Hi Tim,

Would it be advisable for me to spend some time and a fair chunk of money implementing a service discovery solution for my ElevateDB applications, or is this something the message layer will be able to do when it is eventually released?

Thanks,

Steve

Steve,

<< Would it be advisable for me to spend some time and a fair chunk of money
implementing a service discovery solution for my ElevateDB applications, or
is this something the message layer will be able to do when it is eventually
released? >>

Do you mean a broadcast message at the TCP/IP level that checks to see what
EDB Servers are available on the network ?  That was going to wait until EDB
3, but I can see about moving it forward since it's a minor thing.

BTW, the messaging stuff is about 80% done, but I hit a snag in the design
and had to leave it alone for a while until I figured it out.  Luckily, that
happened about a week and a half ago, and I'll be able to finish it up after
I'm done with the next release with the EDB PHP Extension for Linux (and EWB
JSON).  I think I also figured out how to get around the major snag that I
hit with the switchable ANSI/Unicode design, so I'll be revisiting that
also.  I had a really bad stretch of luck this summer - every single new
design change I worked on wasn't panning out, so there's been a lot of
development with nothing to show for it.  But, this is par for the
course when you're trying to add things that weren't in the initial design
for the product.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Hi Tim,

<< Do you mean a broadcast message at the TCP/IP level that checks to see what EDB Servers are available on the network ?  That was going to wait until EDB 3, but I can see about moving it forward since it's a minor thing. >>

Yes, that's sounds like it's exactly what I'm after.  Currently client apps are manually configured with the EDB server's IP address.  The plan is, on startup, the client apps will ask for any EDB servers on the network.  The EDB server will send back its IP address (and perhaps some other details), and the client will then use that address to connect.  This will save me a lot of remote support sessions, especially when users move everything to a new server and forget to reconfigure the client apps with the new IP address.

I tried doing this with IP multicasting groups but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea why (probably my own ignorance ). I've managed to do it successfully with UDP but you have to bind to a specific port and, because there can be more than one app on the machine that needs to connect to the server, they would each need their own port.  Gets kind of messy, unless I have just one app that does this work and the other ones call it.  Hmmm, that gives me an idea.

I was looking at buying the RemObject SDK because it has the ZeroConf feature, but it's a bit expensive for just that one feature.  

<< BTW, the messaging stuff is about 80% done, but I hit a snag in the design and had to leave it alone for a while until I figured it out.  Luckily, that happened about a week and a half ago, and I'll be able to finish it up after I'm done with the next release with the EDB PHP Extension for Linux (and EWB JSON).  I think I also figured out how to get around the major snag that I hit with the switchable ANSI/Unicode design, so I'll be revisiting that also.  I had a really bad stretch of luck this summer - every single new design change I worked on wasn't panning out, so there's been a lot of development with nothing to show for it.  But, this is par for the course when you're trying to add things that weren't in the initial design for the product. >>

I know how you feel.  Sounds like my normal workday.  Lots of coding but nothing to show for it.  

That's great news about the messaging stuff.  And the Linux extension and EWB Json.  So much to look forward to.

- Steve

Steve,

<< Yes, that's sounds like it's exactly what I'm after.  Currently client
apps are manually configured with the EDB server's IP address.  The plan is,
on startup, the client apps will ask for any EDB servers on the network.
The EDB server will send back its IP address (and perhaps some other
details), and the client will then use that address to connect.  This will
save me a lot of remote support sessions, especially when users move
everything to a new server and forget to reconfigure the client apps with
the new IP address. >>

Yep, we're on the same page.

Also, one of the things (separate from this) that comes from the new comms
design for the messaging is the ability for the server to ping the clients.
So, no more need for ping settings on the client.  This will all help in
making things much easier to manage on the client.

<< I tried doing this with IP multicasting groups but sometimes it works and
sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea why (probably my own ignorance ).
I've managed to do it successfully with UDP but you have to bind to a
specific port and, because there can be more than one app on the machine
that needs to connect to the server, they would each need their own port.
Gets kind of messy, unless I have just one app that does this work and the
other ones call it.  Hmmm, that gives me an idea. >>

Yes, UDP is the ticket for something like this.  However, you won't need to
bind to a specific port for a client call, at least not in the same sense as
a server would in terms of listening on a port.  You will specify a port,
but that's the port that the server is listening on and internally the
client's socket layer will just select a port from the user-selectable range
of ports.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Hi Tim,

<< Also, one of the things (separate from this) that comes from the new comms design for the messaging is the ability for the server to ping the clients. So, no more need for ping settings on the client.  This will all help in
making things much easier to manage on the client. >>

Very nice.

<< Yes, UDP is the ticket for something like this.  However, you won't need to bind to a specific port for a client call, at least not in the same sense as a server would in terms of listening on a port.  You will specify a port,
but that's the port that the server is listening on and internally the client's socket layer will just select a port from the user-selectable range of ports. >>

That sounds perfect.  Can't wait.

- Steve