Getting started

In this sample we will not even write code, we will just create a new project. Install XSockets and then connect to the built-in generic controller to send some messages around. We will do so by using a very basic protocol written for Putty, or raw sockets.

Do not worry about concepts such as protocol and controllers, we will cover these topics later on.

1. Create a new project

In visual studio, create a new Console Application (C#).

2. Install XSockets

Open up the package manager console, you will find it under tools -> nuget package manager -> package manager console

In the package manager console type Install-Package XSockets and hit enter

This will add the assemblies of XSockets and also install Serilog (for logging) and Newtonsoft.Json (for serialization).

3. Add some code

In the project you received a new folder named XSocketsNET, this folder contains a file with a simple sample for starting a server.

Copy that code into the main method of the program.cs file. Notice that you also have to add the namespaces seen below.

using System;
using XSockets.Core.Common.Socket;
using XSockets.Plugin.Framework;

namespace Sample1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (var container = Composable.GetExport<IXSocketServerContainer>())
            {
                container.Start();
                Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }
    }
}

4. Start the server

Just hit F5 or press the start button and you will see something like below.

Just hit F5 or press the start button and you will see something like below.

We see some information about the server:

• At the top we see some license information.
• Then we see that the server created 2 auto-configurations. One for localhost and another for the machine ip.
• At the bottom we see information about both configuration endpoints being started .

5. Connect and send some messages

As we saw in step 4 the server was auto-configured and started an endpoint on localhost port 4502. This means that we now can connect to the server and use the built-in controller named generic. The generic controller is very simple, it will broadcast all messages coming in to all clients connected to that controller.

There are a few protocols included in the server by default. You can see them if you look at the referenced assemblies (marked in red below).

So you can see that we have Rfc6455 (WebSockets), Mqtt, Json and Putty. Puttyis the simplest of these protocols and is only in there for demo purposes.

Note: You can remove any protocol assembly that you do not want to support, or add new ones that you write yourself. They are just modules/plugins

As all protocols the Putty protocol expects you to send a handshake when connecting. The handshake is simply "PuttyProtocol"

Then the protocol expects us to send data in the format controller|topic|data

This means that we can send generic|say|hello

So now open up an instance of Putty, connect to localhost and the port 4502. You will also have to choose RAW as the connection type

Then type in the handshake "PuttyProtocol" and press enter. This will connect you to the server and the protocol will respond with a message.

Now type "generic|say|hello" and hit enter.

As you can see the message arrived back to the client, and you also got some information about the connection you just opened.

Now open up another Putty instance and you will be able to send messages between them.