Websocket support for both native Node.js WebSocket and ws.

[TarikGul]

rel: polkadot-js/api#6079

Node.js v21 introduced a native WebSocket, and with v22 its not behind a flag. This causes issues for node because polkadot-js currently grabs the global websocket over the 'ws' lib if it exists. This can be found below.

common/packages/x-ws/src/node.ts

Line 10 in a328ab4

export const WebSocket = /*#__PURE__*/ extractGlobal('WebSocket', ws);

common/packages/x-global/src/index.ts

Lines 50 to 58 in a328ab4

	export function extractGlobal <N extends GlobalNames, T extends GlobalType<N>> (name: N, fallback: unknown): T {
	// Not quite sure why this is here - snuck in with TS 4.7.2 with no real idea
	// (as of now) as to why this looks like an "any" when we do cast it to a T
	//
	// eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unsafe-return
	return typeof xglobal[name] === 'undefined'
	? fallback as T
	: xglobal[name] as T;
	}

The problem here is that the native WebSocket, and Ws don't have the same ErrorEvent interface which stops the api from succesfully reconnecting. There is a few options here:

1. Fix the reconnection on the api level, and give support for both interfaces.

2. Only expose one WebSocket interface in common in this case ws.

[valentinfernandez1]

Alternatively we can force it to use the ws library only on Node versions 22 and above.

const isNode22 = typeof process !== 'undefined' &&
                 process.versions &&
                 process.versions.node &&
                 parseInt(process.versions.node.split('.')[0], 10) >= 22;

export const WebSocket = isNode22 ? ws : /*#__PURE__*/ extractGlobal('WebSocket', ws);

Will give your first suggestion a try and if that doesn't work we can go with this

[TarikGul]

Alternatively we can force it to use the ws library only on Node versions 22 and above.

const isNode22 = typeof process !== 'undefined' &&
process.versions &&
process.versions.node &&
parseInt(process.versions.node.split('.')[0], 10) >= 22;

export const WebSocket = isNode22 ? ws : /#PURE/ extractGlobal('WebSocket', ws);
Will give your first suggestion a try and if that doesn't work we can go with this

I actually like your solution for now - as a patch I think it makes sense! It will atleast keep everything between Apps and Api working perfectly!

[TarikGul]

That being said if we can find the root in the api, that would be the best :)

[osan15]

Hello,
I saw that there was a rollback on the fix (#1980) and I checked the websocket reconnection problem is present again on the NodeJs 22 version.
How can I make the reconnection work on Node 22? Should I rollback the package?

[valentinfernandez1]

Yes, basically this change was breaking a lot of tests on the api side as it was not backwards compatible, I have it on my list of things to try to address in the coming days but in the meantime I guess you can try to use the release that was rolled back v13.4.2.