Messaging

Messaging is a client/server app written in Python2.7 that allows multiple users to communicate over a shared channel.

How it works ?

The server handle multiple connection by creating a temporary thread that either create a new user or authenticate an old one, then add it to the users queue. A number of threads are running synchronously (the number is specified using a configuration variable. See the Usage section) to process messages sent by clients. This image illustrate the architecture of the app:

Installation

You only need to have Python2.7 installed to run the server and the (ncurses)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ncurses] library to run the client.

Run the following command to get the code:

$ git clone https://github.com/youben11/messaging

If you are aiming to run the client then run the following command:

$ sudo pip2 install curses

Docker

Docker lovers (users) can run the server quickly with the following command:

$ git clone https://github.com/youben11/messaging
$ cd messaging
$ docker build --tag messaging:latest .
$ docker run --rm -t -p <port>:4848 messaging

This will get the server started. You can connect to the server through your host IP address and the specified port number.

Usage

Running the server:

$ cd messaging
$ python2.7 server.py

Running the client:

$ cd messaging
$ python2.7 client.py
[+] Usage:
            client.py connect username password server_ip [server_port]
            client.py create username password server_ip [server_port]

[*] usernmae: alphanumeric, 2 to 20 character (must begin with a letter)
[*] password: 8 to 15 characters

Configuring the server

The server app has different variables that can be configured:

NUM_TH

This specify how many threads will handle the clients. Default is 2. It's recommended to increase this number if you have a lot of client.

ADDR

The IP Address that the server will bind to. Default is 0.0.0.0 which binds all the existing addresses.

PORT

The PORT number that the server will use. Default is 4848.

youben11 / messaging