Re: [wxCode-users] wxDNSSD

[William H. S. <whs...@ce...>]

I see.  That makes more sense--that it would be source-code  
compatible, similar to WINE.  That would relieve the effort of  
implementation quite a bit.

While it may be a while before I get around to writing serious  
documentation, I can at least go ahead and put some effort into  
squeezing this into the existing socket sample.  That should help get  
you up and running.


-------------------------------
Hank Schultz
Cedrus Corporation
http://www.cedrus.com/


On Dec 18, 2006, at 7:01 PM, Ishan Arora wrote:

> William,
> What I insisted in last post was "Avahi also implements binary  
> compatibility libraries that emulate Bonjour and Howl". I guess I  
> should have used a different font :)
> Since Avahi sounds more native and also emulates Bonjour in  
> different binaries, you wont have to modify your code (much).  
> Moreover it comes installed with most linux; we don't have much  
> reason to give a Linux user the trouble of installing Bonjour
>
>
> On 12/19/06, William H. Schultz <whs...@ce...> wrote:
> It isn't visible straight from wxCode because I'm using wxCode's  
> subversion repository instead of the CVS repository.  This allowed  
> me to point to it as an external source within our own internal  
> project's svn repo.  I also haven't packaged up a release, as I  
> have no documentation or anything to help people build a project.
>
> About Avahi, if that's what is commonly shipping on Linux systems,  
> then that would probably be the better route to take on those  
> platforms.  As currently implemented, wxDNSSD relies on Apple's  
> implementation.  I imagine Avahi wouldn't be particularly difficult  
> to implement into my existing framework.  I suspect the structure  
> will likely be very similar (if not identical), but a lot of the  
> code I've written probably won't apply.  I have a suspicion it  
> would wind up being a parallel implementation, like much of  
> wxWidgets' cross-platform support.
>
> It may not be a bad idea to see if my implementation works with  
> Apple's Bonjour on Linux.  If it does, you could still do an Avahi  
> implementation, but this would make it much easier to ensure that  
> software written against wxDNSSD will work the same regardless of  
> the backend.  (just an idea)
>
>
> Anyway, I committed a change to servicediscoverytaskbase.h a few  
> minutes ago, so there should be a little more information there on  
> what you need to know to get going.  It's getting late, so I'm  
> headed home for the evening.
>
>
> We should probably continue this discussion on the wxCode mailing  
> list.   https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wxcode-users   
> I figured I would mention this before starting to CC the list (in  
> case you have privacy concerns about anything you've already  
> mentioned).
>
>
> -------------------------------
> Hank Schultz
> Cedrus Corporation
> http://www.cedrus.com /
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2006, at 5:54 PM, Ishan Arora wrote:
>
>> William,
>> Why is this project not accessible straight from wxCode? It would  
>> be more visible to the interested that way. My purpose is to  
>> create an open source network messenger. I am thinking of using  
>> Bonjour for the messenger to know the presence of other instances  
>> of the messenger on the network. Is there a better way you wish to  
>> recommend?
>>
>> I just came across this on wikipedia.org
>> Avahi is a Zeroconf implementation for Linux and BSDs. It  
>> implements IPv4LL, mDNS and DNS-SD. It is part of every major and  
>> many minor Linux distributions, and is installed by default on  
>> e.g. Ubuntu version 6.10. If run in conjunction with nss-mdns it  
>> also offers host name resolution.
>>
>> Avahi also implements binary compatibility libraries that emulate  
>> Bonjour and Howl, so software made to use those implementations  
>> can also utilize Avahi through the emulation interfaces.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 12/19/06, William H. Schultz < whs...@ce...> wrote:
>> Thanks!  It was also just the thing I needed.  Of course, since no  
>> one had published a good implementation, I did the best I could  
>> and put it out there for everyone else.  The key things missing  
>> are documentation and support for text records.  I'm working right  
>> now on adding a short blurb to the servicediscoverytaskbase.h  
>> header file to give a quick overview of how stuff works.  I hope  
>> to have this committed within the next half hour.
>>
>>
>> Hank Schultz
>>
>> <cedrus_logo_w140.gif>
>>
>> http://www.cedrus.com/
>>
>>
>> On Dec 18, 2006, at 5:34 PM, Ishan Arora wrote:
>>
>>> William,
>>> I guess I am the first one to be interested because the project  
>>> is relatively new and alpha version :)
>>> Anyways I am finding Bonjour just the right thing for my project,  
>>> so I owe you a big "Thank You!!!" for helping me use it in  
>>> wxWidgets. I'll try to contribute to your side project ;)
>>> Thank you
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/19/06, William H. Schultz < whs...@ce...> wrote:
>>> It has not been tested.  There is a mechanism implemented to work  
>>> based on the select() type of receiving events, which should  
>>> theoretically be compatible with Linux.  I tried to use this but  
>>> had issues.  I don't recall if I tried it on both OS X and  
>>> Windows, but I think I may have.  This would rely on idle  
>>> events.  I also tried a threaded implementation, allowing the  
>>> bonjour calls to block.  I don't recall precisely why I'm not  
>>> using this method myself.
>>>
>>> There are two methods implemented that could potentially work on  
>>> Linux.  Unfortunately, I know I had some kind of issues with both  
>>> of these methods on either Windows or Mac OS X, so you may have  
>>> your work cut out for you to get it running on Linux.  There is  
