tadsnet.h file | source file

This header defines the tads-net intrinsic function set.

The tads-net function set provides network input/output. In particular, this implements an HTTP server that can be used to implement a browser-based user interface. The network layer could also be used for other purposes, such as implementing a multi-user game server.

The first step in setting up a network server is to create a suitable server object, such as an HTTPServer. The server opens a network port on the local machine and waits for incoming connection requests from clients, such as from Web browsers on remote machines. When a client connects to the server's port, the server creates a separate thread to handle the new connection, then goes back to listening for additional connections. The connection thread handles network communications with the client; when the client sends a request to the server, the thread posts an event message to the network message queue.

The next step for the program, then, is simply to go into a loop reading and handling incoming network messages. Once the server is set up, the program is basically driven by the network client. Call netEvent() to read the next message, then interpret the contents, process the message, and send a reply. Once that's done, go back to the start of the loop to handle the next request message. The program continues running until a suitable network event occurs to terminate it, such as the user typing QUIT into the UI.

Summary of Classes

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Summary of Global Functions

`connectWebUI getHostName getLaunchHostAddr getLocalIP getNetEvent getNetStorageURL sendNetRequest`

Summary of Macros

`NetEvDebugBreak NetEvReply NetEvReplyDone NetEvRequest NetEvTimeout NetEvUIClose NetReqNoRedirect`

Summary of Enums

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Summary of Templates

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Global Functions

`connectWebUI (server, path)` | `tadsnet.h[54]`

Connect to the Web UI client. This connects the Web browser client to the game's HTTP server. 'server' is the HTTPServer object where the Web UI is found, and 'path' is the URL path of the game's main UI start page. This will tell the client to navigate to the given start path on the given server.

Web-based games must call this after starting the HTTP server that provides the game's Web UI. This should be called as quickly as possible after starting up, because clients might time out and miss the connection data if it takes too long to get this back to them.

`getHostName ( )` | `tadsnet.h[96]`

Get the local network host name. This is the name (or a name) that other computers can use to connect to this computer across the network.

Some computers have multiple host names, since a single machine can have more than one network adapter. If this is the case, this function returns the default host name if there is such a concept, otherwise it just picks one of the names arbitrarily.

If there's no host name at all, this returns nil.

The host name returned here isn't usually a "global" name for the computer, but is a name that the local operating system recognizes as itself for networking purposes. In particular, this usually won't be a full internet "x.y.com" domain name. This name thus isn't something you can advertise to arbitrary other machines across the Internet and expect them to be able to connect. Instead, this name is primarily useful for telling the operating system which network adapter to use when opening a listening port. For example, you can use this name in the HTTPServer constructor.

`getLaunchHostAddr ( )` | `tadsnet.h[149]`

Get the host address that the user used to launch the game. For standard client/server TADS Web play, this is the network address that you should specify as the listening address when setting up the HTTPServer object.

When we're operating in client/server mode, the interpreter is launched by an external Web server, in response to an incoming request from a client. In order to establish our own connection with the client, we need to know the address that the client used to connect to the external Web server in the first place. The Web server passes this address to the interpreter as part of the launch information, and the interpreter makes the address available to the TADS program here.

If there's no launch address, this returns nil. This means that the user launched the interpreter directly, from the local desktop or command shell. In this case, it means that the user wants to run the game locally, rather than from a remote client machine. Simply use "localhost" as the networking binding address in this case.

`getLocalIP ( )` | `tadsnet.h[112]`

Get the local host's IP address. This is the IP address (or an IP address) that other computers can use to connect to this computer via the network. IP addresses are the basic addressing scheme of the Internet.

Some computers have multiple IP addresses, since a single machine can have more than one network adapter. If this is the case, this function returns the default IP address if there is one, otherwise it selects one of the machine's IP addresses arbitrarily.

If the IP address can't be retrieved (for example, because the machine has no network adapter installed), this returns nil.

`getNetEvent (timeout?)` | `tadsnet.h[72]`

Read an event from the network message queue. When a listener receives a connection request from a client, it creates a network server thread to handle the connection; then when the server thread receives data from the client, it packages the data into an event message and places it in the queue. This function retrieves the next message from the queue.

If 'timeout' is omitted or nil, the function waits indefinitely; it doesn't return until a network event occurs. If a timeout is given, it gives the maximum time in milliseconds that the function should wait for an event; if the timeout expires before any events arrive, the function returns a timeout event.

The return value is a NetEvent instance describing the event.

`getNetStorageURL (resource)` | `tadsnet.h[126]`

Get the URL to the storage server. When running in Web mode, the interpreter is generally configured to store files on a separate "storage server" rather than on the game server. This function retrieves the interpreter's configuration data and returns the storage server URL.

'resource' is a string giving the resource (page) name on the server that you wish to access. This can contain query parameters (introduced by a "?" symbol), if desired. The return value is the full URL to the requested page on the server.

`sendNetRequest (id, url, ...)` | `tadsnet.h[214]`

Send a network request to a remote server. This initiates processing the request and immediately returns; the process of setting up the network connection to the remote server, sending the request data, and receiving the reply proceeds asynchronously while the program continues running. When the request completes (or fails due to an error), a NetEvent of type NetEvReply is queued.

