Can JavaScript Directly Connect to a TCP Socket from a Browser?

Can JavaScript Connect to a TCP Socket from a Browser?

Context:

You have a VB.NET application with a listening TCP socket. You want to communicate with this application from a JavaScript script running in a browser. The goal is to send data to the socket, receive a response with new data, and display it in the browser.

Answer:

Currently, no major browser has a built-in raw socket API for JavaScript. Therefore, you cannot directly connect to a TCP socket using JavaScript.

Possible Solutions:

• XHR or WebSockets: These technologies allow for asynchronous data transfer but have limitations compared to raw sockets.
• Experimental Chrome API: Chrome has experimental support for raw TCP sockets, but it's currently only available for Chrome apps.

Using Chrome's Experimental API:

To use the socket API in Chrome, enable the experimental flag in your extension's manifest. Code examples for creating and connecting to a TCP socket using Chrome's experimental API:

<code class="javascript">chrome.experimental.socket.create('tcp', '127.0.0.1', 8080, function(socketInfo) {
  chrome.experimental.socket.connect(socketInfo.socketId, function (result) {
    chrome.experimental.socket.write(socketInfo.socketId, "Hello, world!");
  });
});</code>

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