ChatNet Protocol
simple chat protocol version 1.6 grelminar@yahoo.com
the protocol is ascii over tcp. each message contains several fields, the first of which a type field that determines the meaning of the remaining ones. fields are separated by a colon (':', ascii 58). each message is terminated by either a CR (ascii 13), a LF (ascii 10) or any combination of those two.
either side can close the connection at any time. the other side should respond to this by closing their end of the connection also.
unless otherwise specified, the last field for each message type is allowed to contain colons.
player names are used to differentiate players. case is insignificant when comparing player names, but the server is required to use the same capitalization for all instances of the same player in the same session (i.e., if someone logs out and logs in again, the case of their name might change).
the rest of this document will describe the possible message types. if you recieve an unsupported message type, you should ignore it. in the following, capital letters generally designate stuff that should be sent literally, as it is printed here. lowercase letters are descriptions of fields will be filled in with the relevant data.
login:
client sends: LOGIN:version:name:password (the version field contains the protocol version, and also some information about the client. it should be of the form "1;client name and version". for example, "1;ccc 1.2, by grelminar".)
server will respond with one of: LOGINBAD:message (disconnect) or LOGINOK:yourname (the server/biller can rename clients, so the new name must be sent back to the client)
entering arenas:
client sends: GO:name (use an empty name to mean "first public arena". note that even if name is empty, the colon is still required.)
server may reply:
INARENA:arenaname:freq
(client should clear its player list when it gets this. freq is
the freq that the client has been assigned. chat clients are
always in spectator mode, and never in ships.)
PLAYER:name:ship:freq
(one line for each player who's in the arena at the time when it
is entered.)
enter/leave notification:
server sends: ENTERING:name:ship:freq (when a player enters an arena) LEAVING:name (when a player leaves)
ship/freq changes:
client sends: CHANGEFREQ:freq
server sends: SHIPFREQCHANGE:name:ship:freq (ships are numbered from 0 (warbird) to 8 (spectator))
kills:
server sends: KILL:killername:killedname:bounty:flagscarried
chat (the important part):
client sends: SEND:PUB:msg SEND:PUBM:msg SEND:PRIV:name:msg (the same message type works for both regular and remove priv msgs) SEND:FREQ:freq:msg (freq is the number of the destination freq) SEND:CHAT:line (line is either "msg" or "channelnum;msg") SEND:MOD:msg SEND:CMD:cmd SEND:PRIVCMD:name:msg SEND:SQUAD:squad:msg
server sends: MSG:ARENA:msg MSG:CMD:msg MSG:PUB:name:msg MSG:PUBM:name:msg (macroed pub message) MSG:PRIV:name:msg MSG:FREQ:name:msg MSG:CHAT:channelnum:msg MSG:MOD:name:msg MSG:SYSOP:msg MSG:SQUAD:squad:sender:msg
miscellaneous:
client or server can send at any time: NOOP
this can be used (by the client) to implement a keepalive ping to get around crappy nat routers, or (by the server) to help time out dead clients.
document history:
1.6: added NOOP type.
1.5: added client name in the version field of LOGIN. added PUBM message type.
1.4 and before: detailed history unavailable
- dist: public
