Network Service Discovery

You can use 2 different protocols to perform network service discoveries to announce local services and search for remote services on a network: DNS-SD (DNS Service Discovery) and SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol).

Note: SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol) has been deprecated since API level 13. For new application development, it is recommended to use DNS-SD instead.

The main features of the Tizen.Network.Nsd namespace includes the following:

• Managing local services

  Registering a local service announces it over the network, allowing other devices to find and use it. You can create and register local services through the Tizen.Network.Nsd.DnssdService and Tizen.Network.Nsd.SsdpService classes, which both implement the Tizen.Network.Nsd.INsdService interface, follow these steps to create and register services:

  • For the DNS-SD services, you can retrieve service details, such as name, type, port number, and IP address, through related properties. You can also add a text record after registering the service, and set the key and value of the record. To remove a record, use its key.
  • For the SSDP services, you can retrieve service details, such as name, target, and URL.

• Discovering remote services

  You can search for remote services on the network through the Tizen.Network.Nsd.DnssdBrowser and Tizen.Network.Nsd.SsdpBrowser classes, which both implement the Tizen.Network.Nsd.INsdBrowser interface. You can also receive notifications when a service is found by registering an event handler for the ServiceFound event of the applicable class.

Prerequisites

To enable your application to use the network service discovery functionality, follow these steps:

1. To use the Tizen.Network.Nsd namespace, the application has to request permission by adding the following privilege to the tizen-manifest.xml file:

   
                   
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   <privileges>
      <privilege>http://tizen.org/privilege/internet</privilege>
   </privileges>
   

2. To make your application visible in the official site for Tizen applications only for devices that support the DNS-SD and SSDP protocols, the application must specify the following features in the tizen-manifest.xml file:

   
                   
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   <feature name="http://tizen.org/feature/network.service_discovery.dnssd"/>
   <feature name="http://tizen.org/feature/network.service_discovery.ssdp"/>
   

3. To use the methods and properties of the Tizen.Network.Nsd namespace, include it in your application:

   
                   
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   using Tizen.Network.Nsd;
   

Register local services

To register and deregister a local DNS-SD service, follow these steps:

1. Register a service by creating a new instance of the Tizen.Network.Nsd.DnssdService class and using its RegisterService() method:

   
                   
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   /// Register service
   INsdService service = new DnssdService("_http._tcp");
   DnssdService dnssdService = (DnssdService)service;
   
   // Set required properties before registration
   dnssdService.Name = "TestService";  // Required: Service name
   dnssdService.Port = "1234";         // Required: Port number
   
   dnssdService.RegisterService();
   

2. (Optional) Add TXT records to provide additional service metadata:

   
                   
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   // Add TXT records after service registration
   dnssdService.AddTXTRecord("path", "/api");
   dnssdService.AddTXTRecord("version", "1.0");
   

3. Deregister the service by using the DeregisterService() method.

   When the Tizen.Network.Nsd.DnssdService class instance is no longer needed, destroy it with the Dispose() method:

   
                   
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   /// Deregister service
   dnssdService.DeregisterService();
   dnssdService.Dispose();
   

Discover remote services

To discover remote DNS-SD services, follow these steps:

1. Start discovery by creating a new instance of the Tizen.Network.Nsd.DnssdBrowser class and register an event handler for service notifications:

   
                   
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   /// Start discovery
   INsdBrowser browser = new DnssdBrowser("_http._tcp");
   DnssdBrowser dnssdBrowser = (DnssdBrowser)browser;
   
   // Register event handler to handle discovered services
   dnssdBrowser.ServiceFound += (sender, e) =>
   {
       // Process the discovered service information here
       // Access service properties through e.Service.Name, e.Service.Port, etc.
   };
   
   dnssdBrowser.StartDiscovery();
   

2. When you have found the services you need, stop discovery by using the StopDiscovery() method.

   When the Tizen.Network.Nsd.DnssdBrowser class instance is no longer needed, destroy it with the Dispose() method:

   
                   
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   /// Stop discovery
   dnssdBrowser.StopDiscovery();
   dnssdBrowser.Dispose();
   

Related information

• Dependencies
  • Tizen 4.0 and Higher
• API References
  • Tizen.Network.Nsd class