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User Guide (Version 1.16)

AWS Documentation » Amazon Lumberyard » User Guide » Implementing Connected Features with Cloud Canvas » Cloud Gems » Web Communicator Cloud Gem » Communicating to Clients from a Cloud Gem

Communicating to Clients from a Cloud Gem

To send messages to the Web Communicator service, your cloud gem can use the default channel that the Web Communicator cloud gem provides or a channel that you define. Web Communicator can validate the message type and pass the message to AWS IoT for distribution to one or more clients.

Note

Because the caller of a cross-gem request cannot be identified, any cloud gem can make a request to broadcast on any valid channel. For this reason, you should consider the behavior of any gems in your project that implement cross-gem communication.

To have your cloud gem send events through Web Communicator to connected clients, perform the following steps:

1. (Optional) Define Broadcast and/or Private Channels

2. Add the Web Communcator Service Interface ID to Your Gem's resource-template.json File

3. Send the Lambda Request from Your Service

4. Handle the Response on the Client

1. (Optional) Define Broadcast and/or Private Channels

You can optionally define your own channels in your cloud gem's lumberyard_version\dev\Gems\gem_name\AWS\resource-group-settings.json file. A channel consists of a unique name, a type (BROADCAST or PRIVATE) and an optional CommunicationChannel. To reduce the number of subscriptions required on the server, the communication channel system allows your channel to make use of a base channel by embedding your actual channel name in the message. When messages are broadcast from other cloud gems as EBus events, the channel name is embedded in the message and parsed on the client.

To declare broadcast and/or private channels, add them to your cloud gem's resource-group-settings.json file in the GemSettings, CloudGemWebCommunicator, Channels section. The following example is from the Dynamic Content cloud gem. 

{
    "GemSettings":
    {
        "CloudGemWebCommunicator":
        {
            "Channels":
            [
                 {
                      "Name": "CloudGemDynamicContent",
                      "Types": ["BROADCAST","PRIVATE"],
                      "CommunicationChannel": "CloudGemWebCommunicator"
                 }
            ]
       }
    }
}

The relevant fields are as follows.

Property Description
Name Specifies the name of the channel.
Types The type of channel that you want to enable. This can be BROADCAST, PRIVATE, or both.
CommunicationChannel The name of the base WebCommunicator channel (for example, CloudGemWebCommunicator). For purposes of efficiency, the channel that actually carries the message is packed into the base channel. The name of the carried channel (in this example, CloudGemDynamicContent) is embedded in the message itself. Lumberyard unpacks this name transparently on the client side for the EBus handler.

2. Add the Web Communcator Service Interface ID to Your Gem's resource-template.json File

The request API between your cloud gem and the Web Communicator gem is built on the cross-gem communication system. The interface for the Web Communicator's broadcast and send API operations are defined in the lumberyard_version\dev\Gems\CloudGemWebCommunicator\AWS\api-defintion\sendmessage_1_0_0.json file.

To make this interface callable from your cloud gem's service Lambda function, you add an InterfaceID property to the lumberyard_version\dev\Gems\gem_name\AWS\resource-template.json file.

In the ServiceLambdaConfiguration section, under Properties, add a Services section entry like the following. 

"Services": [
    {
        "InterfaceId": "CloudGemWebCommunicator_sendmessage_1_0_0",
        "Optional": "True"
     }
]

Note

If you expect the Web Communicator to be continuously available, set the Optional property to False.

For more information, see the Using an Interface section of the cross-gem communication topic.

3. Send the Lambda Request from Your Service

To send a message from your cloud gem to one or more clients, your cloud gem’s Lambda code makes a call to the Web Communicator. The call includes the message that you want to either broadcast to multiple clients or send to an individual user.

First, in the Python module from which you want to make the messaging request, specify the following import statements. 

import cgf_lambda_settings
import cgf_service_client

Broadcasting a Message

To broadcast a message, use the __send_communicator_broadcast function and pass the message text in the message parameter, as in the following example. 

def __send_communicator_broadcast(message):
    interface_url = cgf_lambda_settings.get_service_url("CloudGemWebCommunicator_sendmessage_1_0_0")
    if not interface_url:
        print 'Messaging interface not found'
        return

    client = cgf_service_client.for_url(interface_url, verbose=True, session=boto3._get_default_session())
    result = client.navigate('broadcast').POST({"channel": "CloudGemDynamicContent", "message": message})

Sending a Message Directly to a Client

To send a message directly to a client, use the __send_communicator_direct function. As before, pass the message text in the message parameter, but this time specify the ID of a specific client in the client_id parameter. 

def __send_communicator_direct(message, client_id):
    interface_url = cgf_lambda_settings.get_service_url("CloudGemWebCommunicator_sendmessage_1_0_0")
    if not interface_url:
        print 'Messaging interface not found'
        return

    client = cgf_service_client.for_url(interface_url, verbose=True, session=boto3._get_default_session())
    result = client.navigate('send', client_id).POST({"channel": "CloudGemDynamicContent", "message": message})

4. Handle the Response on the Client

To handle the response on the client, subscribe manually or automatically to messages from Web Communicator, and then create a handler that processes the incoming messages.

