ethers js websocket RPC keeps disconnecting when no events

Question

I use ethers to connect to ethereum contract and listen for its events. This is how I set it up:

const provider = new ethers.WebSocketProvider(providerUrl);

const contract = new ethers.Contract(
  contractAddress,
  contractABI,
  provider
);

and after that I just connect to its events:

contract.removeAllListeners("EventName");


contract.on("EventName",(data)=>{
   ...rest of the code
})

I remove all events first to be sure there are no other listeners. When I get events constantly everything works fine. The problem is when I do not get any events for some time, usually like 30+ minutes with no event. It looks like it just stops and does not listen any more events and I have to restart the app. I've tried fixing it by adding a filter for all txs:

const filter = {
  fromBlock: "latest",
  toBlock: "latest",
  topics: [],
};

provider.on(filter, (log, event) => {});

but it doesn't work, it still disconnects. I've also tried to ping it by getting block number each few minutes but still nothing. I use ethers version 6.7.1. I cannot find any information about reconnecting to websockets. I found it in previous ethers version but it looks like it was removed in version 6.7.1. Any help is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

I fixed it finally by adding a wrapper for Websocket connection and reconnecting when it disconnects:

function createWebSocket() {
  const ws = new WebSocket(process.env.WSS_PROVIDER);

  ws.on("close", () => {
    console.log("Disconnected. Reconnecting...");
    setTimeout(() => {
      provider = new ethers.WebSocketProvider(createWebSocket());
      startListening();
    }, 3000);
  });

  ws.on("error", (error) => {
    console.log("WebSocket error: ", error);
  });

  return ws;
}

let provider = new ethers.WebSocketProvider(createWebSocket());
let contract;;

function startListening() {
  contract = new ethers.Contract(
    "contractAddress",
    contractABI,
    provider
  );

  contract.removeAllListeners("Trade");

  contract
    .on("EventName", ()=>{
        ... rest of the code
    })
  }

startListening()

It works fine but for some reason it disconnects very often, looks like each 5-10 minutes when my provider (in this example Chainstack) should disconnect after 1 hour (reading their docs).