Interacting with NMControl from Javascript?

[biolizard89]

I'm trying to interact with NMControl's RPC server from Javascript, but I'm not having much luck. Based on code found via Google (i.e. probably crappy code), I have the following:

Code: Select all

	var http = new XMLHttpRequest();
	var url = "http://127.0.0.1:9000/";
	
	var params = {method: "data", params: ["getValue", "d/dot-bit"], id: 1};
	
	http.open("POST", url, false);
	
	//Send the proper header information along with the request
	http.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "text/x-json");
	http.setRequestHeader("Content-length", params.length);
	http.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
	
	http.send(JSON.stringify(params));

Unfortunately, when I execute this code, the XMLHttpRequest never returns from send(), and NMControl says this:

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ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

Using Wireshark, I don't see any HTTP headers when NMControl talks to itself, whereas my Javascript code is sending HTTP headers. I assume this is related to the issue. Does NMControl not use HTTP requests? Is there a preferred way to speak this protocol in Javascript?

Thanks.

[domob]

Using Wireshark, I don't see any HTTP headers when NMControl talks to itself, whereas my Javascript code is sending HTTP headers. I assume this is related to the issue. Does NMControl not use HTTP requests? Is there a preferred way to speak this protocol in Javascript?

Just found this question by chance, is it still of interest to you? I presume you were interested in it because of your work on the TLS integration (which seems solved already)? But to answer your question nevertheless, NMControl does indeed not communicate with HTTP but instead a raw socket connection. I'm not sure whether you can even do that with (standard and sand-boxed) JavaScript (maybe some HTML5 API provides socket communication - Websockets?), but from the context of a Mozilla add-on, I'm using NetUtils.jsm to do that nicely.

[biolizard89]

Using Wireshark, I don't see any HTTP headers when NMControl talks to itself, whereas my Javascript code is sending HTTP headers. I assume this is related to the issue. Does NMControl not use HTTP requests? Is there a preferred way to speak this protocol in Javascript?

Just found this question by chance, is it still of interest to you? I presume you were interested in it because of your work on the TLS integration (which seems solved already)? But to answer your question nevertheless, NMControl does indeed not communicate with HTTP but instead a raw socket connection. I'm not sure whether you can even do that with (standard and sand-boxed) JavaScript (maybe some HTML5 API provides socket communication - Websockets?), but from the context of a Mozilla add-on, I'm using NetUtils.jsm to do that nicely.

I did indeed figure it out, the code I'm using now is on GitHub.