ChatNet Protocol

The Simple Chat Protocol is an ASCII (plain text) protocol created by grelminar for chatting on ASSS. Being TCP and quite simple allows programmers to create feature rich chat clients quite easily, something that can't be done with the complex standard SubSpace protocol.

The Protocol

The latest version can always be found at http://bitbucket.org/grelminar/asss/src/tip/doc/simple-chat.txt

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