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<li><a href="https://jodersky.github.io/flow/documentation">Documentation & Help</a></li>
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<h1 id="content">Content</h1>
<ul id="markdown-toc">
<li><a href="#content" id="markdown-toc-content">Content</a></li>
<li><a href="#getting-started" id="markdown-toc-getting-started">Getting Started</a> <ul>
<li><a href="#including-native-library" id="markdown-toc-including-native-library">Including Native Library</a> <ul>
<li><a href="#the-easy-way" id="markdown-toc-the-easy-way">The Easy Way</a></li>
<li><a href="#maximum-portability" id="markdown-toc-maximum-portability">Maximum Portability</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#communication-protocol" id="markdown-toc-communication-protocol">Communication Protocol</a> <ul>
<li><a href="#opening-a-port" id="markdown-toc-opening-a-port">Opening a Port</a></li>
<li><a href="#writing-data" id="markdown-toc-writing-data">Writing Data</a></li>
<li><a href="#receiving-data" id="markdown-toc-receiving-data">Receiving Data</a></li>
<li><a href="#closing-a-port" id="markdown-toc-closing-a-port">Closing a Port</a></li>
<li><a href="#resources-and-error-handling" id="markdown-toc-resources-and-error-handling">Resources and Error Handling</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#watching-ports" id="markdown-toc-watching-ports">Watching Ports</a> <ul>
<li><a href="#subscribing" id="markdown-toc-subscribing">Subscribing</a></li>
<li><a href="#notifications" id="markdown-toc-notifications">Notifications</a></li>
<li><a href="#unsubscribing" id="markdown-toc-unsubscribing">Unsubscribing</a></li>
<li><a href="#resource-handling" id="markdown-toc-resource-handling">Resource Handling</a></li>
<li><a href="#requirements" id="markdown-toc-requirements">Requirements</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="getting-started">Getting Started</h1>
<p>Flow uses SBT as build system. To get started, include a dependency to flow in your project:</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="n">libraryDependencies</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="s">"com.github.jodersky"</span> <span class="o">%%</span> <span class="s">"flow"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="s">"2.4.0"</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<p>Next, you need to include flow’s native library that supports communication for serial devices.</p>
<h2 id="including-native-library">Including Native Library</h2>
<p>There are two options to include the native library:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Using an easy, pre-packaged dependency, avialble only for certain OSes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Including the library manually for maximum portability.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>It is recommended that you use the first option for testing purposes or end-user applications. The second option is recomended for libraries, since it leaves more choice to the end-user.</p>
<h3 id="the-easy-way">The Easy Way</h3>
<p>In case your OS/architecture combination is present in the “supported platforms” table in the downloads section, add a second dependency to your project:</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="n">libraryDependencies</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="s">"com.github.jodersky"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="s">"flow-native"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="s">"2.4.0"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="s">"runtime"</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<p>This will add a jar to your classpath containing native libraries for various platforms. At run time, the correct library for the current platform is selected, extracted and loaded. This solution enables running applications seamlessly, as if they were pure JVM applications.</p>
<h3 id="maximum-portability">Maximum Portability</h3>
<p>First, obtain a copy of the native library, either by <a href="./developer">building flow</a> or by <a href="https://jodersky.github.io/flow/downloads">downloading</a> a precompiled version. In order to work with this version of flow, native libraries need to be of major version 3 and minor version greater or equal to 0.</p>
<p>Second, for every end-user application that relies on flow, manually add the native library for the current platform to the JVM’s library path. This can be achieved through various ways, notably:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Per application:
Run your program with the command-line option <code class="highlighter-rouge">-Djava.library.path=".:<folder containing libflow3.so>"</code>. E.g. <code class="highlighter-rouge">java -Djava.library.path=".:/home/<folder containing libflow3.so>" -jar your-app.jar</code></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>System- or user-wide:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Copy the native library to a place that is on the default Java library path and run your application normally. Such places usually include <code class="highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib</code> and <code class="highlighter-rouge">/usr/local/lib</code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Install a native package from the downloads section</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h1 id="communication-protocol">Communication Protocol</h1>
<p>The following is a general guide on the usage of flow. If you prefer a complete example, check out the code contained in the <a href="https://github.com/jodersky/flow/tree/master/flow-samples">flow-samples</a> directory.</p>
