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(C++) Asio example 2: a chat client

 

This Asio example shows how to create a chat client.

 

This example has been copied literally from
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_38_0/doc/html/boost_asio/examples.html .
The purpose of this example is to convert the source code to a compiling project.

 

 

Operating system: Ubuntu

IDE: Qt Creator 2.0.0

Project type: Qt4 Console Application

Compiler: G++ 4.4.1

Libraries used:

 

 

 

 

 

Qt project file

 

#-------------------------------------------------
#
# Project created by QtCreator 2010-07-22T09:01:12
#
#-------------------------------------------------
QT += core
QT -= gui
TARGET = CppAsioExample2
CONFIG += console
CONFIG -= app_bundle
TEMPLATE = app
LIBS += -L/usr/local/lib -lboost_system
LIBS += -L/usr/local/lib -lboost_thread
SOURCES += main.cpp
HEADERS += \
chat_message.h \
chat_client.h

 

 

 

 

 

Source code

 

 

 

 

 

chat_message.h

 

//
// chat_message.hpp
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//
// Copyright (c) 2003-2010 Christopher M. Kohlhoff (chris at kohlhoff dot com)
//
// Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
// file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
//

#ifndef CHAT_MESSAGE_HPP
#define CHAT_MESSAGE_HPP

#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <cstring>

class chat_message
{
public:
  enum { header_length = 4 };
  enum { max_body_length = 512 };

  chat_message()
    : body_length_(0)
  {
  }

  const char* data() const
  {
    return data_;
  }

  char* data()
  {
    return data_;
  }

  size_t length() const
  {
    return header_length + body_length_;
  }

  const char* body() const
  {
    return data_ + header_length;
  }

  char* body()
  {
    return data_ + header_length;
  }

  size_t body_length() const
  {
    return body_length_;
  }

  void body_length(size_t length)
  {
    body_length_ = length;
    if (body_length_ > max_body_length)
      body_length_ = max_body_length;
  }

  bool decode_header()
  {
    using namespace std; // For strncat and atoi.
    char header[header_length + 1] = "";
    strncat(header, data_, header_length);
    body_length_ = atoi(header);
    if (body_length_ > max_body_length)
    {
      body_length_ = 0;
      return false;
    }
    return true;
  }

  void encode_header()
  {
    using namespace std; // For sprintf and memcpy.
    char header[header_length + 1] = "";
    sprintf(header, "%4d", body_length_);
    memcpy(data_, header, header_length);
  }

private:
  char data_[header_length + max_body_length];
  size_t body_length_;
};

#endif // CHAT_MESSAGE_HPP

 

 

 

 

 

chat_client.h

 

//
// chat_client.cpp
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//
// Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Christopher M. Kohlhoff (chris at kohlhoff dot com)
//
// Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
// file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
//

#include <cstdlib>
#include <deque>
#include <iostream>
#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/asio.hpp>
#include <boost/thread.hpp>
#include "chat_message.h"

using boost::asio::ip::tcp;

typedef std::deque<chat_message> chat_message_queue;

class chat_client
{
public:
  chat_client(boost::asio::io_service& io_service,
      tcp::resolver::iterator endpoint_iterator)
    : io_service_(io_service),
      socket_(io_service)
  {
    tcp::endpoint endpoint = *endpoint_iterator;
    socket_.async_connect(endpoint,
        boost::bind(&chat_client::handle_connect, this,
          boost::asio::placeholders::error, ++endpoint_iterator));
  }

  void write(const chat_message& msg)
  {
    io_service_.post(boost::bind(&chat_client::do_write, this, msg));
  }

  void close()
  {
    io_service_.post(boost::bind(&chat_client::do_close, this));
  }

private:

