PythonChat

Simple chat in Python with Tkinter GUI on client side.

Getting started

Requirements

Python 3.4 or higher

Modules:

socket
tkinter
threading
select 
time
queue

Usage

Launching

To use locally, you need to run server file first, for example python server_multithreaded.py, then you can run client.py in a separate terminal.
There are 3 server versions:
* server_multi.py - main thread only listens for new connections, then it creates new thread for each new client
* server_multithreaded.py - it has 3 threads - listener, receiver and sender
* server_select.py - it has 1 thread which uses select.select()

Exiting

To exit client, simply click 'Exit' button or 'x' in upper right corner.
To exit server:
* server_multithreaded.py and server_multi.py - type 'quit' in terminal, then press Enter
* server_select.py - you need to use Ctrl+C in terminal (SIGINT)

Messaging protocol

This server uses simple communication protocol, which is as following:

template: action_type;origin;target;message_contents
user1 sends message to user2: msg;user1;user2;message_contents
user sends message to all users: msg;user;ALL;message_contents
user logs in or out: login;user / logout;user
server notifies users about changes in login list login;user1;user2;user3;[...];ALL

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

mikegpl / pychat