capacitor-stream-http

Capacitor plugin for native HTTP streaming support on iOS and Android. This plugin enables true streaming of HTTP responses, particularly useful for Server-Sent Events (SSE) and other streaming APIs.

Features

• ✅ True HTTP streaming support (not buffered)
• ✅ Server-Sent Events (SSE) support
• ✅ Proper chunk-by-chunk data delivery
• ✅ Request cancellation support
• ✅ Custom headers and request body
• ✅ Works with proxied requests on mobile

Install

npm install capacitor-stream-http
npx cap sync

Usage

Basic Usage

import { StreamHttp } from 'capacitor-stream-http';

// Listen for chunks
await StreamHttp.addListener('chunk', (data) => {
  console.log('Received chunk:', data.chunk);
});

// Listen for stream end
await StreamHttp.addListener('end', (data) => {
  console.log('Stream ended');
});

// Listen for errors
await StreamHttp.addListener('error', (data) => {
  console.error('Stream error:', data.error);
});

// Start streaming
const { id } = await StreamHttp.startStream({
  url: 'https://api.example.com/stream',
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer token'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ query: 'Hello' })
});

// Cancel stream if needed
await StreamHttp.cancelStream({ id });

Using with ReadableStream API

import { createNativeReadableStream } from 'capacitor-stream-http';

const stream = createNativeReadableStream({
  url: 'https://api.example.com/stream',
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ data: 'test' })
});

const reader = stream.getReader();
const decoder = new TextDecoder();

while (true) {
  const { done, value } = await reader.read();
  if (done) break;
  
  const chunk = decoder.decode(value);
  console.log('Chunk:', chunk);
}

API

startStream(options)

Starts a new HTTP stream request.

Parameters:

• url (string): The URL to request
• method (string): HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
• headers (object): Optional request headers
• body (string): Optional request body

Returns: Promise<{ id: string }> - The stream ID

cancelStream(options)

Cancels an active stream.

Parameters:

• id (string): The stream ID to cancel

Events

• chunk: Fired when a data chunk is received

  • id (string): Stream ID
  • chunk (string): The data chunk

• end: Fired when the stream ends

  • id (string): Stream ID

• error: Fired on stream error

  • id (string): Stream ID
  • error (string): Error message

Platform Support

• ✅ iOS (13.0+)
• ✅ Android (API 22+)
• ❌ Web (not supported - fallback to fetch API recommended)

Implementation Details

iOS

• Uses URLSession with delegate for streaming
• Supports HTTP/2 and HTTP/3
• Automatic retry and connection management

Android

• Uses HttpURLConnection with chunked streaming mode
• SSE-aware parsing for proper event boundaries
• Thread-safe connection management

License

MIT