Networking
Updated 202 Days AgoPublic
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Echo's networking abstracts the networking later and allows you to write code that is implementation agnostic.

Quick Start

If you're using the Application class then networking is managed for you. Just enable networking from you configuration.

network.enabled=true

After that you can use Application::GetNetworkManager() to get a reference to the NetworkManager and do the following operations.

Listen for a connection:


// You need a network listener
class NewConnectionHandler : public IncomingConnectionListener
{
public:
  void IncomingConnection(shared_ptr<Connection> newConnection)
  {
    // Do something with newConnection
  };
};

// This handler needs to outlive the listen request
NewConnectionHandler newConnectionHandler;
NetworkManager& network = GetNetworkManager();
network.Listen("direct:ANY:9876",&newConnectionHandler);

Connect to an endpoint


NetworkManager& network = GetNetworkManager();
shared_ptr<Connection> connection = network.Connect("direct:127.0.0.1:9876",[](shared_ptr<Connection>)
  {
    // Optional connect callback
  });

Send data using a Connection

...

const u32 HELLO_WORLD_PACKET_ID = 100;
const u32 SOME_DATA_PACKET_ID = 101;

// Send a string
connection->SendMessage("Hello World",HELLO_WORLD_PACKET_ID);

// Send a data buffer
connection->SendData(buffer,bufferSize,SOME_DATA_PACKET_ID);
...

Receive some data using a Connection

...

const u32 HELLO_WORLD_PACKET_ID = 100;
const u32 SOME_DATA_PACKET_ID = 101;

connection->RegisterPacketCallback(HELLO_WORLD_PACKET_ID,[](shared_ptr<Connection>, shared_ptr<DataPacket> packet)
  {
    // This could be a bind instead of a lambda
    std::string message = packet->GetString(0);
  });

// Send a data buffer
connection->RegisterPacketCallbnack(SOME_DATA_PACKET_ID,[](shared_ptr<Connection>, shared_ptr<DataPacket> packet)
  {
    // Do something with the data
    // packet->GetData()
    // packet->GetDataSize()
  });
...

Send data and setup a response handler

const u32 PING_PACKET_ID = 102;

// Sender
connection->SendMessage("Ping",PING_PACKET_ID,(shared_ptr<Connection>, shared_ptr<DataPacket> packet)
  {
    ECHO_LOG_INFO("Response was: " << packet->GetString(0));
  });

// The receiver would have
connection->RegisterPacketCallbnack(PING_PACKET_ID,[](shared_ptr<Connection> c, shared_ptr<DataPacket> packet)
  {
    // Lets build a response manually. The connected factory via connection might be give us a new packet from the pool. You can also use new.
    shared_ptr<DataPacket> response = c->NewDataPacket();
    // Packet ID does not matter for a response packet since they aren't queued for dispatch via the packet id lookup.
    response->Configure(0,.{"Pong"});
    c->SendResponsePacket(response,packet);
  });

Not-quite-as-Quick Start

You can manage a NetworkManager manually

NetworkManager network;
network.InstallSystem(make_shared<SocketNetworkSystem>());

// You need to update the network manager to have the callbacks fire (connect, disconnect and received packet)
// Updating may be required to send and receive data for some systems. Other systems will spawn their own threads to ensure data isn't dropped.

// If you have a kernel available
kernel.AddTask(network);

// Or if you are going to update manually
network.UpdateTasks(Seconds(0));

Other features

Auto reconnect can be toggled by calling SetAutoReconnect() time can also be adjusted
There is a TypeScript implementation of Connection
You can use Websockets by specifying the WebSocket system in your connection string (WebSocket)direct:destination:port
There is a Java version of Connection and packet protocol. This hasn't been updated for a long time but the protocol hasn't changed.
The protocol has been implemented in Python before but it hasn't been released yet.

Advanced

As with a lot of Echo's features Networking can be used some what independently from other systems. There is a NetworKExecutionModel that may be handy if you're only using Echo for networking and happy to use a Kernel.

Implementing your own NetworkSystem
Encryption (TLS/SSL)
- Needs to be supported by the network system.
- For ASIONetworkSystem see NetworkTests.cpp to see connection string parameters to add to enable encryption. Needs ca and a cert root.