Ben's Thoughts on Message Structure

Fields

Here are the fields I think we're going to need to include in a message and a brief description:

field	description	comments
dst	destination of the message	I think we should use some type of hashed username for this so it has a standard length. We could do a hash-table to store all the users or something, idk.
src	source of the message	Same as dst, I think we should use a hash.
tmstmp_lcl	timestamp message was sent from device
tmstmp_srv	timestamp message was received at server	This will initially be NULL when the message is sent.
type	what kind of message it is	See below for possible type values I'm thinking we'll need.
id_no	numerical reference value	A unique number to reference this message.
ref	id_no of message to reference	For use in things like replies or reactions
payload	data to send

Type Values

Possible type values I think we'll need:

value	name	description	Visible to User (Y/N)
-1	ERR	Error message	N
0	MSG	Standard message	Y
1	RPLY	Reply to message	Y
2	REAC	Reaction to message	Y
3	AUTH	Request for authentication to server	N
4	AACK	Authentication acknowledgement from server	N
5	ALIV	Is this device alive?	N
6	ACK	Acknowledgement	N
7	DBM	Database message (for transferring messages b/t devices)	N

Message Examples

Here are some example messages with values (in json format) and what the message means: