Packet receiving

For my game I want a network code that sends and receives databanks. The client creates a databank, then uses PokeByte to insert a header, wich will define the packet type, into the databank, after that it inserts the rest of the packetdata using PokeInt and then sends it to the server.

The databanks I'm sending are 500 bytes. In my old (BlitzBasic) code, the server could use "If ReadAvail(Stream) => 500" to check if there were any packets on the stream to read, the problem is I don't know how to do this with BlitzMax.

Could anyone give me some guidelines, or an example of how to do this?

Thanks in advantage.

Just use socketreadavail function.

Thanks for the input, I looked into the command but don't really know how to use it.
I quickly made a small example to show you guys what I mean:

SERVER

'Server
Global Server:TSocket
Global Connection:TSocket
Global Stream:TSocketStream
Global ReceiveBank:TBank=CreateBank(500)

Server=CreateTCPSocket()
BindSocket(Server,7002)
SocketListen(Server)
Print "Server started."

While Not KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE)
	Connection=SocketAccept(Server)
	
	If Connection
		Stream=CreateSocketStream(Server)
		Print "New connection."
		
		If SocketReadAvail(Server) => 400
			ReadBank(ReceiveBank,Stream,0,500)
			Local id:Byte=PeekByte(ReceiveBank,0)
			If id=7 Print "Received login packet."
		EndIf
	EndIf
Wend

CLIENT

'Client
Global Socket:TSocket
Global Stream:TSocketStream
Global SendBank:TBank=CreateBank(500)

Graphics 320,240

Socket=CreateTCPSocket()
If ConnectSocket(Socket,HostIp("localhost"),7002)
	Stream=CreateSocketStream(Socket)
	DrawText("Connected",0,0) ; Flip
Else
	RuntimeError("Could not connect to server.")
EndIf

PokeByte(SendBank,0,7)
WriteBank(SendBank,Stream,0,500)
Cls
DrawText("Login packet sent",0,0) ; Flip

WaitKey()
End

I know that code is wrong, but I hoped someone could show me what exactally is wrong about it, and maybe point me in the right direction.

Thanks

Try doing SocketReadAvail(connection)... but it looks like you're doing it mostly correctly to me.

That didn't work, the client does send the packet, and the server does know that a client connected, but for some reason it doesn't receive the packet, maybe I have to do something with 'While not Eof(Stream)...', but that makes my server crash.
Shouldn't I be checking if there is reading available on the Stream in stead of the Socket? (If that is possible).

The mistake could also be somewhere else in the code, but I can't seem to figure it out, some more help would be appreciated.

Conard.

socketreadavail returns the size in bytes of what's on the socket. So try with 'if socketreadavail(server/socket) > 0' and then do a 'for local i=0 to socketreadavail(server/socket)' loop to read as many bytes as there are on the socket

Ok, this is what I came up with:

'Server
Global Server:TSocket
Global Connection:TSocket
Global Stream:TSocketStream
Global ReceiveBank:TBank=CreateBank(500)
Global ByteArray:Byte[]

Server=CreateTCPSocket()
BindSocket(Server,7002)
SocketListen(Server)
Print "Server started."

While Not KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE)
	Connection=SocketAccept(Server)
	
	If Connection
		Stream=CreateSocketStream(Server)
		Print "New connection."
		
		If SocketReadAvail(Connection) > 0
			Print "Reading available."
			Local ToRead:Int=SocketReadAvail(Connection)
			ByteArray=New Byte[ToRead]
			For Local i:Int = 0 To ToRead
				ByteArray[i]=ReadByte(Stream)
			Next
			If ByteArray[0]=7 Print "Received login packet."
		EndIf
	EndIf
Wend

The server never even prints 'Reading available', I also tried to make the client write some bytes to the server using 'WriteByte()' but that didn't change anything.

Did you find a solution ? because TCP with blitzmax is a little
bit obscur for me :/

BNetEx from Vertex should help out.

OO Version of Blitz3D like UDP and TCP commands.
UDP and TCP streams which are extended from the regular stream class.

Yes but i want send bank over internet? any idea?

And where is the problem there?

I now use a simple lib rich d made (http://blitzmax.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=1974)
Here is a small test I made a while ago:
Client:

Global client:TClient
Global sendbank:TBank
Global receivebank:TBank

Graphics 320,240

client=TClient.Create("localhost",112233)
If Not client RuntimeError "Could not connect to the server!"
sendbank=CreateBank(500) ; receivebank=CreateBank(500)
For i=0 To 500-1
	PokeByte sendbank,i,0
Next
PokeByte sendbank,0,7

While Not KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE)
	If KeyHit(KEY_S)
		WriteBank(sendbank,client,0,500)
	EndIf
	DrawText "updating",0,0 ; Flip ; Cls
	If client.readavail() > 400
		ReadBank(receivebank, Client, 0, 500)
		Notify "received packet"
	EndIf
Wend

Server:

Global server:TServer
Global client:TClient
Global clients:TList
Global receivebank:TBank

Graphics 320,240

server=TServer.Create(112233)
clients=CreateList()
receivebank=CreateBank(500)

While Not KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE)
	client=server.Accept()
	
	If client
		Print "New Client"
		ListAddLast(clients,client)
	EndIf
	
	For client=EachIn clients
		If client.ReadAvail() > 400 Then
			as=ReadBank(receivebank,client,0,500)
			Print PeekByte(receivebank,0)
		EndIf
	Next
	
	If KeyHit(KEY_S)
		For i=0 To 500-1
			PokeByte(receivebank,i,0)
		Next
		WriteBank(receivebank,client,0,500)
	EndIf
	
	DrawText "Clients online: " + CountList(clients),0,0
	
	Flip
	Cls
Wend

In both examples you will have to add rich d's code.
It uses databanks to send packets from client to server. If you press 'S' on the server the client will notify you it has received a packet, if you press 'S' on the client the server will print the first byte of the packet.

Many thanks for the examples :)