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Autobahn java

WebSocket & WAMP in Java for Android and Java 8

From crossbario·Updated May 31, 2026·View on GitHub·

Client library providing [WAMP](http://wamp-proto.org/) on Java 8 ([Netty](https://netty.io/)) and Android, plus (secure) WebSocket for Android. The project is written primarily in Java, distributed under the MIT License license, first published in 2011. It has gained significant community traction with 1,533 stars and 420 forks on GitHub. Key topics include: android, autobahn, java, java8, network.

Latest release: v21.7.1
August 6, 2021View Changelog →

Autobahn|Java

Client library providing WAMP on Java 8 (Netty) and Android, plus (secure) WebSocket for Android.

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Autobahn|Java is a subproject of the Autobahn project and provides open-source client implementations for

running on Android and Netty/Java8/JVM.

The WebSocket layer is using a callback based user API, and is specifically written for Android. Eg it does not run any network stuff on the main (UI) thread.

The WAMP layer is using Java 8 CompletableFuture for WAMP actions (call, register, publish and subscribe) and the Observer pattern for WAMP session, subscription and registration lifecycle events.

The library is MIT licensed, maintained by the Crossbar.io Project, tested using the AutobahnTestsuite and published as a JAR to Maven and as a Docker toolchain image to Dockerhub.


Download

Grab via Maven:

xml
<dependency> <groupId>io.crossbar.autobahn</groupId> <artifactId>autobahn-android</artifactId> <version>21.7.1</version> </dependency>

Gradle:

groovy
dependencies { implementation 'io.crossbar.autobahn:autobahn-android:21.7.1' }

For non-android systems use artifactID autobahn-java or just
Download the latest JAR

Getting Started

The demo clients are easy to run, you only need make and docker installed to get things rolling. </br>

$ make crossbar # Starts crossbar in a docker container
$ make python # Starts a python based WAMP components that provides calls for the Java demo client

and finally

$ make java # Starts the java (Netty) based demo client that performs WAMP actions

Show me some code

The code in demo-gallery contains some examples on how to use the autobahn library, it also contains convenience methods to use. Below is a basic set of code examples showing all 4 WAMP actions.

Subscribe to a topic

java
public void demonstrateSubscribe(Session session, SessionDetails details) { // Subscribe to topic to receive its events. CompletableFuture<Subscription> subFuture = session.subscribe("com.myapp.hello", this::onEvent); subFuture.whenComplete((subscription, throwable) -> { if (throwable == null) { // We have successfully subscribed. System.out.println("Subscribed to topic " + subscription.topic); } else { // Something went bad. throwable.printStackTrace(); } }); } private void onEvent(List<Object> args, Map<String, Object> kwargs, EventDetails details) { System.out.println(String.format("Got event: %s", args.get(0))); }

Since we are only accessing args in onEvent(), we could simplify it like:

java
private void onEvent(List<Object> args) { System.out.println(String.format("Got event: %s", args.get(0))); }

Publish to a topic

java
public void demonstratePublish(Session session, SessionDetails details) { // Publish to a topic that takes a single arguments List<Object> args = Arrays.asList("Hello World!", 900, "UNIQUE"); CompletableFuture<Publication> pubFuture = session.publish("com.myapp.hello", args); pubFuture.thenAccept(publication -> System.out.println("Published successfully")); // Shows we can separate out exception handling pubFuture.exceptionally(throwable -> { throwable.printStackTrace(); return null; }); }

A simpler call would look like:

java
public void demonstratePublish(Session session, SessionDetails details) { CompletableFuture<Publication> pubFuture = session.publish("com.myapp.hello", "Hi!"); ... }

Register a procedure

java
public void demonstrateRegister(Session session, SessionDetails details) { // Register a procedure. CompletableFuture<Registration> regFuture = session.register("com.myapp.add2", this::add2); regFuture.thenAccept(registration -> System.out.println("Successfully registered procedure: " + registration.procedure)); } private CompletableFuture<InvocationResult> add2( List<Object> args, Map<String, Object> kwargs, InvocationDetails details) { int res = (int) args.get(0) + (int) args.get(1); List<Object> arr = new ArrayList<>(); arr.add(res); return CompletableFuture.completedFuture(new InvocationResult(arr)); }

A very precise add2 may look like:

java
private List<Object> add2(List<Integer> args, InvocationDetails details) { int res = args.get(0) + args.get(1); return Arrays.asList(res, details.session.getID(), "Java"); }

Call a procedure

java
public void demonstrateCall(Session session, SessionDetails details) { // Call a remote procedure. CompletableFuture<CallResult> callFuture = session.call("com.myapp.add2", 10, 20); callFuture.thenAccept(callResult -> System.out.println(String.format("Call result: %s", callResult.results.get(0)))); }

