vocksel / action-network Goto Github PK

Requiring the use of Rodux style actions for networking is proving to be more cumbersome than it's worth.

Initially I was hoping this would be a convenient and intuitive way to communicate between server/client, but it's pretty clunky. It's also confusing having actions that could either be used for networking, and for the game's state.

So I propose the following API:

network:on(string eventName)
Returns an RBXScriptSignal that can then be connected to for when this event occurs.

network:on("foo"):connect(function(arg1, arg2, ...) end)

network:fire(string eventName, ...)
Server: Fires the event to all clients with the given arguments.
Client: Fires the event to the server with the given arguments.

network:fireTo(Player/table playerOrPlayers, string eventName, ...)
Server only. Fires the event to the given player or array of players.

network:fireExceptTo(Player/table playerOrPlayers, string eventName, ...)
Server only. Fires the event to all players except the one(s) specified.

Usage

Standard networking example, similar to what people are used to with RemoteEvents:

-- client
local network = Network.new(remote)
network:init()

-- listen on the client for an event
network:on("foo"):connect(function(bar)
    print(bar)
end)

-- server
local network = Network.new()
network:init()

-- fire the even,  will print "bar" on the client
network:fireTo(game.Players.Player1, "foo", "bar")

Another example, which allows you to do something very similar to the native action dispatching currently in place:

-- someAction
local action = {
  type = "action",
  foo = true
}
return action

-- client
local network = Network.new(remote)
network:init()

network:on(someAction.type):connect(function(someAction)
    print(action.foo) -- true
end)

-- server
local network = Network.new(remote)
network:init()

network:fire(someAction.type, action)

Right now there's no way to disconnect a listener. Take the Connection class from here and repurpose it for our Event class