6. Newsfragment Requirement

⚠️ CRITICAL: Newsfragments are MANDATORY for PR approval. Missing or invalid newsfragments are BLOCKERS.

Current Status

• ❌ BLOCKER: No newsfragment file exists for PR feat: Enhance WebSocket transport with advanced features #964

Required Action

Create a newsfragment file following the format:

• Filename: newsfragments/964.feature.rst (or 938.feature.rst if using issue number)
• Type: .feature.rst (new feature)
• Content: User-facing description of WebSocket transport enhancements

Suggested Newsfragment Content

Enhanced WebSocket transport with advanced features including SOCKS proxy support,
AutoTLS for browser integration, connection management, and comprehensive configuration
options. The implementation adds production-ready features like connection pooling,
statistics tracking, and advanced TLS configuration for improved reliability and
monitoring capabilities.

Important: The file must end with a newline character to pass GitHub tox linting checks.

---

7. Tests and Validation

7.1 Test Coverage

• ✅ Comprehensive test suites: Multiple test files covering all features
• ✅ Integration tests: Extensive integration tests (1009 lines)
• ✅ Unit tests: Tests for individual components
• ✅ Interop tests: Cross-language compatibility tests
• ⚠️ Integration test failures: 8 WebSocket integration tests failing (isolated to WebSocket transport)

7.2 Build and Linting

• ✅ Linting (make lint): All ruff checks passed, formatting checks passed
• ❌ Type checking (make typecheck): Mypy failed due to missing types-requests stub package
  • Error: libp2p/transport/websocket/interop_tests/py_node/py_websocket_node.py:176: error: Library stubs not installed for "requests"
• ✅ Other checks: YAML, TOML, and other format checks passed

7.3 Test Execution

• Results (make test):
  • 1,625 tests passed ✅
  • 8 tests failed ❌
  • 4 tests skipped ⚠️
  • 1 error ❌
  • 25 warnings ⚠️
• Failed Tests:
  1. test_websocket_echo_protocol_plaintext - Stream read timeout
  2. test_websocket_echo_protocol_noise - Connection upgrade failure
  3. test_websocket_bidirectional_communication - Stream read timeout
  4. test_websocket_multiple_streams - Expected 5 results, got 0
  5. test_websocket_large_message - Large message read timeout
  6. test_websocket_connection_lifecycle - Stream read timeout
  7. test_websocket_multiple_connections - ExceptionGroup
  8. test_ping_with_js_node - Connection error (interop test)
• Error:
  • test_websocket_p2p.py - Import file mismatch error
• Status: ⚠️ Overall test suite is healthy (1,625 passing), but WebSocket integration tests reveal issues with stream handling and connection upgrades. The failures are isolated to WebSocket transport integration tests.

7.4 Documentation Build

• ✅ HTML Build: Documentation build succeeded with no errors
• ✅ Doctests: All doctests passed
• ✅ Newsfragments: Validated successfully (though PR feat: Enhance WebSocket transport with advanced features #964 newsfragment is missing)
• ✅ Status: Documentation is ready and builds correctly

7.5 Edge Case Testing

• ⚠️ Missing: Tests for edge cases:
  • Connection exhaustion scenarios
  • Proxy authentication failures
  • Certificate renewal edge cases
  • Concurrent connection cleanup
• Suggestion: Add tests for these edge cases to improve robustness

---

8. Recommendations for Improvement

Critical (Must Fix Before Merge)

1. Add newsfragment: Create newsfragments/964.feature.rst with user-facing description
2. Fix type checking error: Add types-requests to dev dependencies or add type ignore comment
3. Fix integration test failures: Investigate and resolve the 7 failing integration tests
4. Fix connection manager context manager: Properly manage nursery lifecycle in __aenter__

High Priority

1. Fix security upgrade integration: Resolve WebSocket security upgrade failures with libp2p security layer
2. Fix listener address exposure: Ensure WebSocket listeners properly expose listen addresses
3. Add error documentation: Add :raises: sections to all docstrings
4. Add user-facing documentation: Create documentation in docs/ directory for new features

Medium Priority

1. Improve error handling: Add more specific error messages and recovery mechanisms
2. Add edge case tests: Test connection exhaustion, proxy failures, certificate renewal
3. Optimize connection management: Review and optimize connection pooling and cleanup logic
4. Add monitoring examples: Examples showing how to use statistics and monitoring features

Low Priority

1. Add more type hints: Complete type annotations throughout codebase
2. Improve docstring formatting: Ensure consistent docstring formatting
3. Add performance benchmarks: Benchmark connection management and proxy overhead
4. Consider rate limiting: Add rate limiting for connection attempts to prevent abuse

---

9. Questions for the Author

1. Security Upgrade Integration: The PR comments mention security upgrade failures. Have you tested the integration with the Noise security module? Does this PR need to coordinate with PR Implement complete libp2p Noise protocol extensions #926 (Noise module)?

