SimpleAutoDiscovery (or SAD for short)

Description

A C# NetStandard 2.0 library solution for implementing a lightweight auto discovery server and client

Usage

Please see the "ExampleClient" and "ExampleServer" projects included with the source code for a complete example.

Server

Install the latest SADServer nuget package

Setup and Starting

// Creates a new auto discovery server that will receive messages on port 8756, reply on port 8757 with the
// the message "Hello there!" and will not setup the socket for reuse
var sadServer = new SADServer.AutoDiscoveryServer(8756, 8757, Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Hello there!"), false);

// Starts the server listening for broadcasts
sadServer.StartListening();

Stopping

sadServer.StopListening();

Client

Install the latest SADClient nuget package

Create Server Information class

You can either use the base implementation of ServerInformation which once instantiated will provide you with the raw data returned by the server in bytes.

However I'd advise that you create your own implementation of the ServerInformation class based on your needs like this example

// Custom Server Information inheriting from ServerInformation
public class CustomServerInfo : ServerInformation
{
  // The message received from the server as a string
  public string ServerMessage { get; }

  public CustomServerInfo(IPEndPoint serverEndpoint, byte[] message) : base(serverEndpoint, message)
  {
  	this.ServerMessage = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(message);
  }
}

Finding servers

// Creates a new auto discovery client that will send broadcasts on port 8756, receive responses on port 8757,
// and does not setup the socket for port reuse.
var sadClient = new SADClient.AutoDiscoveryClient<CustomServerInfo>(8756, 8757, false);

// Searches for servers synchronously for 1000 milliseconds and broadcasts the message "Anyone" and returns
// a collection of CustomServerInfos representing the servers found.
IEnumerable<CustomServerInfo> servers = await sadClient.FindServersAsync(1000, Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Anyone?"));

Development Status

This is more or less a 'proof' of concept at this point, has minimal testing from me, and definately shouldn't be considered production ready.

Planned Features

• Support for UDP multicasting