rticonnextdds-connector

RTI Connector for Connext DDS

RTI Connector for Connext DDS is a quick and easy way to access the power and functionality of RTI Connext DDS. It is based on XML App Creation and Dynamic Data.

RTI Connector was created by the RTI Research Group to quickly and easily develop demos and proof of concept. We think that it can be useful for anybody that needs a quick way to script tests and interact with DDS using different scripting languages.

It can be used to quickly create tests for your distributed system and, thanks to the binding with scripting languages and the use of XML, to easily integrate with tons of other available technologies.

The RTI Connector library is provided in binary form for selected architectures. Scripting language bindings and examples are provided in source format.

Language Support

nodejs/javascript: we use libffi to call our library, but we try to hide that from you using a nice JavaScript wrapper. We tested with node v8.7.0; it should work also with lower versions.
python: here we use ctypes to call our native functions; of course everything is hidden in a nice Python wrapper. We tested with both python 2.7.14 and python 3.6.3
lua: (lua version 5.1) we have been supporting Lua in our RTI Prototyper for a while now. Check more information on our blog or on the Getting Started Guide. Also, stay tuned: a version that can be used directly with the standard Lua interpreter is coming...
C: for the native code lovers, we have header files so you can call the RTI Connector API directly in your C app; that's how the RTI Prototyper is implemented. The lua version used is 5.1

Platform support

We are building our library for few architectures only. Check them out here. If you need another architecture.

Windows Note: For nodejs, we tested on Win10 64 bit. We notice that npm works best with VS Express 2013 Feel free to ask on the RTI Community Forum for more details.

If you want to check the version of the libraries you can run the following command:

strings librtiddsconnector.dylib | grep BUILD

Threading model

The RTI Connext DDS Connector Native API do not yet implement any mechanism for thread safety. Originally the Connector native code was built to work with RTI DDS Prototyper and Lua. That was a single threaded loop. We then introduced support for javascript and python. For now the responsibility of protecting calls to the Connector are left to the user. This may change in the future. In node/javascript this should not be a problem due to the 'callback' style of the language itself. In python you will have to protect the calls to the connector if you are using different threads. For an example, check the python section Protecting calls to the connector library.

What is this git repository

It is our way to make the connector technology available to you! As of today we included Node.js, Python and Lua (through RTI Prototyper) for few architectures.

Also, for Node.js users, we will use this repo for the npm registry.

Support

This is an experimental RTI product. As such we do offer support through the RTI Community Forum where fellow users and RTI engineers can help you. We'd love your feedback.

Documentation

We do not have much documentation yet. But we promise you: if you look at the examples you'll see that is very easy to use our connector.

For an overview of the API in JavaScript check this page. For the Python version visit this one.

We have documentation on how to access the data sample fields in Section 6.4 'Data Access API' of the RTI Prototyper Getting Started Guide

Getting started with nodejs

Be sure you have all the tools to work with nodejs. Then invoke:

$ npm install rticonnextdds-connector

When that is done, cd into your node_modules directory and have a look to the examples/nodejs/README.md

Getting started with python

Be sure you have python. Then clone this repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/rticommunity/rticonnextdds-connector.git

You can also use pip

$ pip install rticonnextdds_connector

You can also download the zip file and then unzip it.

When that is done, cd into your new directory and have a look to the examples/python/README.md

License

With the sole exception of the contents of the "examples" subdirectory, all use of this product is subject to the RTI Software License Agreement included at the top level of this repository. Files within the "examples" subdirectory are licensed as marked within the file.

This software is an experimental (aka "pre-production") product. The Software is provided "as is", with no warranty of any type, including any warranty for fitness for any purpose. RTI is under no obligation to maintain or support the Software. RTI shall not be liable for any incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the software.

itayo/rticonnextdds-connector