Requesting a Connection

To request a connection, use the RequestConnection function. 

CloudGemWebCommunicatorRequestBus.Broadcast.RequestConnection("connection_type")

For connection_type, specify either WEBSOCKET or OPENSSL.

Requesting a Registration

To request a registration, use the RequestRegistration function. 

CloudGemWebCommunicatorRequestBus.Broadcast.RequestRegistration("connection_type")

For connection_type, specify either WEBSOCKET or OPENSSL.

Subscribing to Channels

You can use the RequestChannelList function to request and subscribe to the channels to which the client listens.

Subscribing to All Channels

To request and subscribe to all the channels that the client requires, use the RequestChannelList function. 

CloudGemWebCommunicatorRequestBus.Broadcast.RequestChannelList()

You can also subscribe individually to channels, but using the RequestChannelList function is more straightforward and should be considered the standard approach.

Subscribing to Individual Channels

To subscribe to channels manually, use the RequestSubscribeChannel function and specify the name of the channel in the channelName parameter, as in the following example. 

CloudGemWebCommunicatorRequestBus.Broadcast.RequestSubscribeChannel(channelName)

Note

If you specified the CommunicationChannel property in the channel definitions step (that is, you are using a base channel), specify that value for the channelName parameter.

Unsubscribing from a Channel

To unsubscribe from a channel, use the RequestUnsubscribeChannel function and specify the name of the channel in the channelName parameter, as in the following example. 

CloudGemWebCommunicatorRequestBus.Broadcast.RequestUnsubscribeChannel(channelName)

Disconnecting

To disconnect, use the RequestDisconnect function. 

CloudGemWebCommunicatorRequestBus.Broadcast.RequestDisconnect()

Create a Message Handler

After you subscribe the client to one or more channels, create a message handler that processes the messages from Web Communicator.

In Lua

In Lua, in an OnActivate call, set up an EBus connection to listen for Web Communicator updates: 

if CloudGemWebCommunicatorUpdateBus ~= nil then
    Debug.Log("Listening for communicator updates")
    self.communicatorUpdateBus = CloudGemWebCommunicatorUpdateBus.Connect(self, WebCommunicator.ModuleEntity)
else
    Debug.Log("Web Communicator not found")
end

Next, declare your message handler, as in the following example.

function DynamicContentTest:MessageReceived(channelName, messageData)
    if self:IsDynamicContentUpdate(channelName) then
        Debug.Log("DynamicContent update received: " .. messageData)
        DynamicContentRequestBus.Event.HandleWebCommunicatorUpdate(DynamicContent.ModuleEntity, messageData)
    end
end

For a sample Lua script, see lumberyard_version\dev\CloudGemSamples\Scripts\CommunicatorSample.lua.

In C++

In C++, declare a component handler class like the following:

class SomeHandler :
public CloudGemWebCommunicator::CloudGemWebCommunicatorUpdateBus::Handler
virtual void ConnectionStatusChanged(const AZStd::string& connection) = 0;
virtual void MessageReceived(const AZStd::string& channelName, const AZStd::string& channelMessage) = 0;
virtual void RegistrationStatusChanged(const AZStd::string& registrationStatus) = 0;
virtual void SubscriptionStatusChanged(const AZStd::string& channelName, const AZStd::string& subscriptionStatus) = 0;
Connect:
void SomeHandler::Activate()
{
    CloudGemWebCommunicator::CloudGemWebCommunicatorUpdateBus::Handler::BusConnect();
}
Handle:
void SomeHandler::MessageReceived(const AZStd::string& channelName, const AZStd::string& channelMessage)
{
    DoStuff;
}

Resources

For more information, see the following:

  • For a sample level, see the CommunicatorSample sample level in the CloudGemSamples project.

  • For more information about cross-gem communication in Cloud Canvas, see Cross-Gem Communication.

  • For the Web Communicator cloud gem API, see Web Communicator Cloud Gem Service API.

  • For the Web Communicator cloud gem source code, see the files in the lumberyard_version\dev\Gems\CloudGemWebCommunicator\Code\ directory and its subdirectories.