NodeListServer Generation 2

NodeLS (Node List Server) is a game server directory application that aims to provide a reliable way of registering, deregistering and informing clients of servers available for your game(s).

Why NodeLS?

When developing a game, let's say a First Person Shooter, you might want to have clients host their own servers. These servers might be host-client ("listen") or pure dedicated instances. However, here comes the next problem...

How the heck do you display servers that are available for you to join?

Enter NodeLS. NodeLS started as a free alternative/reimplementation of the Mirror List Server using NodeJS. The source is licensed under MIT. That said, using NodeLS also brings you assurance that you control the data that is being sent and received, not a third party other than the server provider you deal with.

Please consider a donation (see the Ko-Fi button above) if this server software is useful to you.

Support Update

While issue tickets are the preferred way of support, you may also ask for support on the Oiran Studio Discord. It may be a faster way of getting support if I'm not busy with other client tasks. Sometimes issue ticket notificatons get snowed under a truck load of new email.

Features

• OSS Core: Feel free to tailor it to your needs, it's open source. Find a bug? Fix it, shoot me a PR, let me review and if it looks good, congrats!
• Game Engine Agnostic: Thanks to the HTTP API, any engine that can do HTTP requests can take advantage of NodeLS.
• Fast: Mirror's retired List Server was written in Erlang. We use NodeJS to power this baby.
• Secure: ACLs (Access Control Lists) can be used as well as key authenication to prevent anyone adding/removing servers from your instances. Servers must provide a key in order to register, and rate limiting clients helps keep traffic floods at bay.
• Configurable: Generation 2 of NodeLS now features a INI-styled configuration file. This makes configuration much easier.
• WebGL compatible: No complex magic required. NodeLS uses a simple HTTP API to add and remove servers.

Non-Features

• Matchmaking: Outside the realm that this program sits in.
• Anything else that it doesn't offer.

Bug Fixes, New Features, etc

• If you find a bug: Please report it via the Issues ticket system. If you know NodeJS-flavoured Javascript and think that you can fix it then I'd really appreciate a pull request!
• Refactors, Improvements, Tweaks: I'm all ears to improvements and refinements. Please open a issue and suggest your modifications or fork this project, improve it, then open a PR.
• Ooh, shiny new features: New features are carefully considered. I try to follow the KISS prinicible, which helps not only keep code clean but doesn't bloat the end product.

Setup

Docker Support

If you want to have everything handled for you and you're running a linux server, see the Docker support documentation file for more info. Please note that this will require some additional setup.

Requirements

1. NodeJS 16 or newer LTS (download and install it first before trying to run this code)
2. A server instance, be it Windows or Linux
3. Some knowledge about programming, fair amount of patience and Git-fu

Make sure your installation of NodeJS 12.x LTS is functional before continuing!

Installation

Git Clone Method

1. Run this in the console of your operating system where you want the code to be placed (for example, C:\NodeListServer).

git clone https://github.com/SoftwareGuy/NodeListServer .

NOTE: It is possible to use a GUI such as Git GUI or SourceTree. Use whatever you're familiar with.

2. Continue with configuration step below.

ZIP Installation Method

1. Obtain a ZIP archive of this repository via the "Download as ZIP" option.
2. Extract it somewhere on your system.

Note: The ZIP Installation Method loses it's git metadata, so you will not be able to have easy updates.

Configuration

1. Open config.ini.
2. Carefully make any adjustments to the configuration as desired (see the configuration page for more information).
3. Save and Exit. Re-upload your modified config.ini (ie. you edited it via FTP).

Operating & Updating

Note: It's recommended to use a process manager like PM2 which will allow you start and stop the server elegantly, and restart it in case of crashes, etc.

Starting & Stopping

First Run: Install the Node modules by issuing npm install --only=production. This will read the requirements from packages.json.

To start the server:

Protip: Check to see if the port is open that you want NodeListServer to listen on. You cannot have more than one list server listening on the same port number.

