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<section class="tex2jax_ignore mathjax_ignore" id="messagepath">
<h1>Messagepath<a class="headerlink" href="#messagepath" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h1>
<p>The main functionality of Evennia is to communicate with clients connected to it; a player enters
commands or their client queries for a gui update (ingoing data). The server responds or sends data
on its own as the game changes (outgoing data). Its important to understand how this flow of
information works in Evennia.</p>
<section id="the-ingoing-message-path">
<h2>The ingoing message path<a class="headerlink" href="#the-ingoing-message-path" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Well start by tracing data from the client to the server. Here it is in short:</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>Client -&gt;
PortalSession -&gt;
PortalSessionhandler -&gt;
(AMP) -&gt;
ServerSessionHandler -&gt;
ServerSession -&gt;
Inputfunc
</pre></div>
</div>
<section id="client-ingoing">
<h3>Client (ingoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#client-ingoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>The client sends data to Evennia in two ways.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>When first connecting, the client can send data to the server about its
capabilities. This is things like “I support xterm256 but not unicode” and is
mainly used when a Telnet client connects. This is called a “handshake” and
will generally set some flags on the <a class="reference internal" href="../Components/Portal-And-Server.html"><span class="doc std std-doc">Portal Session</span></a> that
are later synced to the Server Session. Since this is not something the player
controls, well not explore this further here.</p></li>
<li><p>The client can send an <em>inputcommand</em> to the server. Traditionally this only
happens when the player enters text on the command line. But with a custom
client GUI, a command could also come from the pressing of a button. Finally
the client may send commands based on a timer or some trigger.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Exactly how the inputcommand looks when it travels from the client to Evennia
depends on the <a class="reference internal" href="Custom-Protocols.html"><span class="doc std std-doc">Protocol</span></a> used:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Telnet: A string. If GMCP or MSDP OOB protocols are used, this string will
be formatted in a special way, but its still a raw string. If Telnet SSL is
active, the string will be encrypted.</p></li>
<li><p>SSH: An encrypted string</p></li>
<li><p>Webclient: A JSON-serialized string.</p></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="portal-session-ingoing">
<h3>Portal Session (ingoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#portal-session-ingoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>Each client is connected to the game via a <em>Portal Session</em>, one per connection. This Session is
different depending on the type of connection (telnet, webclient etc) and thus know how to handle
that particular data type. So regardless of how the data arrives, the Session will identify the type
of the instruction and any arguments it should have. For example, the telnet protocol will figure
that anything arriving normally over the wire should be passed on as a “text” type.</p>
</section>
<section id="portalsessionhandler-ingoing">
<h3>PortalSessionHandler (ingoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#portalsessionhandler-ingoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>The <em>PortalSessionhandler</em> manages all connected Sessions in the Portal. Its <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">data_in</span></code> method
(called by each Portal Session) will parse the command names and arguments from the protocols and
convert them to a standardized form we call the <em>inputcommand</em>:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">commandname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>All inputcommands must have a name, but they may or may not have arguments and keyword arguments -
in fact no default inputcommands use kwargs at all. The most common inputcommand is “text”, which
has the argument the player input on the command line:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">&quot;text&quot;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">&quot;look&quot;</span><span class="p">,),</span> <span class="p">{})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This inputcommand-structure is pickled together with the unique session-id of the Session to which
it belongs. This is then sent over the AMP connection.</p>
</section>
<section id="serversessionhandler-ingoing">
<h3>ServerSessionHandler (ingoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#serversessionhandler-ingoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>On the Server side, the AMP unpickles the data and associates the session id with the server-side
<a class="reference internal" href="../Components/Sessions.html"><span class="doc std std-doc">Session</span></a>. Data and Session are passed to the server-side <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">SessionHandler.data_in</span></code>. This
in turn calls <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ServerSession.data_in()</span></code></p>
</section>
<section id="serversession-ingoing">
<h3>ServerSession (ingoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#serversession-ingoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>The method <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ServerSession.data_in</span></code> is meant to offer a single place to override if they want to
examine <em>all</em> data passing into the server from the client. It is meant to call the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ssessionhandler.call_inputfuncs</span></code> with the (potentially processed) data (so this is technically a
sort of detour back to the sessionhandler).</p>
<p>In <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">call_inputfuncs</span></code>, the inputcommands name is compared against the names of all the <em>inputfuncs</em>
registered with the server. The inputfuncs are named the same as the inputcommand they are supposed
