Stacking with Debug

This tutorial uses the same comm.Client, comm.Server classes from the previous one, so continuing on from previous tutorial, all we need is to import the class:comm.Debug:

>>> from bacpypes.comm import Debug

Because there could be lots of Debug instances, it could be confusing if you didn’t know which instance was generating the output. So initialize the debug instance with a name:

>>> d = Debug("middle")

As you can guess, this is going to go into the middle of a stack of objects. The top of the stack is a client, then bottom of a stack is a server. When messages are flowing from clients to servers they are called downstream messages, and when they flow from server to client they are upstream messages.

The comm.bind() function takes an arbitrary number of objects. It assumes that the first one will always be a client, the last one is a server, and the objects in the middle are hybrids which can be bound with the client to its left, and to the server on its right:

>>> bind(c, d, s)

Now when the client generates a request, rather than the message being sent to the MyServer instance, it is sent to the debugging instance, which prints out that it received the message:

>>> c.request('hi')
Debug(middle).indication
    - args[0]: hi

The debugging instance then forwards the message to the server, which prints its message. Completeing the requests downstream journey.:

working on hi

The server then generates a reply. The reply moves upstream from the server, through the debugging instance, this time as a confirmation:

Debug(middle).confirmation
    - args[0]: HI

Which is then forwarded upstream to the client:

thanks for the HI

This demonstrates how requests first move downstream from client to server; then cause the generation of replies that move upstream from server to client; and how the debug instance in the middle sees the messages moving both ways.

With clearly defined “envelopes” of protocol data, matching the combination of clients and servers into layers can provide a clear separation of functionality in a protocol stack.