zulip/zerver
Anders Kaseorg ea6934c26d dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages.
Zulip has had a small use of WebSockets (specifically, for the code
path of sending messages, via the webapp only) since ~2013.  We
originally added this use of WebSockets in the hope that the latency
benefits of doing so would allow us to avoid implementing a markdown
local echo; they were not.  Further, HTTP/2 may have eliminated the
latency difference we hoped to exploit by using WebSockets in any
case.

While we’d originally imagined using WebSockets for other endpoints,
there was never a good justification for moving more components to the
WebSockets system.

This WebSockets code path had a lot of downsides/complexity,
including:

* The messy hack involving constructing an emulated request object to
  hook into doing Django requests.
* The `message_senders` queue processor system, which increases RAM
  needs and must be provisioned independently from the rest of the
  server).
* A duplicate check_send_receive_time Nagios test specific to
  WebSockets.
* The requirement for users to have their firewalls/NATs allow
  WebSocket connections, and a setting to disable them for networks
  where WebSockets don’t work.
* Dependencies on the SockJS family of libraries, which has at times
  been poorly maintained, and periodically throws random JavaScript
  exceptions in our production environments without a deep enough
  traceback to effectively investigate.
* A total of about 1600 lines of our code related to the feature.
* Increased load on the Tornado system, especially around a Zulip
  server restart, and especially for large installations like
  zulipchat.com, resulting in extra delay before messages can be sent
  again.

As detailed in
https://github.com/zulip/zulip/pull/12862#issuecomment-536152397, it
appears that removing WebSockets moderately increases the time it
takes for the `send_message` API query to return from the server, but
does not significantly change the time between when a message is sent
and when it is received by clients.  We don’t understand the reason
for that change (suggesting the possibility of a measurement error),
and even if it is a real change, we consider that potential small
latency regression to be acceptable.

If we later want WebSockets, we’ll likely want to just use Django
Channels.

Signed-off-by: Anders Kaseorg <anders@zulipchat.com>
2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
..
data_import slack import: Map Slack guest users to Zulip guests. 2019-11-12 12:12:59 -08:00
lib dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages. 2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
management dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages. 2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
migrations python: Sort migrations/management command imports with isort. 2020-01-14 13:07:47 -08:00
openapi realm: Add private_message_policy setting. 2020-01-13 12:20:42 -08:00
templatetags openapi: Pass api_url to curl example generation. 2019-08-17 11:35:08 -07:00
tests dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages. 2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
tornado dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages. 2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
views dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages. 2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
webhooks python: Sort webhooks imports with isort. 2020-01-14 13:07:47 -08:00
worker dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages. 2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
__init__.py
apps.py cleanup: Delete leading newlines. 2019-08-06 23:29:11 -07:00
context_processors.py auth: Expand on the external_auth_method abstraction. 2019-12-10 20:16:21 +01:00
decorator.py dependencies: Remove WebSockets system for sending messages. 2020-01-14 22:34:00 -08:00
filters.py cleanup: Delete leading newlines. 2019-08-06 23:29:11 -07:00
forms.py auth: Use zxcvbn to ensure password strength on server side. 2019-11-21 10:23:37 -08:00
logging_handlers.py version: Only let `git describe` match tags beginning with a digit. 2019-10-24 14:54:45 -07:00
middleware.py middleware: Fix exception typing. 2019-07-31 12:23:20 -07:00
models.py populate_db: Fix handling of memcached flushing. 2020-01-13 18:05:21 -08:00
signals.py onboarding: Use delivery_email in "new login" notifications. 2019-11-14 12:19:47 -08:00