to handle, so the (default) inputfunc for handling our “look” command is called “text”. These are
just normal functions and one can plugin new ones by simply putting them in a module where Evennia
looks for such functions.</p>
<p>If a matching inputfunc is found, it will be called with the Session and the inputcommands
arguments:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="n">text</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">session</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">&quot;look&quot;</span><span class="p">,),</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="p">{})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If no matching inputfunc is found, an inputfunc named “default” will be tried and if that is also
not found, an error will be raised.</p>
</section>
<section id="inputfunc">
<h3>Inputfunc<a class="headerlink" href="#inputfunc" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="../Components/Inputfuncs.html"><span class="doc std std-doc">Inputfunc</span></a> must be on the form <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">func(session,</span> <span class="pre">*args,</span> <span class="pre">**kwargs)</span></code>. An exception is
the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code> inputfunc which has form <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default(session,</span> <span class="pre">cmdname,</span> <span class="pre">*args,</span> <span class="pre">**kwargs)</span></code>, where <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cmdname</span></code>
is the un-matched inputcommand string.</p>
<p>This is where the messages path diverges, since just what happens next depends on the type of
inputfunc was triggered. In the example of sending “look”, the inputfunc is named “text”. It will
pass the argument to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cmdhandler</span></code> which will eventually lead to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">look</span></code> command being
executed.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="the-outgoing-message-path">
<h2>The outgoing message path<a class="headerlink" href="#the-outgoing-message-path" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Next lets trace the passage from server to client.</p>
<div class="highlight-none notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>msg -&gt;
ServerSession -&gt;
ServerSessionHandler -&gt;
(AMP) -&gt;
PortalSessionHandler -&gt;
PortalSession -&gt;
Client
</pre></div>
</div>
<section id="msg">
<h3>msg<a class="headerlink" href="#msg" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>All outgoing messages start in the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg</span></code> method. This is accessible from three places:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Object.msg</span></code></p></li>
<li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Account.msg</span></code></p></li>
<li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Session.msg</span></code></p></li>
</ul>
<p>The call sign of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg</span></code> method looks like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">from_obj</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">session</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">options</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>For our purposes, what is important to know is that with the exception of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">from_obj</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">session</span></code> and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">options</span></code>, all keywords given to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg</span></code> method is the name of an <em>outputcommand</em> and its
arguments. So <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text</span></code> is actually such a command, taking a string as its argument. The reason <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text</span></code>
sits as the first keyword argument is that its so commonly used (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">caller.msg(&quot;Text&quot;)</span></code> for example).
Here are some examples</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">&quot;Hello!&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c1"># using the &#39;text&#39; outputfunc</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">prompt</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="sa">f</span><span class="s2">&quot;HP: </span><span class="si">{</span><span class="n">HP</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">, SP: </span><span class="si">{</span><span class="n">SP</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">, MP: </span><span class="si">{</span><span class="n">MP</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">mycommand</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">((</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s2">&quot;foo&quot;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s2">&quot;bar&quot;</span><span class="p">})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note the form of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">mycommand</span></code> outputfunction. This explicitly defines the arguments and keyword
arguments for the function. In the case of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">prompt</span></code> calls we just specify a string -
this works too: The system will convert this into a single argument for us later in the message
path.</p>
<blockquote>
<div><p>Note: The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg</span></code> method sits on your Object- and Account typeclasses. It means you can easily
override <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg</span></code> and make custom- or per-object modifications to the flow of data as it passes
through.</p>
</div></blockquote>
</section>
<section id="serversession-outgoing">
<h3>ServerSession (outgoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#serversession-outgoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>Nothing is processed on the Session, it just serves as a gathering points for all different <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg</span></code>.
