StreamLink connection types

StreamLink supports six streaming connection types.

Connection types

The table below lists the different ways that StreamLink can establish a streaming connection with Liberator:

StreamLink connection types
# Connection Type Description

1

Direct

Persistent TCP/IP connection. No encapsulating protocol.

2

HTTP

Persistent HTTP/1.1 connection with chunked transfer encoding.

3

Polling

Short polling

5

Forever Frame

Persistent HTTP/1.1 connection with chunked transfer encoding in a hidden iframe element.

8

WebSocket

WebSocket connection.

9

Server-Sent Events (SSE)

Server-Sent Events connection.

Support for connection types is platform dependent:

Platform support for connection types
Direct WebSocket HTTP Socket Server Sent Events Forever Frame Polling

StreamLink JS (on MS IE)

1

StreamLink JS (on MS Edge)

1

2

StreamLink JS (on Chrome)

1

3

StreamLink JS (on Firefox)

1

3

StreamLink Java

StreamLink Android

StreamLink C

StreamLink iOS

StreamLink .NET

4

  1. For web browser versions, see Can I use …​ WebSockets?

  2. 'Forever Frame' connections are not supported on Microsoft Edge. In Microsoft browsers, an ActiveX control is required to hide the browser’s loading indicator when using a 'Forever Frame', and Microsoft Edge does not support ActiveX.

  3. For web browser versions, see Can I use …​ Server Sent Events?

  4. Requires StreamLink .NET 7.1 or above

Each new release of StreamLink JS is tested on the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, and Firefox available at the time of testing. For the list of web browsers on which a specific release of StreamLink JS was tested, see the release notes for that release.

Specifying the connection type in a Liberator URL

StreamLink determines which connection type to use to connect to a Liberator from the Liberator’s URL:

URL Connection type(s)

tcp://…​

Direct connection

tcps://…​

Direct connection over SSL

http://…​

SSE over HTTP if supported by the web browser, else 'Forever Frame' over HTTP

https://…​

SSE over HTTPS if supported by the web browser, else 'Forever Frame' over HTTPS

ws://…​

WebSocket on Liberator’s HTTP port

wss://…​

Secure WebSocket on Liberator’s HTTPS port

poll://…​

Short polling over HTTP

polls://…​

Short polling over HTTPS

rttp://…​

A meta-URL that StreamLink expands to three Liberator URLs in the order below:

  1. ws://…​1

  2. http://…​

  3. poll://…​

rttps://…​

A meta-URL that StreamLink expands to three Liberator URLs in the order below:

  1. wss://…​1

  2. https://…​

  3. polls://…​

  1. StreamLink .NET supports the WebSocket connection type from StreamLink .NET 7.1

See also: