-noVNC: HTML5 VNC Client
-======================
+## noVNC: HTML5 VNC Client
-Description
------------
+### Description
noVNC is a VNC client implemented using HTML5 technologies,
-specifically Canvas and WebSocket (supports 'wss://' encryption).
+specifically Canvas and WebSockets (supports 'wss://' encryption).
+noVNC is licensed under the
+[LGPLv3](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html).
-For browsers that do not have builtin WebSocket support, the project
-includes web-socket-js, a WebSocket emulator using Adobe Flash
-(http://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js).
+Special thanks to [Sentry Data Systems](http://www.sentryds.com) for
+sponsoring ongoing development of this project (and for employing me).
-In addition, as3crypto has been added to web-socket-js to implement
-WebSocket SSL/TLS encryption, i.e. the "wss://" URI scheme.
-(http://github.com/lyokato/as3crypto_patched).
+Notable commits, announcements and news are posted to
+@<a href="http://www.twitter.com/noVNC">noVNC</a>
-Requirements
-------------
+### Screenshots
-Until there is VNC server support for WebSocket connections, you need
-to use a WebSocket to TCP socket proxy. There is a python proxy
-included ('wsproxy'). One advantage of using the proxy is that it has
-builtin support for SSL/TLS encryption (i.e. "wss://").
+Running in Chrome before and after connecting:
-There a few reasons why a proxy is required:
+<img src="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/img/noVNC-1.jpg" width=400> <img src="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/img/noVNC-2.jpg" width=400>
- 1. WebSocket is not a pure socket protocol. There is an initial HTTP
- like handshake to allow easy hand-off by web servers and allow
- some origin policy exchange. Also, each WebSocket frame begins
- with 0 ('\x00') and ends with 255 ('\xff').
+See more screenshots <a href="http://kanaka.github.com/noVNC/screenshots.html">here</a>.
- 2. Javascript itself does not have the ability to handle pure byte
- strings (Unicode encoding messes with it) even though you can
- read them with WebSocket. The python proxy encodes the data so
- that the Javascript client can base64 decode the data into an
- array.
- 3. When using the web-socket-js as a fallback, WebSocket 'onmessage'
- events may arrive out of order. In order to compensate for this
- the client asks the proxy (using the initial query string) to add
- sequence numbers to each packet.
+### Projects/Companies using noVNC
+
+* [Sentry Data Systems](http://www.sentryds.com): uses noVNC in the
+ [Datanex Cloud Computing Platform](http://www.sentryds.com/products/datanex/).
+* [Ganeti Web Manager](http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr):
+ Feature [#1935](http://code.osuosl.org/issues/1935).
-Usage
------
+* [Archipel](http://archipelproject.org):
+ [Video demo](http://antoinemercadal.fr/archipelblog/wp-content/themes/ArchipelWPTemplate/video_youtube.php?title=VNC%20Demonstration&id=te_bzW574Zo)
-* To encrypt the traffic using the WebSocket 'wss://' URI scheme you
- need to generate a certificate for the proxy to load. You can generate
- a self-signed certificate using openssl. The common name should be the
- hostname of the server where the proxy will be running:
+* [openQRM](http://www.openqrm.com/): VNC plugin available
+ by request. Probably included in [version
+ 4.8](http://www.openqrm.com/?q=node/15). [Video
+ demo](http://www.openqrm-enterprise.com/news/details/article/remote-vm-console-plugin-available.html).
- `openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out self.pem -keyout self.pem`
-* run a VNC server.
-
- `vncserver :1`
+### Browser Requirements
-* run the python proxy:
+* HTML5 Canvas: Except for Internet Explorer, most
+ browsers have had Canvas support for quite some time. Internet
+ Explorer 9 will have Canvas support (finally).
