Networking

The Networking implementation is a very expressive, custom RPC layer built over Roblox's Remote Events. This system heavily resembles Node's Express module, and you'll see exactly what I mean in a second

What is a "Channel"?

To understand what a "Channel" is, you need to know how Sawdust handles file structures.

What you'll find in a fresh Sawdust installation, are two folders named "Events" and "Assets". Locate & open the Sawdust.__internal.__settings.lua module, and find the Networking settings. It'll look something like this:

__settings.networking = {
    fetchFolder = root.Events,
}

Whatever fetchFolder is set to, is where Sawdust will search for Channels.

Now finally, what actually is a Channel? Well, it's simply a wrapper for any folder that is parented to the fetchFolder, that allows you to further locate events! Making a new channel is very simple, seriously just make a new folder under the fetchFolder, name it whatever, and there's your new channel!

local sawdust = require(path.to.sawdust)
local networking = sawdust.core.networking

--[[ File Structure:
    Sawdust -
      events -
        mechanics -
          abilities: event
          movement: event
        replication -
          abilities: event
        game -
          round: event

      assets - *CDN Folder*
--]]

local mechanics_channel   = networking.getChannel('mechanics') --> This is how you fetch a Channel
local replication_channel = networking.getChannel('replication')
local game_channel        = networking.getChannel('game')

local abilities_event       = mechanics_channel.abilities --> This is how you fetch a Wrapped Event
local abilities_replication = replication_channel.abilities
local round_event           = game_channel.round

RPC Layer

Internally, I've built a form of an RPC layer over Roblox's RemoteEvents. I won't go too in depth on this here, but if you'd like more info, check out the networking documentation.

When the Networking implementation initalizes, it'll go through the fetchFolder and automatically bind all found events to my custom networking handler, and it'll also wrap the events; this wrapped event is what you'll access to handle and send data.

As you've seen in the above chunk of code, you can access this wrapped event through: channel.event. Simple enough hopefully.