Calling procedure with variable data type parameters

java
public void demonstrateCall(Session session, SessionDetails details) { // Call a remote procedure. byte[] var1 = new byte[20]; String var2 = "A sample text"; int var3 = 99; List<Object> args = new ArrayList<>(); args.add(var1); args.add(var2); args.add(var3); CompletableFuture<CallResult> callFuture = session.call("com.myapp.myproc", args); callFuture.thenAccept(callResult -> System.out.println(String.format("Call result: %s", callResult.results.get(0)))); }

Connecting the dots

java
public void main() { // Create a session object Session session = new Session(); // Add all onJoin listeners session.addOnJoinListener(this::demonstrateSubscribe); session.addOnJoinListener(this::demonstratePublish); session.addOnJoinListener(this::demonstrateCall); session.addOnJoinListener(this::demonstrateRegister); // finally, provide everything to a Client and connect Client client = new Client(session, url, realm); CompletableFuture<ExitInfo> exitInfoCompletableFuture = client.connect(); }

Authentication

Authentication is simple, we just need to create an object of the desired authenticator and
pass that to the Client

Ticket Auth

java
public void main() { ... IAuthenticator authenticator = new TicketAuth(authid, ticket); Client client = new Client(session, url, realm, authenticator); CompletableFuture<ExitInfo> exitInfoCompletableFuture = client.connect(); }

Challenge Response Auth

java
public void main() { ... IAuthenticator authenticator = new ChallengeResponseAuth(authid, secret); Client client = new Client(session, url, realm, authenticator); CompletableFuture<ExitInfo> exitInfoCompletableFuture = client.connect(); }

Cryptosign Auth

java
public void main() { ... IAuthenticator authenticator = new CryptosignAuth(authid, privkey, pubkey); Client client = new Client(session, url, realm, authenticator); CompletableFuture<ExitInfo> exitInfoCompletableFuture = client.connect(); }

You can also provide a list of Authenticators

java
public void main() { ... List<IAuthenticator> authenticators = new ArrayList<>(); authenticators.add(new TicketAuth(authid, ticket)); authenticators.add(new CryptosignAuth(authid, privkey, pubkey)); Client client = new Client(session, url, realm, authenticators); CompletableFuture<ExitInfo> exitInfoCompletableFuture = client.connect(); }

Autobahn also supports POJOs

Here is how to call a remote procedure that returns a list of Person POJOs

java
// Call a remote procedure that returns a Person with id 1 CompletableFuture<Person> callFuture = mSession.call("com.example.get_person", 1); callFuture.whenCompleteAsync((person, throwable) -> { if (throwable != null) { // handle error } else { // success! // do something with person } }, mExecutor);
java
// call a remote procedure that returns a List<Person> CompletableFuture<List<Person>> callFuture = mSession.call( // remote procedure to call "com.example.get_persons_by_department", // positional call arguments new ArrayList<Object>() {List.of("department-7")}, // call return type new TypeReference<List<Person>>() {} ); callFuture.whenCompleteAsync((persons, throwable) -> { if (throwable != null) { // handle error } else { // success! for (Person person: persons) { // do something with person } } }, mExecutor);

Also register a procedure that returns a Person

java
private Person get_person() { return new Person("john", "doe", "hr"); } private void main() { CompletableFuture<Registration> regFuture = session.register( "io.crossbar.example.get_person", this::get_person); regFuture.whenComplete((registration, throwable) -> { System.out.println(String.format( "Registered procedure %s", registration.procedure)); }); }

WebSocket on Android

Echo example

java
WebSocketConnection connection = new WebSocketConnection(); connection.connect("wss://echo.websocket.org", new WebSocketConnectionHandler() { @Override public void onConnect(ConnectionResponse response) { System.out.println("Connected to server"); } @Override public void onOpen() { connection.sendMessage("Echo with Autobahn"); } @Override public void onClose(int code, String reason) { System.out.println("Connection closed"); } @Override public void onMessage(String payload) { System.out.println("Received message: " + payload); connection.sendMessage(payload); } });

Building from source

Building Autobahn is pretty simple

Android build

For Android, we recommend to use Android Studio. Just import the project in
Android Studio, it will tell you if there are any missing dependencies, install them
and then just build the project from Build > Rebuild Project and you will have the
aar artifact in autobahn/build/outputs/aar/

Netty build

To produce a build for non-android systems make sure you have docker and make
installed then just use run below command on the root directory of the project

shell
make build_autobahn

and that will output the jar file in autobahn/build/libs/.

Get in touch

Get in touch by joining our forum.


Version 1

Version 1 of this library is still in the repo here, but is no longer maintained.

Version 1 only supported non-secure WebSocket on Android and only supported WAMP v1.

Both of these issues are fixed in the (current) version of Autobahn|Java.


Contributors

Showing top 12 contributors by commit count.

View all contributors on GitHub →

This article is auto-generated from crossbario/autobahn-java via the GitHub API.Last fetched: 6/15/2026