CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[unreleased]

Added

• new VrpcAdapter event being triggered just before deletion
• possibility to configure the keepalive interval
• possibility to skip receiving meta data (which is the new default)
• support for the node 16 "cause" property on error objects
• create function for VrpcAgent that allows local instance creation

Changed

• when subscribing or publishing fails because the client is "disconnecting" an additional error event is emitted and the client is only reconnected not ended and then reconnected

• breaking circular JSON structures using json-stringify-safe

• changed bestEffort default to true, both on clients and agents

• meta information is not shipped by default anymore, a new flag requiresSchema must instead be set to true, for that to work:

  • second topic __classInfoConcise__ was introduced with meta tag removed
  • agents provide retained messages on both topics
  • clients subscribe to one or the other depending on the requiresSchema setting

• using docker compose instead of docker-compose in the test suite

Fixed

• now unsubscribing from events on instances that aren't available anymore
• invalid log message triggered when JSON return values are circular
• multiple emitter registration under the same clientId
• issue when loading files that are not ending with ".js"
• issue when calling a remote function with null as part of the arguments

[3.1.1] - Aug 17 2022

Fixed

• missing defaultValue when parsing source code comments

Added

• reconnection test when broker toggles offline/online

[3.1.0] - Jun 15 2022

Added

• possibility to set a user-defined MQTT client ID for both, agent and client [#56]
• possibility to set a user-defined VRPC client identity

Fixed

• potential access to null object resulting in remote exception
• more defensive programming when client used an non-emitter instance for registering events
• potential application crash when VrpcNative was provided with a bad callback which got called from within C++

Changed

• switched domain and agent separator from : to / when generating username

[3.0.4] - Apr 04 2022

Added

• automatic token generation when no token and not password were provided

Changed

• changed agent to always run connect with clean session
• changed generated username on agent to include domain information
• generating username when neither token nor password are provided
• changed client's username generation to as well include domain information disconnects on inactive browser pages
• added agent name info to token generator (allows to run in same folder)

Fixed

• agent simplification should fix subscription issues when broker gets restarted
• removed os.userInfo() from generated client username as browsers do not support this function
• failing mqtt reconnection when using websocket on a browser that goes inactive
• removed changing os.cpus() call making the clientId stable on same executable
• serious bug while cleaning up event-registrations resulting from "callAll"

[3.0.3] - Feb 09 2022

Fixed

• again generating implicit username (when none is given) as MQTT does not support handing over password only

[3.0.2] - Feb 08 2022

Changed

• removed implicit setting of username to __token__ when authenticating with access token

Fixed

• bug during un-registering obsolete event subscriptions

[3.0.1] - Jan 24 2022

Fixed

• non-functional event un-subscription on silent client disconnect and when initially registered via callAll

[3.0.0] - Jan 20 2022

Added

• vrpcOn / vrpcOff feature to client
• tests exclusively for VrpcAdapter
• support for path.join(__dirname, <path>) expressions when registering class

Fixed

• unhandled promise rejection on initial connect timeout
• missing documentation for VrpcNative
• bug on new vrpcOn feature
• bug while unregister event listeners via "off" or "removeAllListeners"

Changed

• error messages as triggered on remote agents (now include context info)
• removed obsolete public API from VrpcAdapter
• internal handling of EventEmitter subscriptions
  • now publishing a single message per event to a fixed topic
  • dispatching happens by the broker not by the agent anymore
  • this saves a lot of traffic when many clients subscribe to same events
• reduced size of response messages by skipping redundant information
• order of items within RPC message
• promise rejection message as triggered on remote agents (now include context info)

[3.0.0-alpha.3] - 25 Nov 2021

Fixed

• missing 'create' event in VrpcAdapter
• respecting isolation state in callAll

Changed

• cleaned API and tests from deprecation supports, those will now result in errors
• intercepting return value of EventEmitter functions and changing it from potentially gigantic object (as it returns this) to true

[3.0.0-alpha.2] - 19 Nov 2021

Fixed

• leaking event registrations on remote-controlled instance when event consumer was not creator of the instance

Changed

• reduced payload of callback message by omitting the original return value
• changed prefix of mqtt client id to vc3 and va3, respectively

