Caster NPM | npm.io

node-caster

Multicast Service Discovery

Caster provides a multicast server with middleware support. json, hash, and crypto middleware is included.

Node implements service discovery on top of Caster.

install

npm install caster

api

Caster - a multicast server

Stability: 2 - Unstable

example

var caster = require('caster');

var server = caster.create();

server.use(
    caster.middleware.json(),
    caster.middleware.hash({secret: 'mySecretHashPrefix'}),
    caster.middleware.crypto({key: 'mySecretKey'})
);

server.on('message', function(message, remote) {
  console.log(message, remote);
});

server.bind(function(err) {
  if (err) {
    console.log(err);
  } else {
    server.send({hello: 'world'}, function(err, bytes) {
      console.log(err, bytes);
      server.close();
    });
  }
});

caster.create(opt_options)

Creates a new Caster server. Caster is an EventEmitter.

opt_options is an optional Object.

{
  multicast: '224.0.0.42',
  address: '0.0.0.0',
  port: 10101,
  loopback: true,
  ttl: 64
}

Note: All nodes have to use the same multicast address & port to be able to communicate.

server.use(var_middleware)

Adds middleware.

server.use(
    caster.middleware.json(),
    caster.middleware.hash(),
    caster.middleware.crypto()
);

The middleware execution order, resulting from the above example, would be json.tx -> hash.tx -> crypto.tx for outgoing, and crypto.rx -> hash.rx -> json.rx for incoming messages.

server.send(message, opt_callback)

Sends a message to all listening multicast servers.

message is a Buffer.

opt_callback is an optional function(err, bytes). A possible error is emitted when no callback is set.

server.bind(opt_callback)

Enables the multicast udp socket.

opt_callback is an optional function(err). A possible error is emitted when no callback is set.

server.close(opt_callback)

Closes the socket. Allows to bind() again with the same caster object.

opt_callback is an optional function().

Event: 'message'

function(message, remote)

message is a Buffer.

remote is an object with address and port.

Event: 'error'

function(err)

middleware

An example middleware object:

{
  name: 'json',
  tx: function(message, next) {...},
  rx: function(message, remote, next) {...}
}

middleware.crypto(opt_options)

Creates a new crypto middleware to encrypt outgoing & decrypt incoming messages.

opt_options is an optional Object.

{
  key: '09dfDim3ZqzXvfkun6',
  algorithm: 'aes256'
}

middleware.hash(opt_options)

Creates a new hash middleware to hash outgoing & verify incoming messages.

opt_options is an optional Object.

{
  secret: '9ve2cND;d3"Vs',
  algorithm: 'sha1'
}

middleware.json()

Creates a new json middleware to allow usage of a stringifyable object instead of a Buffer as message.

Node - a service discovery server

Stability: 2 - Unstable

example

var node = require('caster').createNode({
  meta: {
    type: 'http',
    port: 8080
  }
});

node.on('up', function(remote) {
  console.log('node up:', remote.id, remote.meta);
});

node.on('down', function(remote) {
  console.log('node down:', remote.id, remote.meta);
});

node.on('message', function(message, remote) {
  console.log(remote.id + ':', message);
});

node.up(function(err) {
  if (err) {
    console.log(err);
  } else {
    console.log('caster node running on ' +
        node.multicast + ':' + node.port);
  }
});

caster.createNode(opt_options)

Creates a new Node object. Node is an EventEmitter and uses Caster.

opt_options is an optional Object.

{
  id: null, // your node's id, randomized if not set
  meta: null, // your node's metadata that is transmitted with every heartbeat
  expose: true, // when false, no heartbeat messages are send
  heartbeat: 1000, // heartbeat interval in ms
  timeout: 2000, // timeout until a remote node is declared down

  // caster options
  multicast: '224.0.0.42',
  port: 10101,
  ttl: 64,

  // caster middleware options
  hash: true, // enable message hashing
  hashSecret: null, // hash secret
  hashAlgorithm: 'sha1', // hash algorithm
  crypto: false, // enable message encryption
  cryptoKey: null, // encryption key
  cryptoAlgorithm: 'aes256' // encryption algorithm
}

node.up(opt_callback)

Starts up the node.

opt_callback is an optional function(err). A possible error is emitted when no callback is set.

node.down(opt_callback)

Shuts down the node.

opt_callback is an optional function().

node.send(message, opt_callback)

Sends a message to other multicast nodes.

message is a String, Number or Object.

opt_callback is an optional function(err, bytes). A possible error is emitted when no callback is set.

node.nodes

An object with all currently seen nodes.

{
  node857631295: {
    id: 'node857631295',
    address: '10.0.0.23',
    firstSeen: 1340351517064,
    lastSeen: 1340351517064,
    meta: {...}
  },
  ...
}