It immediately passes the data on to …</p>
</section>
<section id="serversessionhandler-outgoing">
<h3>ServerSessionHandler (outgoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#serversessionhandler-outgoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>In the <em>ServerSessionhandler</em>, the keywords from the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg</span></code> method are collated into one or more
<em>outputcommands</em> on a standardized form (identical to inputcommands):</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">commandname</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This will intelligently convert different input to the same form. So <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">msg(&quot;Hello&quot;)</span></code> will end up as
an outputcommand <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(&quot;text&quot;,</span> <span class="pre">(&quot;Hello&quot;,),</span> <span class="pre">{})</span></code>.</p>
<p>This is also the point where the <a class="reference internal" href="../Components/FuncParser.html"><span class="doc std std-doc">FuncParser</span></a>) is applied, depending on the
session to receive the data. Said data is pickled together with the Session id then sent over the
AMP bridge.</p>
</section>
<section id="portalsessionhandler-outgoing">
<h3>PortalSessionHandler (outgoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#portalsessionhandler-outgoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>After the AMP connection has unpickled the data and paired the session id to the matching
PortalSession, the handler next determines if this Session has a suitable method for handling the
outputcommand.</p>
<p>The situation is analogous to how inputfuncs work, except that protocols are fixed things that dont
need a plugin infrastructure like the inputfuncs are handled. So instead of an “outputfunc”, the
handler looks for methods on the PortalSession with names of the form <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">send_&lt;commandname&gt;</span></code>.</p>
<p>For example, the common sending of text expects a PortalSession method <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">send_text</span></code>. This will be
called as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">send_text(*(&quot;Hello&quot;,),</span> <span class="pre">**{})</span></code>. If the “prompt” outputfunction was used, send_prompt is
called. In all other cases the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">send_default(cmdname,</span> <span class="pre">*args,</span> <span class="pre">**kwargs)</span></code> will be called - this is the
case for all client-custom outputcommands, like when wanting to tell the client to update a graphic
or play a sound.</p>
</section>
<section id="portalsession-outgoing">
<h3>PortalSession (outgoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#portalsession-outgoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>At this point it is up to the session to convert the command into a form understood by this
particular protocol. For telnet, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">send_text</span></code> will just send the argument as a string (since that is
what telnet clients expect when “text” is coming). If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">send_default</span></code> was called (basically
everything that is not traditional text or a prompt), it will pack the data as an GMCP or MSDP
command packet if the telnet client supports either (otherwise it wont send at all). If sending to
the webclient, the data will get packed into a JSON structure at all times.</p>
</section>
<section id="client-outgoing">
<h3>Client (outgoing)<a class="headerlink" href="#client-outgoing" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<p>Once arrived at the client, the outputcommand is handled in the way supported by the client (or it
may be quietly ignored if not). “text” commands will be displayed in the main window while others
may trigger changes in the GUI or play a sound etc.</p>
</section>
</section>
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<p><h3><a href="../index.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Messagepath</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-ingoing-message-path">The ingoing message path</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#client-ingoing">Client (ingoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#portal-session-ingoing">Portal Session (ingoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#portalsessionhandler-ingoing">PortalSessionHandler (ingoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#serversessionhandler-ingoing">ServerSessionHandler (ingoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#serversession-ingoing">ServerSession (ingoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#inputfunc">Inputfunc</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-outgoing-message-path">The outgoing message path</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#msg">msg</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#serversession-outgoing">ServerSession (outgoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#serversessionhandler-outgoing">ServerSessionHandler (outgoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#portalsessionhandler-outgoing">PortalSessionHandler (outgoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#portalsession-outgoing">PortalSession (outgoing)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#client-outgoing">Client (outgoing)</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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title="previous chapter">Using MUX as a Standard</a></p>
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