<p>Flow’s API follows that of an actor based system, where each actor is assigned specific functions involved in serial communication. The two main actor types are:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Serial “manager”. The manager is a singleton actor that is instantiated once per actor system, a reference to it may be obtained with <code class="highlighter-rouge">IO(Serial)</code>. It is typically used to open serial ports (see following section).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Serial “operators”. Operators are created once per open serial port and serve as an intermediate between client code and native code dealing with serial data transmission and reception. They isolate the user from threading issues and enable the reactive dispatch of incoming data. A serial operator is said to be “associated” to its underlying open serial port.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>The messages understood by flow’s actors are all contained in the <code class="highlighter-rouge">com.github.jodersky.flow.Serial</code> object. They are well documented and should serve as the entry point when searching the API documentation.</p>
<h2 id="opening-a-port">Opening a Port</h2>
<p>A serial port is opened by sending an <code class="highlighter-rouge">Open</code> message to the serial manager. The response varies on the outcome of opening the underlying serial port.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>In case of failure, the serial manager will respond with a <code class="highlighter-rouge">CommandFailed</code> message to the original sender. The message contains details on the reason to why the opening failed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In case of success, the sender is notified with an <code class="highlighter-rouge">Opened</code> message. This message is sent from an operator actor, spawned by the serial manager. It is useful to capture the sender (i.e. the operator) of this message as all further communication with the newly opened port must pass through the operator.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="k">import</span> <span class="nn">com.github.jodersky.flow.</span><span class="o">{</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nc">SerialSettings</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nc">AccessDeniedException</span> <span class="o">}</span>
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="n">port</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="s">"/dev/ttyXXX"</span>
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="n">settings</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="nc">SerialSettings</span><span class="o">(</span>
<span class="n">baud</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="mi">115200</span><span class="o">,</span>
<span class="n">characterSize</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="mi">8</span><span class="o">,</span>
<span class="n">twoStopBits</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="kc">false</span><span class="o">,</span>
<span class="n">parity</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="nc">Parity</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">None</span>
<span class="o">)</span>
<span class="nc">IO</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">!</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Open</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">port</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="n">settings</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="n">receive</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">CommandFailed</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">cmd</span><span class="k">:</span> <span class="kt">Serial.Open</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="n">reason</span><span class="k">:</span> <span class="kt">AccessDeniedException</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">=></span>
<span class="n">println</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"You're not allowed to open that port!"</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">CommandFailed</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">cmd</span><span class="k">:</span> <span class="kt">Serial.Open</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="n">reason</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">=></span>
<span class="n">println</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"Could not open port for some other reason: "</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">reason</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getMessage</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Opened</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">settings</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">=></span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="k">val</span> <span class="n">operator</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="n">sender</span>
<span class="c1">//do stuff with the operator, e.g. context become opened(op)
</span> <span class="o">}</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<h2 id="writing-data">Writing Data</h2>
<p>Writing data is as simple as sending a <code class="highlighter-rouge">Write</code> message to an operator. The data to send is an instance of <code class="highlighter-rouge">akka.util.ByteString</code>:</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="n">operator</span> <span class="o">!</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Write</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">)</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<p>Optionally, an acknowledgement for sent data can be requested by adding an <code class="highlighter-rouge">ack</code> parameter to a <code class="highlighter-rouge">Write</code> message. The <code class="highlighter-rouge">ack</code> parameter is of type <code class="highlighter-rouge">Int => Serial.Event</code>, i.e. a function that takes the number of actual bytes written and returns an event. Note that “bytes written” refers to bytes enqueued in a kernel buffer; no guarantees can be made on the actual transmission of the data.</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">MyPacketAck</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">wrote</span><span class="k">:</span> <span class="kt">Int</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">extends</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Event</span>
<span class="n">operator</span> <span class="o">!</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Write</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nc">MyPacketAck</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="k">_</span><span class="o">))</span>