1. Invoke NodeJS with listServer.js. This is dependent on your operating system, but if Node is installed in your path, you can simply do node listServer. Ensure your version of Node is 16 or higher.
2. Observe the logs that are printed to the console, if the list server does not say anything then something went wrong. A successful startup is as follows:

NodeListServer Gen2: Mirror List Server reimplemented in NodeJS
Report bugs and fork me on GitHub: https://github.com/SoftwareGuy/NodeListServer
Listening on HTTP port 8889!

3. Issue a HTTP POST command like the following to http://[your-server-ip]:8889/list. cURL is very useful as a debug tool, so here's a one liner. Replace NodeListServerDefaultKey with your changed key if you changed that.

curl -X POST -d "serverKey=NodeListServerDefaultKey" http://127.0.0.1:8889/list

If all goes well, you should get some JSON as a result. If you don't, or you get Bad Request then check what the console says - you dun goofed probably.

To stop the server:

Simply CTRL+C the running Node process, or you can use kill/pkill to kill the node instance. I'd recommend using ps aux and kill <pid> carefully, because pkill node would try to kill all node instances on your box - and that's really no bueno.

Updating NodeListServer

1. Stop NodeListServer if it's running.
2. Execute git pull from the repository you cloned to your local machine or server instance.
   • Note that if you obtained the source via a ZIP archive, then you're not going to be able to just execute git pull. Download and extract a new ZIP archive of this repository instead.
3. New commits will update your installation of NodeListServer after running git pull.
   • Rectify any pull merge errors if you have any (and you should know how to do this).
4. Start NodeListServer again.

The API Explained

Section omitted because it needs cleanup. Check back later.

Using NodeListServer with Unity

Want a easy, ready to go project? Then grab a copy of the NodeListServer-Example repository.

In fairness, It's pretty easy to use NodeListServer with Unity. You can use UnityWebRequest or another library (ie. Best HTTP Pro) to fetch the server lists and issue add/remove commands. As long as you can decode JSON it returns for the server list, you should be fine.

Important: Do NOT auto-assume that POST functions will be successful. Always check the HTTP status code before doing anything with the returned response.

• You will get HTTP code 200 with a "OK" response from NodeListServer on success.
• Anything not HTTP code 200 will be NodeListServer denying your request (you'll most likely get HTTP Code 400, Bad Request or if your IP is blocked, 403 Forbidden).
• Make sure you cache the Server UUID you use. You'll need to use that to tell the List Server what to do with your server entry. Without a valid Server UUID, it will refuse to do anything.
• I strongly recommend using GUIDs, which are unique and if you're using Mono or .NET, you can just use System.Guid.newGuid() to generate a random one.

As a bonus, here's some generic serializable classes that you can use to translate the JSON into something more usable:

[Serializable]
public class ServerListResponse
{
    // Number of known servers.
    public int count;
    // The container for the known servers.
    public List<ServerListEntry> servers;
    // Ideally used for client-hosted games, tells you how often you should refresh your server information.
    public int updateFrequency;
}

[Serializable]
public class ServerListEntry
{
	// Random generated UUID
	public string serverUuid; 
	// IP address. Beware: Might be IPv6 format, and require you to chop off the leading "::ffff:" part. YMMV.
	public string ip;
	// Port of the server.
	public int serverPort;
	// Name of the server.
	public string serverName;
	// Number of players on the server.
	public int serverPlayers;
	// The number of players maximum allowed on the server.
	public int serverCapacity;
	// Extra data.
	public string extras;
}

Make sure you POST the correct data when you want to add/remove servers. See API Endpoints for more details on the required POST fields.

Credits

• vis2k: Mirror Networking and the original List Server
• JesusLuvsYooh: That other blacksmith that's forging NodeLS into shape and always annoying me with questions
• AnthonyE: First actual deployment of NodeLS in production!
• Mirror Team & Discord Members

Thank you for choosing Australian Open Source Software.