Create An IRC Client

[luketh]

Hey guys

I am wondering if anyone has a tutorial or source code to help me get started with creating a IRC Client that will connect to a IRC Server. I just want to make a pretty GUI to modernize it a bit and add some more features etc purely for educational reasons & because I need a new project.

If anyone has a tutorial or source code that would be great. This is a couple of steps up from my last project so I will need a guide to get me started etc. I have been searching on various sites etc but have found nothing so far.

Thanks,
Luke

[formlesstree4]

You should start with something simpler when dealing with Sockets. There's a lot of things that need to be done with the IRC protocol (it's pretty nasty) and trying to make a client is a hard deal.

I recommend reading up on how Sockets work and possibly make a small server-client system before taking on the IRC protocol.

[BlindSniper]

The IRC Protocol isn't really "Nasty", it's quite simple actually, all messages have the same format. An optional prefix, a command and parameters. With that being said there are lots of messages, which would be the only "Nasty" part of the protocol.
For more info on the protocol:
http://www.mirc.com/rfc2812.html
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/rfc/rfc2812.txt

But I also agree with formlesstree, you do need a good understanding of sockets to make a client, and since you want a GUI the sockets parts will need to be multithreaded which is not a simple task.
So in my opinion you should first learn sockets completely and then multithreading and then how to apply multithreading to sockets. Only then should you consider making a client

If you need help specifically with the IRC protocol PM me and/or make a thread. I have a good understanding of the basics of the protocol.

[luketh]

Ok guys so, I have kind of got a little basic IRC client going in a console app, I just want to get it working and then make the GUI... I am just having one problem, I cant do anything on it.. as you can see I can it says I am connecting to it but it doesn't seem to receive messages or let me send them..

If any of you can help that would be great! I followed this tutorial except the code they have requires some modifications to get it right, my version is below:

Imports System
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Text
 
Module Module1
    Dim sock As Socket
    Dim server As String
    Dim channel As String
    Dim nick As String
 
    Dim cout As System.IO.TextWriter = Console.Out
    Dim cin As System.IO.TextReader = Console.In
 
    Sub Main()
        cout.WriteLine("My IRC Bot")
        cout.Write(vbNewLine)
        cout.Write("Server name: ")
        server = cin.ReadLine
        cout.Write("Channel: ")
        Channel = cin.ReadLine
        cout.Write("Nickname: ")
        nick = cin.ReadLine
 
        Dim iph As System.Net.IPHostEntry = System.Net.Dns.GetHostEntry(server)
        Dim ipe As New System.Net.IPEndPoint(iph.AddressList(0), 6667)
        sock = New System.Net.Sockets.Socket(ipe.Address.AddressFamily, Net.Sockets.SocketType.Stream, Net.Sockets.ProtocolType.Tcp)
        sock.Connect(ipe)
 
        send("NICK " & nick)
        send("USER " & nick & " 0 * :" & nick)
        send("JOIN " & Channel)
        send("MODE " & nick & " +iw")
 
        Do While sock.Connected = True
            Dim mail As String = recv()
            cout.WriteLine(mail)
        Loop
    End Sub
 
    Sub send(ByVal msg As String)
        msg &= vbCr & vbLf
        Dim data() As Byte = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.UTF8.GetBytes(msg)
        sock.Send(data, msg.Length, SocketFlags.None)
    End Sub
 
    Function recv() As String
        Dim data(4096) As Byte
        sock.Receive(data, 4096, SocketFlags.None)
        Dim mail As String = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.UTF8.GetString(data)
        If mail.Contains(" ") Then
            If mail.Substring(0, 4) = "PING" Then
                Dim pserv As String = mail.Substring(mail.IndexOf(":"), mail.Length - mail.IndexOf(":"))
                pserv = pserv.TrimEnd(Chr(0))
                mail = "PING from " & pserv & vbNewLine & "PONG to " & pserv
                send("PONG " & pserv)
            ElseIf mail.Substring(mail.IndexOf(" ") + 1, 7) = "PRIVMSG" Then
                Dim tmparr() As String = Nothing
                mail = mail.Remove(0, 1)
                tmparr = mail.Split("!")
                Dim rnick As String = tmparr(0)
                tmparr = mail.Split(":")
                Dim rmsg As String = tmparr(1)
                mail = "msg: " & rnick & ">" & rmsg
            End If
        End If
        If mail.LastIndexOf(vbLf) > -1 Then
            mail = mail.TrimEnd(Chr(0))
            mail = mail.Remove(mail.LastIndexOf(vbLf), 1)
            mail = mail.Remove(mail.LastIndexOf(vbCr), 1)
        End If
        Return mail
    End Function
End Module

[formlesstree4]

Well of course you can't do anything, you are always receiving. The program is stuck in an infinite loop! Spin off a new thread to handle the reading or it'll never work itself out.