From: Doug Beaver <doug@...>
Date: 2005-12-18T06:13:47+09:00
Subject: dynamic status updates using net-mdns bonjour messaging

hello,

i'm exploring using net-mdns 0.2 (written by sam roberts) to do some
bonjour work.  i'm curious if anyone has figured out how to make a
bonjour service dynamically update its TXT record.

i'm starting to write a dummy chat client/server just to test the apis
out, and while i can easily find lists of all the servers out there, i'm
having difficulty getting my servers to broadcast updates about their
status.

here's a hack i did in order to simulate dynamic updates, i just create
a new service each time i want to send an update:

----

require 'net/dns/resolv-mdns'
require 'net/dns/resolv-replace'
require 'net/http'

args = ["service1", "_chatter._tcp", 8000, nil]

i = 0
announce = nil

loop do
  announce.stop unless announce.nil?
  announce = Net::DNS::MDNS::Service.new(*args) do |s|
    s.ttl = 5
    s["status"] = i.to_s
  end

  i += 1
  sleep 1
end

----

i'm using mdns-watch.rb from net-mdns's samples/ directory, and i see
the proper TXT updates going out, but i'm wondering if there's a way to
do this without having to stop the service every time.

i tried just doing 'announce["status"] = i.to_s' inside my loop, but i
never see updates, the only way i could make the bonjour records get
broadcast was to create a new service object every time.

does anyone have any suggestions?  btw, thanks to sam for creating such
a cool module, i'm having a lot of fun working with it.

doug

-- 
"Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the
world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant.  It's a shark
riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they
see." -- Jack Handey