I have an iphone app with rails serving as a backend server.
Now I need to implement a chat functionality using sockets connections.
A lot of examples show you how to implement chat using sockets in browser.
What I need here is how I can implement an application where you create socket server in the rails app , and the client in iphone app which listens to the channel I give them.
I tried using faye(examples given only how to implement client in the browser) and using fayeObjC library for iphone to create client, but am not able to listen to the channel from this library.I know I must be implementing it wrong here.
I'll share my code also here, but first I need to know is there a better solution than this?
Also I appreciate some links to some examples where socket server is in rails and clients are iphone app.
Appreciate any help and mostly need a right direction to implement it.
Update
I tried the faye combination again and it worked.Although still looking for more solutions.
You can check about TCP sockets:
http://www.raywenderlich.com/3932/how-to-create-a-socket-based-iphone-app-and-server
Chat Application Using Ruby
http://quickblox.com/modules/chat/
http://caydenliew.com/2011/11/ios-mac-os-communication-with-asyncsocket/
http://www.macresearch.org/cocoa-scientists-part-xxix-message
Next link is a comprehensive Networking Guide - Using Internet Sockets
You must keep in mind two major problems to peer-to-peer communications (Chat): reachability and how to receive new messages while your application is in the background (get notifications).
For the last you can use APNS approach: an invisible notification will be pushed to the iPhone indicating that a new message is ready to be read. So your app will make a request for unread messages (what app like WhatsApp does).
Besides TCP sockets you could use websockets (HTTP - so there are no firewall problems).
Best in class - Socket.IO.
Here you will find the wiki https://github.com/learnboost/socket.io/wiki (you will find there an extension for Ruby also)
Here an example for iOS chat client for socket.io & node.js backend
Jabber
Another option: XMPP - "stands for eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol. Such a protocol is open-standard and oriented to message exchange (builds and maintains by Jabber community). Message exchange happens near real time, so it is an ideal infrastructure to build chat-like applications. The protocol also implements a mechanism to notify presence information (whether a user is online or not) and the maintenance of a contact list. XMPP is a thorough protocol, which has been adopted also by big companies like Google to build their Instant Messaging service."
Here you will find all about developing a Jabber Client for iOS (enable users to sign in, add buddies, and send messages; how to install and configure a jabber server, create accounts, and interact with the server from an iOS application http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/iphone/building-a-jabber-client-for-ios-server-setup/
I know that SocketRocket by square is a strong native Objective-C library. But it doesn't offer the channel abstraction you seem to be looking for.
If you would consider outsourcing the WebSocket connections then you could use a hosted service like Pusher, who I work for. You can publish messages (trigger events) on channels using the pusher-gem. And you can subscribe to channels and receive messages using one of Pusher's Objective-C libraries.
Other solutions will also have Objective-C libraries and you can find a list of them via this realtime web tech guide.
Related
I am currently writing an iPhone application that sends and receives JSON data from a remote server to essentially display realtime information. Me and my partner started the project using Google App Engine (Python) for the server-side implementation mostly because it was easy to pick up and seemed suitable for our needs at the time. However, we're only just now starting to see the downsides of the framework for realtime iPhone apps - APNS is not at all supported, and neither is the GAE Channels API. So our only option for displaying the realtime server data on our app is to continuously poll the server, which certainly seems like horrible design.
We'll have to port our server-side code to a new framework. My question is, which one do we use? From numerous searches, I still have yet to find a satisfactory answer.
I should mention that I don't necessarily want the server to send push notifications. I just want to be able to push data to clients in real-time, and then manipulate that data on the iPhone client-side code. We're fine with setting up the framework on a local server if we have to.
Since you don't want to be pull data in background (lett alone if it is even possible)will have to use APNS.
But why switch away from google app angine, you could use an APNS provider like Urban Airship wich provide there on API to connect with.
You'r not even the fist to run into this problem: Apple Push Notifications on Google Appengine
Probably the easiest realtime framework you can use for sending data to iOS clients in real-time is PubNub (http://www.pubnub.com). It's reasonably priced, and it scales to anything you can throw at it. In my experience, it has no problem delivering a message to an end client in under .25 milliseconds (regardless of the number of clients it's being sent to).
Their latest version also supports APNS functionality for when you app isn't in the foreground.
https://github.com/pubnub/objective-c/blob/master/iOS/README_FOR_APNS.md
If you want to create your own APNS server (since you are running on App Engine anyway), there are examples of how to do that using App Engine's new Socket API. I've written a demo python AppEngine application that people might find helpful in this regard.
https://github.com/GarettRogers/appengine-apns-gcm
I have to do a simple iPhone project as part of an university exam which consists in creating a simple instant messenger based on a client/server system using the Java Servlet technology (required).
What I would like to know is if there is a framework or some simple classes that make me able to listen for incoming http message from a server without make a request so that an iPhone can send directly to another iPhone an instant message.
Thanks in advance and have a nice day!
L.
From what I understand from your question, you need a listener. There are several 3rd party implementations that provide what you need. Basically you just need to open a socket for listening on a HTTP server running on your iPhone.
Try these, it should provide you with what yo need
CocoaHTTPServer.
MongooseDaemon
If youre looking for a way to receive message from WEB server - you may use Apple Notification service (here`s a good tutorial)
Another way is to use long-poll connection, but is not an easy thing to implement in IOS.
Maybe you can check for incoming message by requesting web server from iPhone (ex. every 10 seconds)?
I have an idea of an application that involves a "chat feature", basically an ability for people to chat with each other. Since sending messages through a server would be slow (plus it would be pretty bad having to check the server every second if you have new messages) I want to use sockets to have peer to peer chat ability instead of going through a server.