[3.0.0-alpha.1] - 10 Nov 2021

Changed

• layout and content of this repository, only javascript related code is left
• naming of public API classes is made consistent
  • VrpcAdapter
  • VrpcAgent
  • VrpcClient (formerly VrpcRemote)
  • VrpcNative (formerly VrpcLocal)
• RPC wire protocol got changed and simplified, a protocol version is attached to every message (v: 3)
• concept of isolated and shared proxy instances (#51) got implemented
• all namings including 'binding' got renamed for the more appropriate 'adapter'
• calling embedded C++ code got a completely new API (VrpcNative)

Added

• injection of proxy-, instance-, and client id into proxy instance Node.js
• public accessor for client id Node.js
• signal clientGone on agent, indicating that a state-changing client went [Node.js]

Fixed

• Bug during clientId extraction for an exited client (causing leaks for anonymous instances)

[2.6.0] - 12 Jul 2021

Added

• support for event and callback registrations when using callAll

Fixed

• prevented proxyId of VrpcRemote from potential collisions
• improved proxyId generation of VrpcLocal

[2.5.1] - 29 Jun 2021

Fixed

• replaced the deprecated shortid package with nanoid
• prolonged the proxyId to 9 characters, reducing the collision probability to 1% after having generated 19M ids
• bug in extractMemberFunctions that would miss function in certain cases when using registerInstance
• missing class info messages when successfully reconnecting against a restarted broker
• compiler error when using deprecated C++ binding macros on zero arguments function

[2.5.0] - 25 May 2021

Added

• events create and delete to VrpcAdapter [Node.js]
• possibility to register already existing instances [Node.js]
• possibility to cache the proxy object [Node.js]

Fixed

• performance issue when clients silently go offline while still being subscribed to callbacks [Node.js]
• issue when providing an explicit jsonDoc path while registering a class [Node.js]

[2.4.0] - 01 Mar 2021

Added

• possibility to use VRPC_CTOR, VRPC_MEMBER_FUNCTION and VRPC_STATIC_FUNCTION for void return values as well. This obsoletes all macros including the *_VOID_* tag. [C++]
• *_X version of all macros allowing to add function meta information. See documentation for more details. [C++]
• support for C++ code that executes callbacks within threads
• fresh examples (including code) exploring the new features
• version information to agent cli [Node.js]
• userVersion configuration possibility to external agent [Node.js]

Changed

• upgraded json.hpp version to latest [C++]
• made domain and agent optional when starting commandline agents [All]

Fixed

• documentation w.r.t. to meta data API [Node.js]

Removed

• old examples documentation under docs/examples
• old example code under examples

[2.3.2] - 18 Feb 2021

Fixed

• domain inconsistency in the VrpcRemote API Node.js
• webpack-5 crash, using custom browser library now (#36)
• missing callback when same native addon was loaded to different VrpcLocal instances Node.js

Changed

• converted log-based deprecation warnings to process.emitWarning() [Node.js]

Added

• possibility to unregister an offline agent Node.js

[2.3.1] - 02 Feb 2021

Fixed

• Wrong break statements when inspecting the client cache for instances to be attached to [Node.js]
• Compilation error on non-copyable classes C++-Addon

[2.3.0] - 13 Jan 2021

Added

• Reference documentation for Node.js based components [Node.js]
• Feature to callAll instances of the same class across agents [Node.js]
• Initial setup for a new docker compose based specification testing [Node.js]
• Improved protection against malformed domain and agent names [Node.js]
• Improved log message (more verbose) in case proxy creation timed out [Node.js]

Fixed

• Missing events upon failed agent.serve() [Node.js]

[2.2.3] - 4 Dec 2020

Fixed

• Created workaround for broken mqtt-packet sub-dependency (issue #17)

[2.2.2] - 09 Nov 2020

Fixed

• Handling of the internal error event within VrpcAgent.js to avoid an exception in case the user forgot to implement that.

