SenderReceiver

A Python socket-based instant messenger.

Date

4 June 2023

Description

The program SenderReceiver has two modes: one for sending, and another for receiving messages. The sender pushes messages to a receiver which is specified by an IP address. To have a conversation (or send a text of binary file), both parties will need to have a sender-client and a receiver-client open for receiving messages and then replying.

The SenderReceiver program can handle both receiving and sending messages with the use of parameters. The instructions are below to show how to use the parameters.

Pre-setup

This program uses Poetry to handle virtual environments for the code. This means that you will have to install Poetry as a software on your machine before you will be able to run the software in this repository.

Usage:

• Setup poetry from the senderReceiver/ directory or where you are able to find the File pyproject.toml
  • poetry install

Note: if there is an error when running the above command, try removing the File poetry.lock. Then rerun poetry install.

• Get basic help

  • poetry run senderreceiver --help

• Get advanced help

  • poetry run senderreceiver --bighelp

• Receive Mode: Start a client to receive incoming messages and text files.

  • poetry run senderreceiver --task r

Note: the IP of the receiving machine will be displayed on the screen after this command has been executed. Working like a phone number, this IP number must be communicated to the sending machine in order for a message to be sent to the receiving machine. The IP number will be used with the parameter --remoteip on the sending machine.

• Send a chat message to another machine in receive mode

  • poetry run senderreceiver --task s --remoteip 127.0.0.1

• Send a text file to another machine running in receive mode

  • poetry run senderreceiver --task sf --remoteip 127.0.0.1 --filename myFile.md

• Place a machine in receive mode for binary files

  • poetry run senderreceiver --task rbf

• Send a binary file to another machine in binary receive mode.

  • poetry run senderreceiver --task sbf --remoteip 127.0.0.1 --filename myFile.bin

More documentation to come!!