Mosquitto: WebSockets

How to connect to MQTT using WebSockets

👋 Welcome to the Stackhero documentation!

Stackhero offers a ready-to-use Mosquitto MQTT cloud solution that provides a host of benefits, including:

• Unlimited message exchanges and transfers.
• Unlimited device authentication via an external API.
• Advanced ACLs on topics, users, and actions.
• Customizable domain name secured with HTTPS (for example, https://mqtt.your-company.com).
• Effortless updates with just a click.
• Optimal performance and robust security powered by a private and dedicated VM.

Save time and simplify your life: it only takes 5 minutes to try Stackhero's Mosquitto MQTT cloud hosting solution!

You have two main options for connecting to Mosquitto: the native MQTT protocol or WebSockets.

The MQTT protocol is well known for its lightweight nature, making it particularly suitable for IoT devices and environments with limited resources. However, most web browsers do not support direct MQTT connections. This is where WebSockets come in, as they allow you to use MQTT over a WebSocket connection, enabling interaction with MQTT servers from your web applications.

To get started with WebSockets, simply enable the "WebSocket support" option in your Stackhero dashboard. Once this feature is enabled, you just need to configure your client to use the WebSocket URL: wss://<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com:443. This replaces the standard secure MQTT URL, which is: mqtts://<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com.

Choosing an MQTT library

If your application is developed in JavaScript, you may want to use the MQTT.js library. It is a flexible solution that works both in Node.js environments and directly in the browser. The library documentation and source code are available here: https://github.com/mqttjs/MQTT.js.

Example: Connecting to MQTT via WebSockets

You can find a practical example of how to connect a web application to an MQTT server using WebSockets in this sample repository: https://github.com/stackhero-io/mqttWebSocketGettingStarted.

When testing this example, make sure to update the src/index.html file with your own server's url, username, and password.

MQTT WebSocket example

Make sure to activate WebSocket support in the Stackhero dashboard before proceeding.