Handling messages equally on server and the client, without code duplication

[LukasBoersma]

I was wondering how I would allow both the server and the client to send and receive messages using the same code.

Consider a simple chat app where clients connects to a server and the users, including the host, want to exchange text messages.

How I implemented this:

• In one app instance I start a server using Mode::HostServer, in another app instance I connect a client to the server.
• I use ClientConnectionManager::send_message_to_target with NetworkTarget::All to send a chat message. This only works from the client - I assume that I need to use ServerConnectionManager on the server for this?
• On the server, I receive the message as a lightyear::server::events::MessageEvent. On the client it arrives as a lightyear::client::events::MessageEvent.

Is this the right way to do this? Or is there a way to send and receive messages using the same code on client and server? Should I connect a local client to the server within the same app to achieve this?

Sorry if this is a dumb question; it feels like I misunderstood something very basic about lighyear. But I have looked at the docs and examples for a while now and didn't find an answer to this.

Thanks!

[cBournhonesque]

Hi!

No your understanding is totally correct, there's no way to use exactly the same code for both client and server currently. The best you can do would be to have a shared function that you reuse in both the client and server code.

Usually it's pretty rare that client and server would want exactly the same logic, but yes I could see a world where an interface that is shared between ClientConnectionManager and ServerConnectionManager is provided

[LukasBoersma]

Ok, thanks for the quick reply! Then I will just use the separate interfaces for now.