wallcontrol10-protocol

Introduction

wallcontrol10-protocol is Node module. The main purpose of it is to decode Datapath WallControl 10 responses.

Main features

• no external dependencies
• regardless of connection type (tcp/serial)
• decode and encode functions
• no flow control
• helper constans for connection
• easy extensible

Usage

const WC10 = require('wallcontrol10-protocol');
let socket = net.createConnection(23, '192.168.4.111', () => {
  let enc = WC10.encode('wcmd -wall=Blueprint -lauoyts');
  console.log('>', enc)
  socket.write(enc.encoded);
})
socket.on('data', data => {
  console.log('<', WC10.decode(data));
})
/* Expected output
> {
  command: 'wcmd -wall=Blueprint -layouts',
  encodedStr: 'wcmd -wall=Blueprint -layouts -echo\n',
  encoded: <Buffer 77 63 6d 64 20 2d 77 61 6c 6c 3d 42 6c 75 65 70 72 69 6e 74 20 2d 6c 61 79 6f 75 74 73 20 2d 65 63 68 6f 0a>,  
  duration: 1400
}
< {
  raw: <Buffer 20 3d 77 63 6d 64 20 2d 77 61 6c 6c 3d 42 6c 75 65 70 72 69 6e 74 20 2d 6c 61 79 6f 75 74 73 20 2d 65 63 68 6f 0d 0a 45 78 69 74 43 6f 64 65 3a 30 0d ... 65 more bytes>,
  rawStr: ' =wcmd -wall=Blueprint -layouts -echo\r\n' +
    'ExitCode:0\r\n' +
    'Int-vis5\r\n' +
    'Vis4-5\r\n' +
    'Onet WP\r\n' +
    'Layout1\r\n' +
    'trzy\r\n' +
    'clear\r\n' +
    'All sources\r\n' +
    '\r\n',
  status: 'OK',
  req: 'layouts',
  value: [
    'Int-vis5',
    'Vis4-5',
    'Onet WP',
    'Layout1',
    'trzy',
    'clear',
    'All sources'
  ],
  extra: { exitCode: 0, exitMsg: 'Success', wall: 'Blueprint ' },
  params: [ { name: 'wall', value: 'Blueprint ' } ]
}

*/

Commands

Wallcontrol10 protocol uses a set of ASCII based commands. They are rather simple and easy to understand. They are described in WallControl 10 Client help/Tools/Command Line Interface. You must use them yourself. Commonly used and most useful commands are:
wcmd -wallstate[=wall_name] - Get info about of all/specific wall.
wcmd [-wall=wall_name] -layouts - Get layout names for wall.
wcmd [-wall=wall_name] -layout=layout_name - Apply layout for a wall.
wcmd [-wall=wall_name] -layout - Get current layout name for a wall.
wcmd [-wall=wall_name] -inputs - Get info about sources.
wcmd [-wall=wall_name] -openwindows - Get list of opened windows with their properties.
WARNING: WallControl 10 server uses ASCII encoding. Do not use non-ASCII characters in layouts, input aliases, favouritrs or wall names. For names containing spaces use ""

encode(cmd) function

This function does not do any special processing. It simply appends -echo\n to the end of cmd. This helps in analyzing the responses.

• cmd <string> - required. A native WallControl 10 command. Return value is cmdObj <Object>. The most important property is encoded which contains encoded command as Buffer. This buffer must be send to wall server. Other properties are helper ones.

decode(data) function

Decodes response from WallControl 10 server

• data <Buffer|string> - data read from TCP socket or serial port

Returns response <Object> - an response object containing properties:

• raw <Buffer> - same as data
• rawStr <string> - raw as string
• exitCode <number> - response exit code from server.
• req <string> - a command name (request). Used to identify a response. See commands array
• value <string|[string]|Object|[Object]> - decoded value. Return type depends on command
• extra <Object> - other values which may be useful

The function does not control completeness of response data. It verifies if data is a valid response and tries to decode it. If data is not a valid response, a simple error object is returned.