  void handle_connect(const boost::system::error_code& error,
      tcp::resolver::iterator endpoint_iterator)
  {
    if (!error)
    {
      boost::asio::async_read(socket_,
          boost::asio::buffer(read_msg_.data(), chat_message::header_length),
          boost::bind(&chat_client::handle_read_header, this,
            boost::asio::placeholders::error));
    }
    else if (endpoint_iterator != tcp::resolver::iterator())
    {
      socket_.close();
      tcp::endpoint endpoint = *endpoint_iterator;
      socket_.async_connect(endpoint,
          boost::bind(&chat_client::handle_connect, this,
            boost::asio::placeholders::error, ++endpoint_iterator));
    }
  }

  void handle_read_header(const boost::system::error_code& error)
  {
    if (!error && read_msg_.decode_header())
    {
      boost::asio::async_read(socket_,
          boost::asio::buffer(read_msg_.body(), read_msg_.body_length()),
          boost::bind(&chat_client::handle_read_body, this,
            boost::asio::placeholders::error));
    }
    else
    {
      do_close();
    }
  }

  void handle_read_body(const boost::system::error_code& error)
  {
    if (!error)
    {
      std::cout.write(read_msg_.body(), read_msg_.body_length());
      std::cout << "\n";
      boost::asio::async_read(socket_,
          boost::asio::buffer(read_msg_.data(), chat_message::header_length),
          boost::bind(&chat_client::handle_read_header, this,
            boost::asio::placeholders::error));
    }
    else
    {
      do_close();
    }
  }

  void do_write(chat_message msg)
  {
    bool write_in_progress = !write_msgs_.empty();
    write_msgs_.push_back(msg);
    if (!write_in_progress)
    {
      boost::asio::async_write(socket_,
          boost::asio::buffer(write_msgs_.front().data(),
            write_msgs_.front().length()),
          boost::bind(&chat_client::handle_write, this,
            boost::asio::placeholders::error));
    }
  }

  void handle_write(const boost::system::error_code& error)
  {
    if (!error)
    {
      write_msgs_.pop_front();
      if (!write_msgs_.empty())
      {
        boost::asio::async_write(socket_,
            boost::asio::buffer(write_msgs_.front().data(),
              write_msgs_.front().length()),
            boost::bind(&chat_client::handle_write, this,
              boost::asio::placeholders::error));
      }
    }
    else
    {
      do_close();
    }
  }

  void do_close()
  {
    socket_.close();
  }

private:
  boost::asio::io_service& io_service_;
  tcp::socket socket_;
  chat_message read_msg_;
  chat_message_queue write_msgs_;
};

 

 

 

 

 

main.cpp

 

#include "chat_client.h"

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  try
  {
    if (argc != 3)
    {
      std::cerr << "Usage: chat_client <host> <port>\n";
      return 1;
    }

    boost::asio::io_service io_service;

    tcp::resolver resolver(io_service);
    tcp::resolver::query query(argv[1], argv[2]);
    tcp::resolver::iterator iterator = resolver.resolve(query);

    chat_client c(io_service, iterator);

    boost::thread t(boost::bind(&boost::asio::io_service::run, &io_service));

    char line[chat_message::max_body_length + 1];
    while (std::cin.getline(line, chat_message::max_body_length + 1))
    {
      using namespace std; // For strlen and memcpy.
      chat_message msg;
      msg.body_length(strlen(line));
      memcpy(msg.body(), line, msg.body_length());
      msg.encode_header();
      c.write(msg);
    }

    c.close();
    t.join();
  }
  catch (std::exception& e)
  {
    std::cerr << "Exception: " << e.what() << "\n";
  }

  return 0;
}

 

 

 

 

 

Getting the chat program to work

 

For the chat program to work, you need the executables from both Asio example 1: a chat server and Asio example 2: a chat client.

 

First start the server. For the chat program I decided to use port 6660 (due to this Wikipedia page). The server cannot be used to send messages.

 

./CppAsioExample1 6660

 

Now we need to start two clients. The clients are used to send messages. I used two computers from my router (LAN?) network. The computer I started the server on had the IP adress 192.168.23.100. Start two clients with the code below, possibly on different computers.

 

./CppAsioExample2 192.168.23.100 6660

 

While chatting, the server must keep running.

 

 

 

 

 

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