From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2010-07-20T20:46:00+09:00
Subject: Re: TCPServer Muliple Clients by Name or Alias

2010/7/20 Jonathan Allen <jonathan.allen@insightbb.com>:
> Dear List,
>
> I have read over the TCPServer docs and I have been able to implement a
> simple server that supports multiple clients and will echo input back to
> all users. What I cannot seem to find docs on or grasp, is how to
> reference each individual client by a name.
>
> What I wish to accomplish is when a new client connects, they enter
> their name/alias so that other users can send messages to individual
> users by their name. Also, when they send a line of text to the server,
> everyone else sees something like the following.
>
> nocjallen says Hello World!
>
> I'm not sure how to go about doing this. Currently my script creates a
> new thread for each connection adds each connection to an array and then
> loops through it and sends what one client has said, to each other
> connection in the array.
>
> Any helpful input, examples or docs would be greatly appreciated.

You need a Hash to store your connections in.  Then you must create a
protocol by which every client authenticates itself and sends its
name.  You'll likely want to store more than the raw socket in the
Hash, e.g. something like

ClientInfo = Struct.new :socket, :name

Note that you must synchronize access to the centralized Hash which
maps names to ClientInfo instances.

Kind regards

robert

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