Service discovery

To make sending a file as easy as possible Drop detects servers on the local network automatically. For great platform support this part is solved using Avahi (also known as Bonjour or Zeroconf). To make the drop service discoverable on the network the server has to register a service with following preferences. The client recognizes that service and displays it to the user.

Service Type: _drop._tcp
Service Name: <HOSTNAME>
TXT display-name = <REAL USER NAME>
TXT server-enabled = true
TXT protocol-implementation = <NAME OF THE PROTOCOL IMPLEMENTATION>
TXT unencrypted-port = 7432
TXT protocol-version = 1

The service name should be the hostname of the device the server is running on and the display name is the name of the logged in user on that machine (e.g. John Smith). The server-enabled parameter shows to the user if the server is currently available for receiving transmissions. For easier debugging the protocol-implementation field should be set to something that names your application and it's protocol implementation. unencrypted-port is the alternative (and optional) port clients can connect to if they don't want to use encryption, your server doesn't have to allow unencrypted transmissions. Also set protocol-version to the version number of the implemented protocol (1 in this case).