GroupChat Developments

12:05 PM

So, I was able to achieve a successful communication between two computers connected over the same wifi network using python sockets. One of the problems that I encountered was that it kept dropping some packets which I sent for reasons I don't know. Still, long way to go.. Here is the code..

from socket import *

import threading

import json

import sys

def keep_recieving(s):

while True:

m=s.recvfrom(54545)

incoming_json = json.loads(m[0])

print('\r')

if incoming_json['type'] == 'connect':

print(incoming_json['name'] + ' Joined')

elif incoming_json['type'] == 'message':

if name == incoming_json['from']:

#print('You: '+incoming_json['message'])

pass

else:

print(incoming_json['from'] + ": "+incoming_json['message'])

#print('You: ', end='')

def send_message(cs, name, words):

json_output = json.dumps({"type": "message", "from": name, "message": words})

cs.sendto(bytes(json_output, 'utf8'), ('255.255.255.255', 54545))

isServer = False

name = input('Enter your Name : ')

initialize = json.dumps({"type": "connect", "name": name})

cs = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM)

cs.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1)

cs.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, 1)

cs.sendto(bytes(initialize, 'utf8'), ('255.255.255.255', 54545))

s=socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM)

s.bind(('',54545))

thread = threading.Thread(target=keep_recieving, args=(s,))

thread.start()

print('Type exit to leave chat!')

words = input('You: ')

print('\n')

while words != 'exit':

send_thread = threading.Thread(target=send_message, args=(cs, name, words))

send_thread.start()

words = input('You: ')

print('\n')

12:47 PM

Today's coding session was much better. I tried creating a program using python Tkinter, that will display all the online users in a network.

First, I made a ping thread, which would ping the network broadcast address after every 500 milliseconds. This will ensure that all users get to know that the user is still online.
Then I created a new_user list which another recieving thread would populate, if it got any new user, and which the draw function would pop the users from and update the GUI.
Also, if a user is inactive for 5 seconds, that is, the computer does not recieve any ping from that user in 5 seconds, then that user will be treated as disconnected, and the GUI will update.
Here is the code:

from socket import *

import time

from threading import *

import json

import tkinter as tk

new_users = []

def keep_recieving(s):

time.sleep(4)

#users.append('Heroshipma')

#print(users)

while True:

m=s.recvfrom(12345)

incoming_json = json.loads(m[0])

if incoming_json['type'] == 'connect' and incoming_json['name'] not in [user['name'] for user in users] and incoming_json['name'] not in [user['name'] for user in new_users]:

print(incoming_json['name'] + " Connected")

new_users.append({'name': incoming_json['name'], 'time': time.time()})

##----------Add users to new_user list if it is not currently added-------

elif incoming_json['type'] == 'connect':

for i in range(0, len(users)):

if users[i]['name'] == incoming_json['name']:

users[i]['time'] = time.time()

def ping_network(cs):

while True:

cs.sendto(bytes(initialize, 'utf8'), ('255.255.255.255', 12345))

time.sleep(0.5)

noLabel = None

def draw():

# if len(users) < 5:

# users.append('HIBAMBE')

# main_window.update()

for i in range(0, len(users)):

if time.time() - users[i]['time'] > 5:

print(users[i]['name'] + " Disconnected")

users.pop(i)

main_frame.winfo_children()[i].destroy()

while len(new_users) != 0:

new_user = new_users.pop()

user_btn = tk.Button(main_frame, text = new_user['name'], width=25)

user_btn.pack()

users.append(new_user)

main_window.after(500, draw)

name = input('Enter your Name : ')

#name = "Prakhar"

initialize = json.dumps({"type": "connect", "name": name})

cs = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM)

cs.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1)

cs.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, 1)

ping_network_thread = Thread(target=ping_network, args=(cs,))

ping_network_thread.start()

s=socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM)

s.bind(('',12345))

thread = Thread(target=keep_recieving, args=(s,))

thread.start()

users = []

main_window = tk.Tk()

main_frame = tk.Frame(main_window)

main_frame.pack()

main_window.title('Users online')

for user in users:

user_btn = tk.Button(main_frame, text = user, width=25)

user_btn.pack()

main_window.after(500, draw)

main_window.mainloop()

inp = input('Enter command')

print(inp)