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Chat Application Tutorial

This guide will go over step by step of setting up an application using the python implementation of RSocket.

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If you find a problem, code or otherwise, please report an issue

Preface​

We will be creating a chat application with a server and a client.

The chat client will have the following functionality:

  • Private messages between users
  • Joining and sending messages to channels
  • Uploading/Downloading files
  • Getting server and client statistics (e.g. number of channels)

Since the emphasis is on showcasing as much RSocket functionality as possible, some examples may be either a bit contrived, or be possible to implement in a different way using RSocket. This is left as an exercise to the reader.

In the first steps the code will be written using only the core rsocket python implementation. This results in more verbose code, but prevents the need for additional packages being installed. In later steps, Reactivex implementation will be added to show more concise code, on both server and client side.

Required knowledge​

The guide assumes the following knowledge:

  • Basic python level (classes, using decorators, simple dataclasses)
  • Basic asyncio usage (syntax, starting tasks)
  • Basic understanding of RSocket protocol (See About RSocket)

Notes​

The word interface will be used to denote classes with all or mostly abstract methods, even though python has no such inherent entity.

Required setup​

As rsocket is supported on python 3.8 and above, this guide will limit itself to using python 3.8 features. Some code examples may be simplified using later python versions. This is left as an exercise for the reader.

Install the rsocket package. See the pypi package listing for installation methods. The tutorial was tested against version 0.4.6.

Code​

The tutorial code is available on GitHub under examples/tutorial.