Changed

• Stopped supporting Node.js 8.0 and included Node.js 14 while testing [Node.js]

[2.2.1] - 30 Oct 2020

Fixed

• Correct provisioning of version information when sending offline agent-info message

Changed

• upgraded major versions of mqtt and argparse dependencies

Added

• possibility to specify custom defaults for commandline based agent runs [Node.js]

[2.2.0] - 30 Oct 2020

Added

• Feature of being able to call the same function across all instances of the same class (which is executed on the agent and only then send as single message to the client) [Node.js]
• Added version property to agent (thanks to cstim), allowing to specify a custom version which is taken up in the agent-info message and digested by the remote client [Node.js]

Changed

• Improved the in-code documentation

[2.1.6] - 23 Aug 2020

Changed

• Embedded comment-parser dependency into code base
• Using a wildcard topic for subscribing and unsubscribing the method of new or deleted instances respectively. This was suggested by psorowka as a performance improvement and could be reproduced with a changed class-fixture (including many more functions) in the performance test.

Fixed

• Potential crash of comment-parser when faced with stand-alone comment-blocks

[2.1.5] - 19 Aug 2020

Added

• Feature of parsing js-doc like comments while registering code through the adapter [Node.js]
• New option: bestEffort which sets all qos levels to 0 when true [Node.js] (thanks to psorowka for suggesting this for performance improvement)

Changed

• Sequential subscription calls to single array-based one, much improving proxy creation performance [Node.js] (thanks to cstim suggesting this)

Fixed

• Wrong error message in-case a re-subscription happened. Now message is fixed and level set from warn to debug

[2.1.4] - 19 Jun 2020

Changed

• Implementation of event-registration: now dispatching multiple subscribers of a proxy on the client side, not the agent side [Node.js]
• React todos example showing what can be done with react-vrpc v1.x

[2.1.3] - 9 Jun 2020

Fixed

• Proper un-registration of local event subscriptions on a proxy instance through off or removeListener function [Node.js]
• Missing await statement in delete() method of VrpcRemote leading to race condition [Node.js]
• using removeListener instead of off for event un-subscription to support older version of Node.js [Node.js]

[2.1.2] - 26 May 2020

Fixed

• Issues with VrpcRemote::getInstance ignoring defaults or throwing wrong exceptions [Node.js]

Added

• Initial example code for a minimal Todos Application using react-vrpc

[2.1.1] - 4 Apr 2020

Fixed

• Compilation error of addon.cpp whe using V8 12.x (solves GH-5) [C++]
• Unhandled error propagation of VrpcRemote::#error event when no handler is subscribed [Node.js]
• Immediate failure of VrpcRemote::connect function when MQTT connection takes time [Node.js]
• Wrong RPC timeouts when agent is online only after the client call (but still within timeout time) [Node.js]
• Loss of messages and re-subscription issues while VrpcAgent re-connects
  • Agent is using a persisted session while being online

Added

• Node 12.x as additional travis test platform
• Performance test (not part of CI)

[2.1.0] - 25 Mar 2020

Fixed

• Possible exception when using deprecated form of VrpcRemote::getInstance [Node.js]

[2.1.0-alpha.8] - 19 Mar 2020

Fixed

• Spuriously occurring RPC timeouts on calls that actually successfully travelled the network by removing the promise-based waiting from all mqtt pub/sub calls. Turns out that those callbacks may come later then event RPC answer! [Node.js]

Added

• Option noWait on VrpcRemote::getInstance skipping any waiting for the instance to appear if not currently found in the local cache. [Node.js]

[2.1.0-alpha.7] - 13 Mar 2020

Changed

• VrpcRemote::getInstance will try first locally, second remotely to find the instance (exception is thrown after timeout) [Node.js]

Fixed

• VrpcAgent: unregistration of named instances [Node.js]
• VrpcAgent: ordering of classInfo message w.r.t. named creation [Node.js]

[2.1.0-alpha.6] - 12 Mar 2020

Changed

• handling of agent answer implementation (always using single promise) [Node.js]
• improved error message on timed out functions [Node.js]
• triggering a deprecation notice upon calling VrpcRemote::connected() [Node.js]
• naming of info messages:
  • __agentInfo__
  • __classInfo__
  • __clientInfo__

Removed

• implicit triggering of MQTT connection within VrpcRemote constructor [Node.js]
• waiting for retained info messages during connect [Node.js]

Added

• explicit VrpcRemote::connect() function, performing the MQTT connect [Node.js]
• 'error' and 'connect' event for VrpcRemote [Node.js]

Fixed

• ambiguity between classInfo and clientInfo message subscription
• documentation

[2.1.0-alpha.5] - 26 Feb 2020

Changed

• got rid of the requirement to await twice for asynchronous agent functions [Node.js]