>>> the slim possibility that it will work pretty easily for you-- 
>>> that is, the methods are implemented--but I wouldn't count on it.
>>>
>>> In the end, I had a hard time getting everything to work right on  
>>> Windows, so it could just be that I didn't devote enough effort  
>>> into tweaking things for the more globally available methods.
>>>
>>> Everything you need to make this work should be in  
>>> servicediscoverytaskbase.h and .cpp.  This is where the bonjour  
>>> tasks get set up.  Since they all work mostly the same way, all  
>>> of the code is in here.  One other place that may need  
>>> modification is wxServiceDiscoveryResult::SetNetworkInterface(),  
>>> which takes an integer index for the network interface and  
>>> retrieves the name.  On Mac OS X, this is en0, en1, fw0, etc...   
>>> If the Mac OS X code for this doesn't work under Linux, it's just  
>>> a matter of finding the line or two of code that takes this index  
>>> and turns it into a name.
>>>
>>> If you're willing to look over Apple's DNS SD documentation, then  
>>> the functionality of the code should be relatively clear.
>>>
>>> I have a vague recollection that the threaded implementation was  
>>> a lot more reliable than the idle-event-initiated-select()  
>>> implementation (though I think I had some issues with starting  
>>> and stopping tasks).  You are probably better off starting down  
>>> this route.
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm planning on rewriting the socket sample to use this, but it  
>>> may be a bit before I get around to it.
>>>
>>>
>>> Oh, and in case you didn't already know, Bonjour doesn't do much  
>>> of anything for actual network communication.  You're on your own  
>>> to set up a server and or client.  Bonjour just tells you what  
>>> claims to be available (dns name and port...  you have to get the  
>>> IP yourself, but that should be implemented in my code in  
>>> wxServiceDiscoveryResult::SetTarget).
>>>
>>> There are a lot of calls to wxLogDebug() to keep you informed as  
>>> to what is going on.
>>>
>>> You're the first person to contact me to say, "hey, I'm  
>>> interested!"  Sorry about the disarray.  Our potential use for  
>>> this is way out in the future, so it's a low priority side  
>>> project, relative to tech support and fixing bugs in shipping  
>>> products.  ;)
>>>
>>>
>>> Hank Schultz
>>>
>>> <cedrus_logo_w140.gif>
>>>
>>> http://www.cedrus.com/
>>>
>>>
>>> On Dec 18, 2006, at 4:50 PM, Ishan Arora wrote:
>>>
>>>> William,
>>>> Thank you for your response. I am really thankful. Does wxDNSSD  
>>>> also work on linux, even if not tested?
>>>>
>>>> On 12/19/06, William H. Schultz < whs...@ce...> wrote:
>>>> Ishan,
>>>>
>>>> Yes, I have.  So far, it seems to be working pretty well for me  
>>>> internally.  I haven't yet inflicted it on anyone else in my  
>>>> company, and especially not any users yet.  You can get the  
>>>> source code here:
>>>>
>>>> https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/wxcode/trunk/wxCode/ 
>>>> components/servicediscovery/   (works in a web browser or  
>>>> subversion client)
>>>>
>>>> I don't have anything to help build it yet.  I'm currently  
>>>> including the source files as if they were part of my own  
>>>> project.  In include/wx/servicediscoverydef.h, this code is  
>>>> configured to only build in debug mode, so you will likely want  
>>>> to modify this file.
>>>>
>>>> There is one Bonjour feature that is missing, and that's the  
>>>> text records.  At the moment, I have no use for it, so I haven't  
>>>> implemented it.  Everything else is working fine for me on  
>>>> Windows and Mac OS X.
>>>>
>>>> I'm sorry that I haven't yet put together a sample to show off  
>>>> how to use this functionality, but it's relatively simple.   
>>>> There are four primary data types:  browser, resolver, service,  
>>>> and result.  If you have something to announce, you create a  
>>>> service and then start it.  If you want to find something, you  
>>>> create a service but *don't* start it.  You provide this service  
>>>> to the browser.  The browser returns results via events.  These  
>>>> results don't have full IP information, so you need to resolve  
>>>> your results.  The same result objects are used for both, and an  
>>>> object array has been defined in servicediscoveryresult.h to  
>>>> make it easier to keep up with the results.
>>>>
>>>> An important detail to remember is that all bonjour tasks must  
>>>> be started and stopped for anything to happen (browser,  
>>>> resolver, and service are all tasks).  If you don't start your  
>>>> service, it won't be visible (this is what you want if you are  
>>>> looking for results but not if you have a service to offer).  If  
>>>> you don't start the browser, you will never get any results.   
>>>> The browser should stay active until you no longer need  
>>>> results.  The resolver can probably be deactivated after you get  
>>>> your IP information.
>>>>
>>>> While bonjour supports IPv6, wxWidgets doesn't, so everything is  
>>>> done with IPv4.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I hope this is enough to get you started!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hank Schultz
>>>>
>>>> <cedrus_logo_w140.gif>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.cedrus.com/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Dec 18, 2006, at 3:37 PM, Ishan Arora wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> hi
>>>>> you seem to have created a wrapper class for Apple's Bonjour.  
>>>>> it seems to be very helpful from the description, but i am  
>>>>> unable to access it. can you please check it. if it takes time  
>>>>> to put them for download then please email me the files.
>>>>> thank you
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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