bonjour

What is bonjour?

The bonjour npm package is a zero-configuration networking library that allows for network discovery and service advertisement. It implements the multicast DNS (mDNS) protocol, commonly used for discovering services on a local network without the need for manual setup or configuration.

What are bonjour's main functionalities?

Service Advertising

This feature allows you to advertise network services such as HTTP servers, FTP servers, and more. The code sample demonstrates how to advertise an HTTP server on port 3000 using bonjour.

const bonjour = require('bonjour')();

// advertise an HTTP server on port 3000
bonjour.publish({ name: 'My Web Server', type: 'http', port: 3000 });

// Unpublish all services
bonjour.unpublishAll();
bonjour.destroy();

Service Discovery

This feature enables the discovery of services advertised on the local network. The code sample shows how to find all advertised HTTP services using bonjour.

const bonjour = require('bonjour')();

// browse for all HTTP services
bonjour.find({ type: 'http' }, function (service) {
  console.log('Found an HTTP server:', service);
});

Other packages similar to bonjour

mdns

mdns is a more low-level package for multicast DNS service discovery. It provides similar functionalities to bonjour but requires more setup and configuration, making it less user-friendly for simple tasks but potentially more flexible for advanced use cases.

node-ssdp

node-ssdp is a package that implements the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP). It is used primarily for discovering UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) devices. While it serves a similar purpose for service discovery, it uses a different protocol and is more focused on UPnP devices compared to the broader mDNS approach of bonjour.

README

bonjour

A Bonjour/Zeroconf protocol implementation in pure JavaScript. Publish services on the local network or discover existing services using multicast DNS.

Installation

npm install bonjour

Usage

var bonjour = require('bonjour')()

// advertise an HTTP server on port 3000
bonjour.publish({ name: 'My Web Server', type: 'http', port: 3000 })

// browse for all http services
bonjour.find({ type: 'http' }, function (service) {
  console.log('Found an HTTP server:', service)
})

API

Initializing

var bonjour = require('bonjour')([options])

The options are optional and will be used when initializing the underlying multicast-dns server. For details see the multicast-dns documentation.

Publishing

var service = bonjour.publish(options)

Publishes a new service.

Options are:

• name (string)
• host (string, optional) - defaults to local hostname
• port (number)
• type (string)
• subtypes (array of strings, optional)
• protocol (string, optional) - udp or tcp (default)
• txt (object, optional) - a key/value object to broadcast as the TXT record

IANA maintains a list of official service types and port numbers.

bonjour.unpublishAll([callback])

Unpublish all services. The optional callback will be called when the services have been unpublished.

bonjour.destroy()

Destroy the mdns instance. Closes the udp socket.

Browser

var browser = bonjour.find(options[, onup])

Listen for services advertised on the network. An optional callback can be provided as the 2nd argument and will be added as an event listener for the up event.

Options (all optional):

• type (string)
• subtypes (array of strings)
• protocol (string) - defaults to tcp
• txt (object) - passed into dns-txt module contructor. Set to { binary: true } if you want to keep the TXT records in binary

var browser = bonjour.findOne(options[, callback])

Listen for and call the callback with the first instance of a service matching the options. If no callback is given, it's expected that you listen for the up event. The returned browser will automatically stop it self after the first matching service.

Options are the same as given in the browser.find function.

Event: up

Emitted every time a new service is found that matches the browser.

Event: down

Emitted every time an existing service emmits a goodbye message.

browser.services

An array of services known by the browser to be online.

browser.start()

Start looking for matching services.

browser.stop()

Stop looking for matching services.

browser.update()

Broadcast the query again.

Service

Event: up

Emitted when the service is up.

Event: error

Emitted if an error occurrs while publishing the service.

service.stop([callback])

Unpublish the service. The optional callback will be called when the service have been unpublished.

service.start()

Publish the service.

service.name

The name of the service, e.g. Apple TV.

service.type

The type of the service, e.g. http.

service.subtypes

An array of subtypes. Note that this property might be null.

service.protocol

The protocol used by the service, e.g. tcp.

service.host

The hostname or ip address where the service resides.

service.port

The port on which the service listens, e.g. 5000.

service.fqdn

The fully qualified domain name of the service. E.g. if given the name Foo Bar, the type http and the protocol tcp, the service.fqdn property will be Foo Bar._http._tcp.local.

service.txt

The TXT record advertised by the service (a key/value object). Note that this property might be null.

service.published

A boolean indicating if the service is currently published.

License

MIT