2. Connection Manager Context Manager: The __aenter__ method in WebSocketConnectionManager creates a nursery but closes it immediately. Is this intentional, or should the nursery be managed differently?

3. Integration Test Failures: The 7 failing integration tests suggest issues with stream handling and timeouts. Have you identified the root cause? Are these related to the security upgrade issues?

4. Listener Address Exposure: Tests are failing because listeners don't expose addresses. Is this a known issue, or is there a specific reason addresses aren't being exposed?

5. AutoTLS Production Use: AutoTLS generates self-signed certificates. Is this intended for production use, or only development/testing? Should this be documented more clearly?

6. Proxy Authentication: Credentials are passed as plain tuples. For production use, would you recommend a credential manager or secure storage solution?

7. Connection Limits: The max_connections limit is configurable. What's the recommended value for production deployments? Should this be documented?

8. Statistics Usage: The WebSocketStats class provides detailed statistics. Are there plans for exposing these via metrics/monitoring APIs?

---

10. Overall Assessment

Quality Rating: Needs Work

The PR implements comprehensive WebSocket transport enhancements with excellent architecture and feature completeness. The code is well-structured, has good test coverage (1,625 tests passing overall), and includes production-ready features. However, critical issues prevent immediate merge:

• Blockers:
  • Missing newsfragment (CRITICAL/BLOCKER)
  • Type checking error (mypy failure)
  • 8 WebSocket integration test failures (isolated to WebSocket transport)
  • Connection manager context manager bug
• Major Issues:
  • Security upgrade integration failures
  • Listener address exposure issues
  • Missing error documentation
• Minor Issues:
  • Missing user-facing documentation
  • Some incomplete type hints

Security Impact: Low to Medium

The implementation includes good security practices (connection limits, TLS validation, proper error handling). AutoTLS should be documented as development-only. SOCKS proxy authentication is acceptable for current use case.

Merge Readiness: Needs Fixes

The PR requires fixes for:

1. CRITICAL: Add newsfragment file
2. CRITICAL: Fix type checking error
3. CRITICAL: Fix integration test failures
4. CRITICAL: Fix connection manager context manager
5. HIGH: Fix security upgrade integration
6. HIGH: Fix listener address exposure
7. MEDIUM: Add error documentation
8. MEDIUM: Add user-facing documentation

After these fixes, the PR should be re-reviewed for:

• Integration test validation
• Security upgrade verification
• Final code quality review

Confidence: Medium

The implementation is well-architected and comprehensive, but the integration test failures and security upgrade issues suggest there may be deeper integration problems that need investigation. The code quality is high, but the functional issues need to be resolved.

---

Review Checklist

• PR context gathered (body, comments, related issues)
• Code changes reviewed
• Linting checked (make lint) - passed except mypy error
• Type checking checked (make typecheck) - mypy error found
• Test execution verified (make test) - 1,625 passed, 8 failed, 1 error
• Security concerns assessed (low to medium impact)
• Documentation gaps identified
• Test coverage evaluated
• Newsfragment requirement verified (❌ MISSING - BLOCKER)
• Documentation build verified (make linux-docs) - ✅ build succeeded

---

References

• PR #964 - WebSocket transport enhancements
• Issue #938 - WebSocket Transport Missing Features
• PR #926 - Noise module (may be related to security upgrade issues)
• Go libp2p WebSocket Implementation - Reference implementation

---

Reviewer Notes:

• This is a substantial and well-architected PR that addresses many missing features from issue WebSocket Transport Missing Features #938
• The implementation quality is high, with good structure and comprehensive features
• The critical issues (newsfragment, type checking, test failures) are fixable
• The security upgrade integration issues may require coordination with the Noise module PR
• Once critical issues are resolved, this will be a valuable addition to py-libp2p
• The comprehensive examples and interop testing are particularly valuable contributions