🚀 go-pugleaf

JD wrote:

> I've never worked with a client/server application before and
> even though I've been reading docs for the past 1 1/2 days,
> there's so much to weed through that I'd like someone to point
> me in the right direction (please).
> 
> Currently, the only requirements for the server are tracking
> users as they log on and off and sending and receiving messages
> to the clients. Also, the client could be on a a non-networked
> system.
What kind of connection will be available in that case?
> 
> What's the 'best' (perhaps fastest/easiest) way to meet minimum
> requirements?
> 
> In the future, some processing may be moved to the server which
> would involve client data manipulation and fetching and saving
> data to and from disk.
> 
> Same question: What's the best/fastest/easiest way?
> How would this solution impact on the choice of the first?
> 
> There has also been discussion of incorporating dialup and/or
> internet access in the future. Recommendations?
> 
> I also don't understand how the server gets started on the
> server. Would an install package take care of that or what?
> 
> ~ JD
> 
The easiest way to communicate between two apps is often to use sockets.
C++Builder has both a ServerSocket and a ClientSocket component for 
this. Data can be written to and read from a socket in a way similar to 
files. Read the help files for more info.

When the processing done by the server is simple and connection have a
very short lifetime you can get away with using a single thread and
handling all requests sequential.

When processing is more complex you will have to use a multithreaded
solution.

You will have to create some protocol for communication. For simple 
applications a text based line oriented protocol is often good enough.

Eelke