Trouble-free Network Communication - XNet

• Download source files and demo project - 6.17 KB

Introduction

Over the years, there's always this problem that I face whenever I need to share data between systems or machines over the network - the freely available networking libraries and code snippets are either sometimes broken or I need to read up a lot before I can make sense out of them. So I've decided to write a simple and flexible networking class for everyone to use.

Cool Features

Since it's simple and meant to get you started in minutes, you won't be seeing a long list of features. But do take note of its ease-of-use and convenience in terms of the data handling and setup.

• Just one object for networking (either client or server)
• Easy selection of UDP or TCP mode
• No need for explicit data serialization before sending/retrieval; takes any data structure

Using the Code

It's easy to see how XNet can be integrated into any application in minutes. The only thing you have to do other than choosing where you want to create the XNet object and placing the sending/receiving functions is to define your own structure for the data you want to transmit before compilation. This can be done in MyDataStruct.h. XNet automatically handles the serialization for you by pointer "casting" and then reverses it at the receiving end. Check out the source codes for the XNet class for more information.

// ... Headers and verbose ...
#include "XNet.h"

// Choose build options from the configurations manager tab in Visual Studio

int main(void)
{
 MyDataStruct ds, dr;
 ds.data[0]=10.f;
 ds.data[1]=20.f;
 ds.data[2]=30.f;
 ds.data[3]=40.f;
 ds.data[4]=50.f;
 ds.data[5]=60.f;

 XNet* xnet = XNet::Instance();

#ifdef TCP_SERVER
 xnet->init( SERVER, 2006, TCP );

 dr = xnet->receiveData();
 std::cout << "Random integrity check: " << dr.data[2] << std::endl;

 xnet->sendData( ds );
 std::cout << "Sent!" << std::endl;
#endif

#ifdef TCP_CLIENT
 xnet->init( CLIENT, 2006, TCP, "localhost" );

 xnet->sendData( ds );
 std::cout << "Sent!" << std::endl;

 dr = xnet->receiveData();
 std::cout << "Random integrity check: " << dr.data[5] << std::endl;
#endif

#ifdef UDP_SERVER
 xnet->init( SERVER, 2006, UDP );

 dr = xnet->receiveData();
 std::cout << "Random integrity check: " << dr.data[2] << std::endl;

 xnet->sendData( ds );
 std::cout << "Sent!" << std::endl;
#endif

#ifdef UDP_CLIENT
 xnet->init( CLIENT, 2006, UDP, "localhost" );

 xnet->sendData( ds );
 std::cout << "Sent!" << std::endl;

 dr = xnet->receiveData();
 std::cout << "Random integrity check: " << dr.data[5] << std::endl;
#endif

 getchar();  // Just a pause
 delete xnet; // Safe singleton deletion

 return 0;
}

Points of Interest

I have even built XNet as Matlab Simulink blocks due to the need in a piece of research work. XNet provides an easy mode of communication between Matlab and an external C++ console-based application without the hassle of network setup as in the case of using other networking blocks or libraries. For those who are interested, you can contact me for the Simulink blocks.

History

• 12^th February, 2006: Initial post