My 2 questions:
1) Is socket programming the most optimal way to develop a chat program? I know there is push notification service, but I don't think it can be used for a chat program too well. Going through a server seems kind of bad if you imagine 5,000 people chatting and having to poll the server every second.
2) Will Apple have issues approving an app that has peer to peer chat program that uses sockets?
Thank you.
Sockets are indeed appropriate. But you are better off with a client/server approach rather than a P2P approach.
Having worked on a very well known instant messaging service for many years, I can tell you absolutely that going through a server is not slow - as long as your server is not slow.
Client/server has lots of advantages. Namely, it's not as difficult as any sort of P2P connectivity where such issues as NATs and Firewalls make direct socket connections difficult and unreliable. Besides, you would need a messaging service anyway for clients to exchange IP addresses.
Your stated assumption that a client or server would have to "poll" is not how scalable systems work. You should use a persistent TCP socket and look at scaling a socket service up though any of the available async methods that exist today. select(), poll(), epoll on Linux, and IO Completion Ports on Windows are all techniques for having thousands of sockets simultaneously connected without periodic polling.
My suggestion - just deploy an XMPP/Jabber server. Most implementations scale up nicely to the thousands of clients. Then your chat program is just an XMPP client socket. Some of the Jabber servers even support HTTP connectivity for situations where a user's only access is via an http or http proxy server. I played around with Openfire a while back and was reasonably impresseed.
I'm fairly certain that iOS has sockets, and that it's allowed by Apple. I only know via second hand from folks that have worked on iOS products. You probably shouldn't use the push notification service for anything more than notifications to wake up your app that there is something it needs to do.
Hope this helps.
I'm trying to write a simple chat application for the iPhone (as an experiment). Is there a simple way for two devices to discover each others' IP addresses, and given the addresses is there a simple API or protocol that would let me send text messages back and forth?
I've investigated SIP (specifically Sofia and eXosip), but these tools exist as C libraries and are beyond my current ability to port them to the iPhone.
Update: I'm trying to connect two devices over the Internet (i.e. not over Bluetooth or a local wireless network, which is what GameKit does).
You're going to need a server that provides the match making service. Game Center makes this pretty easy, but your users will have to have Game Center accounts.
Alternatively, you can set up an XMPP (formerly Jabber, it's what powers Google Chat) server (I've never done this, but there are several available) and use the XMPP Framework for Cocoa. There are instructions for using it in iPhone apps here.
I'm sure there are other chat servers and client source also available. IRC and Mobile Colloquy come to mind.
Finally, you could write your own server using your favorite server language / framework. This isn't too hard (I've done it myself), but it's far from what I'd call simple, and I wouldn't use it for a production system.
There is support for exactly this kind of ad-hoc peer-to-peer networking in GameKit. Have a look at the second half of the GameKit documentation for details:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/...
NSNetService is a good option.
Take a look at WebRTC Datachannels. WebRTC is a newer option with native iOS support a standard that is still being finalized, but it is more flexible should the iOS app need to communicate with browser or even android peers
I am a new programmer who is new to iPhone development and server stuff. I have a lot of questions to ask.
You don't have to answer all the questions; any help is appreciated!
How does iPhone apps interact with server?
Is there a particular kind of server i should use to interact iphone app with server?
If there is no particular kind of server then what kind of server can be used?
What are their advantages and disadvantages?
What should the iPhone app (which is the client) do in order to interact with the server?
How does the server know which iPhone to send data to?
What should the server do in order to interact with iPhone app (client)?
Your best bet is to have your iPhone make web requests of a web server. Your iPhone app acts just like a web browser, making http requests to a web server, and parsing the response.
I'm building an app right now that hits PHP scripts I've written that do database work, etc, and return JSON objects. It's not fancy--I could have built a whole SOAP or RPC web service, but I didn't do that, it just makes GET requests with query-string arguments.
There are handy libraries you want to know about. Google "iPhone JSON" to find the JSON library written by Stig Brautaset, that's the one most people seem to be using. Also, rather than putting yourself through all the hoops that the iPhone's built-in web client framework requires, go get ASIHTTPRequest, a very powerful and MUCH simplified web client library.
As a general rule, you want to do as much processing on the server as possible. For instance, there's a place in my app I'm searching for events happening within a user-specified range of their local coordinates ("within 10 miles of me"). I wrote PHP to build a latitude/longitude bounding box, and query from the database based on that. That's WAY faster than bringing a bunch of events down and then asking Core Location to calculate their distance from where I'm standing.
You've asked quite a few questions so I'll try my best to answer them all:
First, you need to be a bit clearer, what type of server are you talking about? Email server, web server, lolcat server, it depends.
At the basic level, the iphone communicates over the internet. The internet uses Internet Protocol, and there are two standard protocols built atop of IP: Transmission Control Protocol, and User Datagram Protocol. Each has it's own uses and functions.
TCP/IP and UDP/IP make up the backbone of internet communication.
A more specific application protocol is built atop of these two internet protocols, with a specific format to a given application. For example, HTTP is the standard protocol for transferring HTML and other Web information between a web server to a web browser client, over TCP.
So, your iPhone would use whatever protocol is required to commuincate with the server. For more common server communication, the iOS SDK provides methods to construct messages (for example if you wish to make an HTTP request to a web server, you can use initWithContentsOfURL to send a GET request).
If you built a custom server, then you will need construct the required message protocol on the iphone, and send it to the server, using either TCP or UDP (whatever your custom server expects).