'id' is a user-defined identifier for the request. This can be any value, but is typically an object that you create to keep track of the request and process the reply. TADS doesn't use this value itself, but simply hangs onto it while the request is being processed, and then stores it in the NetEvent object generated when the request completes. This lets you relate the reply event back to the request, so that you know which request it applies to.

'url' is a string giving the URL of the resource. This starts with a protocol name that specifies which protocol to use. The possible protocols are:

- HTTP: the URL has the form 'http://server:port/resource'. It can also start with 'https://' for a secure HTTP connection. The port number is optional; if omitted, the default port is 80 for regular HTTP, or 443 for HTTPS.

Currently, the only protocol supported is HTTP. An error occurs if another protocol is specified.

Additional parameters depend on the protocol.

HTTP Additional Parameters:

'verb' - a string giving the HTTP verb for the request (GET, POST, HEAD, PUT, etc).

'options' - optional; a bitwise combination of NetReqXXX option flags specifying special settings. Omit this argument or pass 0 to use the default settings.

'headers' - optional; a string giving any custom headers to include with the request. The system automatically generates any required headers for the type of request, but you can add your own custom headers with this parameter. The headers must be specified using the standard 'name: value' format. Use '\r\n' to separate multiple headers. If you don't need to specify any custom headers, pass nil or simply omit this argument.

'body' - optional; a string or ByteArray giving the content body of the request, if any. This is suitable for verbs such as PUT and POST. For verbs that don't send any content with the request, pass nil or simply omit the argument.

'bodyType' - optional; a string giving the MIME type of the content body. If this is omitted, a default MIME type is assumed according to the type of 'body': for a string, "text/plain; charset=utf-8"; for a ByteArray, "appliation/octet-stream".

This routine has no return value, since the request is processed asynchronously. The result can't be determined until the corresponding NetEvReqReply event occurs, at which point you can inspect that NetEvent object to find out if the request was successful, and if so retrieve the reply data.

Macros

`NetEvDebugBreak` | `tadsnet.h[270]`

`3`
Debugger interrupt. netEvent() returns this type of event when the user commands the debugger to interrupt the program and take control. If the program is waiting for a network event, this causes the netEvent() call to return with this type of event.

In a normal event-loop type of program, you can simply ignore this event and loop back for a new event immediately. The purpose of this event type is to force netEvent() to stop waiting and return to the byte-code caller, so that the debugger can pause execution at a valid byte-code program location. Once that's accomplished, there's nothing more to do with this event type; simply discard it and get the next event when the user resumes execution.

`NetEvReply` | `tadsnet.h[298]`

`5`
Network reply. This type of event occurs when a network request initiated by sendNetRequest() completes, or fails with an error. The event object contains the status of the request and, if successful, the result information sent back from the server.

`NetEvReplyDone` | `tadsnet.h[311]`

`6`
Reply data transfer finished. This type of event occurs when an asynchronous reply to a request is completed. An asynchronous HTTP request reply can be sent with HTTPRequest.sendReplyAsync(). The event object contains information on whether or not the reply was successfully sent to the client. For HTTP transactions, this is largely advisory, since there's no recovery action the server can take when an error occurs sending a reply; there's no provision in HTTP for a server to initiate contact with a client, so it's up to the client to handle it, such as by retrying the request.

`NetEvRequest` | `tadsnet.h[248]`

`1`
Request event. This type of event contains a request from the network client. For example, for an HTTP client, the event contains an HTTP request, such as a GET. The request is represented as an object; the class depends on the type of server and request.

`NetEvTimeout` | `tadsnet.h[254]`

`2`
Timeout. netEvent() returns this type of event when the interval expires before any actual network events occur.

`NetEvUIClose` | `tadsnet.h[290]`

`4`
UI Closed. This type of event occurs when the user manually closes the Web UI, ONLY in a stand-alone local configuration. This is the special configuration where the browser UI is integrated into the interpreter application, simulating the traditional TADS interpreter environment with the Web UI, and everything's running on a single machine. When the user closes the Web UI in this environment, the game should usually just terminate, since the user has effectively dismissed the application.

In the true client/server configuration, where the user is running an ordinary Web browser on a separate machine, we have no way of knowing that the user has closed the browser window. The best we can detect is a dropped network connection, but we can't assume this is due to the window closing, because it could happen for other reasons (such as a temporary network interruption). In the full client/server configuration, we have to be more subtle in determining that the user intends to quit the application, generally with inactivity timers.

`NetReqNoRedirect` | `tadsnet.h[233]`

`0x0001`
DO NOT follow "redirect" (301) results. By default (i.e., without this option flag), if the server sends back a 301 HTTP status code ("permanently moved"), we'll automatically follow the link to the new location and return the result from that new request. This is transparent to the caller; the caller just sees the final result from the final server we're redirected to. If this flag is specified, we DON'T follow a redirection, but instead simply stop and return the 301 result. The caller can inspect the reply headers to get the redirection link.

Enums

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Templates

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