netcode

Netcode
=======

> A simple JavaScript client & server binary-encoded websocket communication system aimed towards web video games development.

Features:
- 🔌 Server / Client duo, for node and the browser, that handle Websocket connection and communication.
- ⚡️ Handle the binary encoding and decoding of your data, with performances in mind.
- 📢 Listen for event dispatched over websocket with simple on/off event emitter system.
- 💬 Fallback to JSON for easy debugging.

Requirements

- Node >= v8.0.0

Installation

npm add netcode

Get started

$3

The server and the client __must__ share the same events.
An event is defined by its _unique_ name and the corresponding codec, responsible for encoding and decoding the data.

``javascript
// events.js
import Int8Codec from 'netcode/src/encoder/codec/Int8Codec';
import StringCodec from 'netcode/src/encoder/codec/StringCodec';

export default [
['id', new Int8Codec()],
['say', new StringCodec()],
];
`

In this example, the event list define how to send the following events over websocket:

- client.send('id', 255);
- client.send('say', 'Hello world!');

Then you'll be able to listen to this events on the client as follow:

- client.on('id', id => { / Do something / });
- client.on('say', sentence => { / Do something / });

Now let's create a server and an client that use this event list.

$3

We setup a server specifying the port and host on which the server will listen and the type of encoder to use.
Here we use a BinaryEncoder to communicate in binary over websocket, with the previously configured event list.

`javascript
import Server from 'netcode/src/server/Server';
import BinaryEncoder from 'netcode/src/encoder/BinaryEncoder';
import events from './events';

// Listen on localhost:8080
const server = new Server(8080, 'localhost', new BinaryEncoder(events));

server.on('client:join', client => {
client.on('say', sentence => console.log(sentence));
client.send('id', client.id);
});
`

Now we've got a server running at localhost:8080 that listen for a say text event and send a id integer event to every client that connects.

_See an full example of server setup._

$3

Now we write a client, for the browser, that connects to our running server on ws://localhost:8080 and use a BinaryEncoder with the same event list as the server.

`javascript
import Client from 'netcode/src/client/Client';
import BinaryEncoder from 'netcode/src/encoder/BinaryEncoder';
import events from './events';

const client = new Client('ws://localhost:8080', new BinaryEncoder(events))

client.on('open', () => {
client.on('id', id => console.log(My id is ${id}.));
client.send('say', 'Hello world!');
});
`

Now we've got client that listen for the id event and sent a sentence in a say` event.

Connection is alive and well!

_See an full example of client setup._

Complete documentation

To go further, see in-depth documentation and how-to's.

- Full API reference.
- Default codecs and how-to write your own.
- About packaging and setting up your own webpack configuration.
- Use netcode over a custom domain name and/or secured SSL connection.