Added

• two events on VrpcRemote: instanceNew and instanceGone [Node.js]

[2.1.0-alpha.4] - 25 Feb 2020

Changed

• API for VrpcRemote::getInstance and VrpcRemote::delete [Node.js]
  • provisioning of instanceId only is acceptable now, explicit context is optional.
  • old API usage is still supported, but generates a deprecation report
• automatic schema validation now injects schema defaults [Node.js]

Fixed

• missing topic un-subscription after client death [Node.js]

[2.1.0-alpha.3] - 20 Feb 2020

Changed

• shortened MQTT keepalive interval (now 30s) to play nice with websocket timeouts
• validity year for all licence statements

[2.1.0-alpha.2] - 20 Feb 2020

Fixed

• failures on un-serializable return values

Changed

• asynchronous timeout implementation on VrpcRemote

[2.1.0-alpha.1] - 19 Feb 2020

Changed

• topic structure of info messages
  • Agent Info: <domain>/<agent>/__info__
  • Class Info: <domain>/<agent>/<class>/__info__
  • Client Info: <domain>/<host>/<random>/__info__
• renamed targetId to context

Added

NodeJs: VrpcRemote

• possibility to hand-over custom log-object
• handler for mqtt errors resulting in error log messages
• log notification in case of non-permitted sub/pubs

NodeJs: VrpcAgent, VrpcAdapter

• Automatic un-subscription of event-listeners belonging to dead clients
• log notification in case of non-permitted sub/pubs

Fixed

• proper waiting until all INFO messages arrived
• automatic un-subscription of dead-client events

[2.1.0-alpha.0] - 11 Nov 2019

Added

• implemented proper deletion of named and un-named instances for node.js
• a new PRC message, indicating end of proxy
• events for VrpcRemote indicating changes of remote agents or classes
• initial set of javadoc-style public function documentation
• full adapter interface to c++ implementation

Fixed

• improper asynchronicity of serve method in VrpcAgent
• broken event handling using on when used on several named instance proxies

Changed

• property class to className in class info RPC message
• renamed callRemote to call in VrpcAdapter.js and addon.cpp
• made several functions public in VrpcAdapter for usage as local factory
• adapted public interface of VrpcLocal to be in sync with VrpcRemote

Removed

• special function __deleteNamed__, turned out that __delete__ suffices

[2.0.3] - 04 Oct 2019

Fixed

• missing instances when calling VrpcRemote.getAvailableInstances()

[2.0.2] - 03 Oct 2019

Fixed

• missing promise support on static functions (GH-2)
• proper association for multiple C++ instances of same class

Added

• improved possibility to retrieve availabilities in VrpcRemote.js

[2.0.1] - 22 Jun 2019

Fixed

• a bug regarding C++ iterator usage (compile issue on windows)

Changed

• wrong function calls (including incorrect signature) lead to RPC error instead of runtime exception in C++

[2.0.0] - 15 Jun 2019

Added

• docs folder with examples for Node.js, C++ and Python bindings
• static fromCommandline function to VrpcAgent.js
• support to remotely use event-emitters provided by Node.js agents
• documentation about rpc call details

Fixed

• a bug while remotely registering async functions as direct callbacks
• sending multiple agent-info messages if several classes were registered
• incorrect internal correlationId in node.js remote-proxy

[2.0.0-alpha.8] - 12 May 2019

Added

• New npm run script: build - Triggers building of addons needed for testing, examples and dynamic loading feature
• catch.hpp header to third_party, simplifying installation and build
• Configurable timeout (default 5s) to rpc function calls
• Retained agent status (<domain>/<agent>/__agent__/__static__/__info__) published as retained message, indicating offline/online status and hostname

Changed

• Default broker for tests is now vrpc.io itself and uses tls secured mqtt
• Currently the validity of the server certificate will be trusted
• Removed the need of automatically building native add-on during vrpc installation

[2.0.0-alpha.7] - 01 Apr 2019

Fixed

• Protecting yet another linux-only piece of code from windows compiler

[2.0.0-alpha.6] - 01 Apr 2019

Fixed

• Protected dlfcn.h header from being compiled by windows
• Callback multiplication upon re-registering with same event name

[2.0.0-alpha.5] - 17 Mar 2019

Added

• Token based login for node.js agent
• Additional API functions allowing to query available agents, classes, methods
• Possibility to create named instances usable by multiple proxies