<span class="n">operator</span> <span class="o">!</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Write</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="n">n</span> <span class="k">=></span> <span class="nc">MyPacketAck</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="o">))</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="n">receive</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="nc">MyPacketAck</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">n</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">=></span> <span class="n">println</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"Wrote "</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">n</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="s">" bytes of data"</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<h2 id="receiving-data">Receiving Data</h2>
<p>The actor that opened a serial port (referred to as the client), exclusively receives incomming messages from the operator. These messages are in the form of <code class="highlighter-rouge">akka.util.ByteString</code>s and wrapped in a <code class="highlighter-rouge">Received</code> object.</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="k">def</span> <span class="n">receive</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Received</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">=></span> <span class="n">println</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"Received data: "</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">data</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">toString</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<h2 id="closing-a-port">Closing a Port</h2>
<p>A port is closed by sending a <code class="highlighter-rouge">Close</code> message to its operator:
~~~scala
operator ! Serial.Close
~~~
The operator will close the underlying serial port and respond with a final <code class="highlighter-rouge">Closed</code> message before terminating.</p>
<h2 id="resources-and-error-handling">Resources and Error Handling</h2>
<p>The operator has a deathwatch on the client actor that opened the port, this means that if the latter crashes, the operator closes the port and equally terminates, freeing any allocated resources.</p>
<p>The opposite is not true by default, i.e. if the operator crashes (this can happen for example on IO errors) it dies silently and the client is not informed. Therefore, it is recommended that the client keep a deathwatch on the operator.</p>
<hr />
<h1 id="watching-ports">Watching Ports</h1>
<p>As of version 2.2.0, flow can watch directories for new files. On most unix systems this can be used for watching for new serial ports in <code class="highlighter-rouge">/dev/</code>.
Watching happens through a message-based, publish-subscribe protocol as explained in the sections below.</p>
<h2 id="subscribing">Subscribing</h2>
<p>A client actor may watch – i.e subscribe to notifications on – a directory by sending a <code class="highlighter-rouge">Watch</code> command to the serial manager.</p>
<p>Should an error be encountered whilst trying to obtain the watch, the manager will respond with a <code class="highlighter-rouge">CommandFailed</code> message.
Otherwise, the client may be considered “subscribed” to the directory and the serial manager will thenceforth notify
the client on new files.</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nc">IO</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">!</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Watch</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"/dev/"</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="n">receive</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">CommandFailed</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">w</span><span class="k">:</span> <span class="kt">Watch</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="n">reason</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">=></span>
<span class="n">println</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">s</span><span class="s">"Cannot obtain a watch on ${w.directory}: ${reason.getMessage}"</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<h2 id="notifications">Notifications</h2>
<p>Whilst subscribed to a directory, a client actor is informed of any new files in said directory by receiving
<code class="highlighter-rouge">Connected</code> messages from the manager.</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="k">def</span> <span class="n">receive</span> <span class="k">=</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="k">case</span> <span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nc">Connected</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">port</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">port</span> <span class="n">matches</span> <span class="s">"/dev/ttyUSB\\d+"</span> <span class="k">=></span>
<span class="c1">// do something with the available port, e.g.
</span> <span class="c1">// IO(Serial) ! Open(port, settings)
</span><span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<h2 id="unsubscribing">Unsubscribing</h2>
<p>Unsubscribing from events on a directory is done by sending an <code class="highlighter-rouge">Unsubscribe</code> message to the serial manager.</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nc">IO</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">Serial</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">!</span> <span class="nc">Unwatch</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="s">"/dev/"</span><span class="o">)</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<h2 id="resource-handling">Resource Handling</h2>
<p>Note that the manager has a deathwatch on every subscribed client. Hence, should a client die, any underlying resources will be freed.</p>
<h2 id="requirements">Requirements</h2>
<p>Flow uses Java’s <code class="highlighter-rouge">WatchService</code>s under the hood, therefore a Java runtime of a version of at least 1.7 is required.</p>
</div>
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