I’m writing a multiplayer game server and client in Python, using the built-in SocketServer’s TCPServer and ThreadingMixIn because it seems easier than manually managing the socket and threading modules. (I’d like to stick with the built-in modules for this.) It uses a protocol similar to HTTP for communication (GTP).
Requests involving only one client already work. If a client sends the request “GET /index.html GTP/0.2“, the server just has to respond “GTP/0.2 200 OK” to that client. But if a game is going on between clients A and B (as recorded in the server’s state) and client A sends the request “TURN <my turn info> GTP/0.2“, then after taking player A’s turn, how does the server notify both players A and B of the changes?
Here are the essentials of my code so far:
import SocketServer
import socket, threading # not yet used
class ThreadingGameServer(SocketServer.ThreadingMixIn, SocketServer.TCPServer):
def __init__(self, server_address, RequestHandlerClass):
SocketServer.TCPServer.__init__(self, server_address, RequestHandlerClass)
self.players = []
self.games = []
class GameRequestHandler(SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler):
def setup(self):
self.request_data = None
self.response_data = None
def handle(self):
while True:
self.request_data = self.request.recv(4096)
if not self.request_data:
break # Client disconnected
# delegate handling to do_GET, do_POST, etc
do_method = 'do_' + self.request_data.split()[0]
if not hasattr(self, do_method):
self.request.sendall("GTP/0.2 501 Not Implemented\r\n\r\n")
continue
try:
do = getattr(self, do_method)
do()
except Exception as e:
break
def do_GET(self):
body = '<contents of {}>'.format(self.my_request.param)
data = "GTP/0.2 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: {}\r\n\r\n{}".format(len(body), body)
self.request.sendall(data)
def do_LOGIN(self):
"""
Create a player with the requested username and this handler.
Add the player to self.server.players.
Respond with 200 OK, body "Welcome!, <username>".
"""
def do_PLAY(self):
"""
If the requested opponent is not logged in and ready to play, respond with 403 Forbidden.
Create a game with this player and the requested opponent.
Remove the two players from self.server.players.
Add the game to self.server.games.
Respond with 200 OK, body "Begin game with <opponent>".
How do I send "Begin game with <this player>" to the opponent as well?
"""
def do_TURN(self):
"""
If it is not this player's turn, respond with 403 Forbidden.
Modify the game's state in self.server.games, including making it be the opponent's turn.
Respond with 200 OK, body "<new game state>".
How do I send the response to the opponent as well?
"""
def do_EXIT(self):
"""
If this player is logged in, log them out.
If they are in a game, respond to their opponent with 200 OK, body "Game over" (how?).
End their request handler.
"""
class GameClient(object):
def __init__(self, server_address):
self.socket = socket.create_connection(server_address)
def run(self):
"""
Read user input, e.g. "> login foobar".
Send request to server, e.g. self.socket.sendall("LOGIN foobar GTP/0.2\r\n\r\n")
Get server's reply via self.socket.recv(4096)
Print the reply body, e.g. "Welcome, foobar!"
"""
# On the server machine
server = ThreadingGameServer((socket.gethostname(), 4242), GameRequestHandler)
server.serve_forever()
# On each client machine
client = GameClient(('server.mygame.com', 4242))
client.run()
There is probably a better way to do this, but the method I devised for myself ages ago (back when I was new with Python!) was to have a kind of inbox for each client. Each client then periodically asks the server for the contents if its inbox, and parses those commands accordingly.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this question, I’d quite like to see any better methods than mine. I’d also recommend waiting for answers before trying this.