Fixed

• Asynchronous exceptions where not caught on remote proxy (await await - style)
• Session cleaning for re-login on node.js proxy
• Proper promise based await of client disconnect in case of VrpcRemote reconnect

Changed

• The API of VrpcRemote to take a objects instead of multiple args
• Updated version of Modern JSON lib to 3.5.0
• Changed namespace and macro names from nlohmann to vrpc
• Adapted corresponding examples, tests and documentation
• Renamed all topicPrefix to domain
• Commandline options of vrpc-agent-js and default settings

[2.0.0-alpha.4] - 02 Jan 2019

Fixed

• Exchanged md4 with md5 hashing fixing missing browser support

[2.0.0-alpha.3] - 01 Jan 2019

Changed

• Adapter and Proxy can now use username and password for MQTT authentication
• ClientIDs are not longer random generated but explicitly set
• Added static keyword to wire protocol as placeholder for the instance position in case of static function
• Updated README to reflect latest documentation

Fixed

• Bug that led to ambiguity given different agents serving same class names

[2.0.0-alpha.2] - 02 Jul 2018

Changed

• module.exports in index.js to also support VrpcAdapter

[2.0.0-alpha.1] - 02 Jul 2018

Changed

• module.exports in index.js to also support VrpcRemote

[2.0.0-alpha.0] - 02 Jul 2018

Added

• VrpcAgent for node.js
• VrpcRemote for node.js
• Corresponding tests involving MQTT
• Corresponding dependencies

Changed

• Rewrote VrpcLocal.js using classes
• Adapted tests to instantiate VrpcLocal with new keyword
• Removed VRPC_COMPILE_AS_ADDON and introduced VRPC_WITH_DL
• Removed previously deprecated cpp symbolic link
• Some details of the wire-protocol
  • Renamed the argument identifiers from a1, a2... to _1, _2...
  • Renamed function to method
• Renamed VrpcFactory to VrpcAdapter
• Renamed vrpc_local.py to VrpcLocal.py

[1.1.7] - 31 Mar 2018

Fixed

• Re-registration problem for emitter based callbacks resulting in multiplied callbacks

[1.1.6] - 31 Mar 2018

• Nothing changed, this tag is identical to 1.1.5 for a technical issue during publishing

[1.1.5] - 14 Jun 2018

Changed

• Increased maximum number of inflight ("open") callbacks
• Updated dependent packages

[1.1.4] - 04 Jun 2018

Added

• Low-level addon tests

Changed

• vrpc's callCpp function to throw runtime exception in case of issues
• DRYed addon.cpp, improved string conversions and exception text

Fixed

• Dev-Ops issue if installing twice (cpp soft-link is now forced)

[1.1.3] - 01 Jun 2018

Changed

• Updated dependencies
• Improved documentation

Fixed

• Potential memory corruption if provided with non-null terminated strings
• Missing inline keyword on get_signature overload

[1.1.2] - 01 Apr 2018

Fixed

• Link to python example project in README.md
• Wrong path in index.js

[1.1.1] - 01 Apr 2018

Fixed

• Forgotten CHANGELOG.md file

[1.1.0] - 01 Apr 2018

Added

• This CHANGELOG.md file
• pandoc generated REAMDE.rst file

Changed

• Renamed source folder cpp into vrpc, needed to please python's setup tools
  • Moved all non-test code into the new vrpc folder
  • Adapted all paths involving the old cpp folder
  • Adapted the binding.gyp template in README.md
  • Keeping backwards compatibility by generating cpp symbolic link
• Renamed environmental BUILD_TESTS to BUILD_TEST (has no external effect)
• Made building of python native extension conditional using BUILD_TEST and BUILD_EXAMPLE. This was needed to provide vrpc as pure python wheel.

Fixed

• Python proxy constructor to be callable with variadic arguments
• Syntactic problems in REAMDE.md leading to mistakes in auto rst translation

[1.0.2] - 16 Mar 2018

Changed

• Link address to the C++ json library in README.md

Removed

• Unnecessary npm-dependency shortid

[1.0.1] - 14 Mar 2018

Added

• Link to nodejs project example in README.md

Fixed

• Typo and missing brace in README.md

[1.0.0] - 14 Mar 2018

First public release