Using SmartFox with C# (I) : Installations and 1st handshaking

Despite that SmartFox has offered a Unity3D package for easy access SmartFox functionalities for game developers, however it is not very straightforward to directly get to know how to consume SmartFox with C# (Mono), particularly in a step-by-step fashion. This post offers a concise introduction on how to get started with SmartFox in C# in 2 minutes. Hope you love it …

Server setup

• Got o SmartFoxServer web site
• Download and install the latest server in your computer

C# Client

• Got o SmartFoxServer web site
• Download the Client API
• Extract the downloaded zip file, and grab the dll for further use.

Create a C# console application, add reference to the above grabbed dll file, add below code:

    using Sfs2X;
    using Sfs2X.Util;
    using System;

    class Program
    {
        static private SmartFox client;
        static private string serverIP = "127.0.0.1";
        static private int serverPort = 9933;  //8888 for WebSocket
        static public string zone = "BasicExamples";
        static public bool debug = true;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            client = new SmartFox(debug);

            ConfigData cfg = new ConfigData()
            {
                Host = serverIP, Port = serverPort, Zone = "BasicExamples",
                //Debug = debug //This also works
            };

            client.Connect(cfg); 

            while (client.IsConnecting)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Connecting ...");
            }
            Console.WriteLine(client.IsConnected ?
                "Successfully connected to SmartFox Server" :
                "Failed to connect to SmartFox Server");
        }
    }

Results:

You might find that the above code uses while(…), which implements the polling pattern, i.e. the thread keeps checking if connection is established, which is less efficient and elegant, so a revised version might be as following, which is event driven: 

    class Program
    {
        static private SmartFox client;
        static private string serverIP = “127.0.0.1”;
        static private int serverPort = 9933; 
        static public string zone = “BasicExamples”;

        static public bool debug = true;
               
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            client = new SmartFox();           
            client.ThreadSafeMode = false; //Important!
            client.AddEventListener(SFSEvent.CONNECTION, (evt) =>
            {
                bool bSuccess = (bool)evt.Params[“success”];
                Console.WriteLine(client.IsConnected ?
                    “Successfully connected to SmartFox Server” :
                    “Failed to connect to SmartFox Server”);
            });           
            client.Connect(serverIP, serverPort);           
        }     
    }

Note that in this version:

• ConfigData is not used, and client.Connect(…); is called, which is a little bit concise;
• client.ThreadSafeMode = false; this is important if you run this code in a console or standalone application, otherwise, the anonymous On connection event handler will NOT be called.
• If you are running SmartFox client in Unity3D, set client.ThreadSafeMode = true;