Add flag to always convert websocket payloads to text frames

Author: DefiDebauchery

docs/providers.rst

@@ -291,14 +291,16 @@ AsyncIPCProvider
 WebSocketProvider
 +++++++++++++++++
 
-.. py:class:: web3.providers.persistent.WebSocketProvider(endpoint_uri: str, websocket_kwargs: Dict[str, Any] = {})
+.. py:class:: web3.providers.persistent.WebSocketProvider(endpoint_uri: str, websocket_kwargs: Dict[str, Any] = {}, use_text_frames: bool = False)
 
     This provider handles interactions with an WS or WSS based JSON-RPC server.
 
     * ``endpoint_uri`` should be the full URI to the RPC endpoint such as
       ``'ws://localhost:8546'``.
     * ``websocket_kwargs`` this should be a dictionary of keyword arguments which
       will be passed onto the ws/wss websocket connection.
+    * ``use_text_frames`` will ensure websocket data is sent as text frames
+      for servers that do not support binary communication.
 
     This provider inherits from the
     :class:`~web3.providers.persistent.PersistentConnectionProvider` class. Refer to

newsfragments/3619.feature.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add `use_text_frames` flag for `WebSocketProvider` to work around websocket servers that don't support binary frames

web3/providers/persistent/websocket.py

@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ def __init__(
         self,
         endpoint_uri: Optional[Union[URI, str]] = None,
         websocket_kwargs: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
+        use_text_frames: Optional[bool] = False,
         # `PersistentConnectionProvider` kwargs can be passed through
         **kwargs: Any,
     ) -> None:
@@ -71,6 +72,7 @@ def __init__(
             URI(endpoint_uri) if endpoint_uri is not None else get_default_endpoint()
         )
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
+        self.use_text_frames = use_text_frames
         self._ws: Optional[WebSocketClientProtocol] = None
 
         if not any(
@@ -118,6 +120,9 @@ async def socket_send(self, request_data: bytes) -> None:
                 "Connection to websocket has not been initiated for the provider."
             )
 
+        if self.use_text_frames:
+            request_data = request_data.decode("utf-8")
+
         await asyncio.wait_for(
             self._ws.send(request_data), timeout=self.request_timeout
         )