bonjour_ffi

This package is a Dart-only abstraction over the Bonjour system libraries that are generally present on macOS. It needs to be run with a companion C++ module that wraps dns_sd requirement of listening to the sockets to the daemon by using libuv in a safe and clean manner.

Features

This package is able to search for services and to broadcast your own by using simple APIs

Make sure to close the subscriptions of the two high level functions.

Getting started

To develop a solution using this package you need to follow the next steps.

You need to:

• Make sure that the Bonjour libraries are available for linking (this is not needed in macOS provided you have Xcode installed.)
• Have an internet connection to download libuv.
• Build the companion C++ CMake project that this library binds to.
• Bundle the library on release, or compile it statically.

Usage

The API for this package is very easy to use, as it only consists of two methods, broadcast and search for service.

Future<void> main() async {
  // You should change the place where the library is being loaded.
  final dl = DynamicLibrary.open('build/'+ getDynamicLibrarySuffix());
  // Initialize the dynamically linked Dart API. This is very important as otherwise, the library will jump to null.
  final bindings = BonjourAdapterBindings(dl);
  bindings.initializeDartAPIDL(NativeApi.initializeApiDLData);
  // Initialize the bindings through the library.
  final adapter = BonjourBinding(bindings);
  // Listen to adapter.searchForService to get updates on the services on the network.
  final sub = adapter.searchForService('_rfb._tcp').listen((event) => print(encoder.convert(event)));
  print("Subscribed to search for service");
  // Listen to this Stream until you don't want to announce the service.
  final sub2 = adapter.startBroadcast('Bonjour Test service', '_custom_service._tcp', 8081, 'txt').listen((event) => print(encoder.convert(event)));
  print("Subscribed to start broadcast");
  await Future.delayed(Duration(seconds: 5));
  // Don't forget to unsubscribe, or your isolate will never finish, as the library uses [ReceivePort] internally. 
  await sub.cancel();
  await sub2.cancel();
  // Useful for cleaning the worker thread used to poll through libuv, use sparingly.
  adapter.destroy();
  print("Ended");
}

Additional information

This package welcomes contributions, and if more APIs from dns_sd.h are needed, PRs are welcome.