Eneter Messaging Framework is a lightweight framework for the interprocess communication. It is easy to use and it works across various platforms. The framework provides components that can be used to create various communication scenarios.

The idea of the framework is to provide well defined Communication Components you can connect via Channels into various communication scenarios.

Supported Platforms
The framework is provided for multiple platforms. Therefore, you can use it for communication between two .NET applications or two Java applications, but also for the cross-platform communication between Java and .NET.
(Eneter for Java Help, Eneter for .NET Help or Release Notes)

The framework is available for following platforms:

• Java 6
• Android 2.1 (or later)
• .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5
• Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 7.1
• Compact Framework 2.0, Compact Framework 3.5
• Silverlight 3, Silverlight 4, Silverlight 5
• Mono 2.6.4

Protocols
To connect applications, the framework supports following protocols and transportation mechanisms:

• TCP - for communication between applications running on different machines.
• Websockets - for communication between applications running on different machines. It provides bi-directional, full-duplex communication in environments which block non-standard Internet connections using a firewall.
• HTTP - for communication between applications running on different machines. It works in environments blocking non-standard Internet connections using a firewall.
• Shared Memory - for very fast communication between applications running on the same machine.
• Named Pipes - for communication between applications running on the same machine.
• Silverlight Messaging - for communication between Silverlight applications.
• Android USB Cable - for communication between computer and Android device connected via the USB cable.
• Thread Messaging - for communication between threads running in the same process.

Message Serialization
Communicated messages can be serialized/deserialized with:

• XML Serializer - serialization to XML.
• Xml Data Contract Serializer - for serialization to XML using DataContract and DataMember attributes.
• Json Data Contract Serializer - for serialization to JSON using DataContract and DataMember attributes.
• Binary Serializer - for fast serialization using the binary format (does not work for the communication between .NET and Java).
• AES Serializer - for encrypting using Advanced Encryption Standard.
• Rijndael Serializer - for encrypting using Rijndael encryption.
• GZip Serializer - for compressing big messages before sending across the network.
• RSA Serializer - for encrypting messages by RSA algorithm using public and private keys.
• RSA Digitally Signing Serializer - for using digital signature to verify who sent the message and that the message was not changed.

The communication API is not bound to a particular protocol or encoding format, therefore your implementation is same, does not matter what you use.

Sending-Receiving Messages
To implement the communication between applications, the framework provides functionality to send and receive messages. Communication can be one-way or request-response and messages can be:

• String Messages - for sending and receiving text messages.
• Typed Messages - for sending and receiving data structures of specified types.

Routing Messages
It provides components that can be placed on the communication path to control the routing behavior.

• Broker - for publish-subscribe scenarios (publisher sends messages to the broker and the broker notifies all subscribers).
• Router - for re-routing messages to a different address.
• Dispatcher - for routing messages to all connected receivers (e.g. for a service listening to TCP and HTTP at the same time).
• Load Balancer - for distributing workload across multiple computers.
• Channel Wrapper/Unwrapper - for receiving multiple types of messages on one address (no need for if ... else ... statement in the user code)

Reliability
The communication across the network is typically less reliable as a local call inside a process. The network connection can be interrupted or a receiving application can be temporarily unavailable. If your communication scenario requires overcome these issues, the framework provides:

• Monitoring of connection availability - for early detection of a disconnection.
• Buffered messaging and automatic reconnect - for overcoming short disconnections (e.g. in case of unstable network).
• Acknowledged messages - for getting notification whether a message was delivered or not.

Security
The communication across the network is easy to observe and confidential data can be acquired by unauthorized persons. Therefore, you may want to protect your data:

• SSL or serializer using a cryptographic algorithm AES, RSA or RSA based digital signature.