- `./utils/wsproxy.py -f source_port target_addr:target_port
+* HTML5 WebSockets: For browsers that do not have builtin
+ WebSockets support, the project includes
+ <a href="http://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js">web-socket-js</a>,
+ a WebSockets emulator using Adobe Flash.
- `./utils/wsproxy.py -f 8787 localhost:5901`
+* Fast Javascript Engine: noVNC avoids using new Javascript
+ functionality so it will run on older browsers, but decode and
+ rendering happen in Javascript, so a slow Javascript engine will
+ mean noVNC is painfully slow.
+* I maintain a more detailed list of browser compatibility <a
+ href="wiki/Browser-support">here</a>.
-* run the mini python web server to serve the directory:
- `./utils/web.py PORT`
+### Server Requirements
- `./utils/web.py 8080`
+Unless you are using a VNC server with support for WebSockets
+connections (only my [fork of libvncserver](http://github.com/kanaka/libvncserver)
+currently), you need to use a WebSockets to TCP socket proxy. There is
+a python proxy included ('websockify'). One advantage of using the
+proxy is that it has builtin support for SSL/TLS encryption (i.e.
+"wss://").
-* Point your web browser at http://localhost:8080/vnc.html
- (or whatever port you used above to run the web server).
+There a few reasons why a proxy is required:
-* Specify the host and port where the proxy is running and the
- password that the vnc server is using (if any). Hit the Connect
- button and enjoy!
+ 1. WebSockets is not a pure socket protocol. There is an initial HTTP
+ like handshake to allow easy hand-off by web servers and allow
+ some origin policy exchange. Also, each WebSockets frame begins
+ with 0 ('\x00') and ends with 255 ('\xff').
+
+ 2. Javascript itself does not have the ability to handle pure byte
+ arrays. The python proxy encodes the data as base64 so that the
+ Javascript client can decode the data as an integer array.
-Browser Support
----------------
+### Quick Start
-I only currently test under Linux. Here are the current results:
+* Use the launch script to start a mini-webserver and the WebSockets
+ proxy (websockify). The `--vnc` option is used to specify the location of
+ a running VNC server:
-* Chrome 5.0.375.29 beta: Works great. Native WebSockets support. Very
- fast.
-* firefox 3.5, 3.7: Works. Uses flash WebSockets emulator. Large
- full-color images are slow.
-* Arora 0.50: Works. Broken putImageData so large full-color images
- are slow.
+ `./utils/launch.sh --vnc localhost:5901`
-* Opera 10.10: Unusable: drops web-socket-js events.
-* Opera 10.60: Broken: throws "WRONG_ARGUMENTS_ERR" on connect.
-* Konqueror 4.2.2: Broken: flash WebSockets emulator never connects.
+* Point your browser to the cut-and-paste URL that is output by the
+ launch script. Enter a password if the VNC server has one
+ configured. Hit the Connect button and enjoy!
-Integration
------------
+### Other Pages
-The client is designed to be easily integrated with existing web
-structure and style.
+* [Advanced Usage](wiki/Advanced-usage). Generating an SSL
+ certificate, starting a VNC server, advanced websockify usage, etc.
-At a minimum you must include the `vnc.js` and `default_controls.js`
-scripts and call their load() functions. For example:
+* [Integrating noVNC](wiki/Integration) into existing projects.
- <body>
- <div id='vnc'>Loading</div>
- </body>
- <script src='include/vnc.js'></script>
- <script src="include/default_controls.js"></script>
- <script>
- window.onload = function () {
- DefaultControls.load('vnc');
- RFB.load(); };
- </script>
+* [Troubleshooting noVNC problems](wiki/Troubleshooting).
-See `vnc.html` and `vnc_auto.html` for examples. The file
-`include/plain.css` has a list of stylable elements.
-The `vnc.js` also includes other scripts within the `include`
-sub-directory. The `VNC_uri_prefix` variable can be use override the
-URL path to the directory that contains the `include` sub-directory.
projects / mirror_novnc.git / blobdiff