mDNS Listener Advanced

⚠️ Major update Since version 3.0.0 this package is using a Typescript Implementation and it is fully tested on Mac OS 14.5 and windows 11 and ubuntu 20.04 If you have any issue feel free to open an issue here

Advanced mDNS Listener to add and listen .local hostnames in your network compatible with zeroconf, bonjour, avahi

I recommand using this python publisher https://github.com/aminekun90/python_zeroconf_publisher since this code is fully compatible with it, if you dont have access to it you can contact me further bellow 😉 I can make you an offer.

• Note that mdns-listener-advanced includes a bonjour publisher since version 3.1.0

Requirements

• Node 18 or later (we recommend using NVM) this package is using Node v20.13.1 as of today

Installation

npm install mdns-listener-advanced

Usage

Fully tested on windows 11, ubuntu 18 and Mac OS 14.

var mdnsListenerAdvanced = require("mdns-listener-advanced");
const mdns = new mdnsListenerAdvanced.Core(['MyDevice2']);
const event = mdns.listen();
event.on('response', (found_hostnames) => {
  console.log('found_hostnames', found_hostnames);
  // mdns.stop();// To stop the listener
});
event.on('error', (error) => {
  console.log('error', error);
  // mdns.stop();// To stop the listener
});

✅ Fully tested

import { Core, Device, EmittedEvent  } from 'mdns-listener-advanced';

const ref = 'MyDevice2';
const mdns = new Core([ref], null, {
  debug: false,
  disableListener: false,
  disablePublisher:false,
});

const event = mdns.listen();
mdns.publish(ref);
// Basic response of 'MyDevice2'
event.on(EmittedEvent.RESPONSE, (found_hostnames: Array<Device>) => {
  mdns.info('found hostnames', found_hostnames);
  // mdns.stop();// To stop the listener
});
// Array of objects of different types
event.on(EmittedEvent.RAW_RESPONSE, (hosts: Array<object>) => {
  mdns.info('raw response', hosts);
});
//Error occured
event.on(EmittedEvent.ERROR, (error: Error) => {
  mdns.info('error', error);
  // mdns.stop();// To stop the listener
});

• To Stop listening to the event use :

mdns.stop();

EmittedEvent Enum since v3.2.6 :

import { EmittedEvent } from 'mdns-listener-advanced';

Name	Descripti
EmittedEvent.RESPONSE	Emits when an mdns device is discovered
EmittedEvent.RAW_RESPONSE	Emits raw data of the mdns response
EmittedEvent.ERROR	Emits on any errors

Configuration

Method 1

Provide hostnames list in the constructor like this :

var mdnsListenerAdvanced = require("mdns-listener-advanced");
const mdns = new mdnsListenerAdvanced.Core(['MyDevice1','MyDevice2']);

The file .mdns-hosts is created automatically.

Method 2

Add and Edit the file named .mdns-hosts, this file must be in your HOME directory for windows [HDD]:\Users\<username>\.mdns-hosts and for linux/Mac ~/.mdns-hosts, place hostnames ending on separate lines like so:

myhost1
myhost2

You can specify the hostnames that you want to detect !

Whenever you change this file, you should restart the service.

Publish and Unpublish a hostname

To publish a hostname you can use this example :

import { Core } from "mdns-listener-advanced";
const ref = "MyDevice2";
const mdns = new Core();
mdns.publish(ref);
mdns.unpublishAll();// You can unpublish using this function

Output:

ℹ️ MDNS ADVANCED A hostname have been published with options {
  port: 3000,
  name: 'MyDevice2',
  type: 'TXT',
  txt: {
    id: '"510f56fb-cb61-45d6-8e01-be4ed49405bb"',
    ipv4: '"192.168.2.11"'
  }
}

Note that a warning will appear if you initialise the Core of mdns-listener-advanced without providing a hostname list or ~/.mdns-hosts file path.

⚠️ MDNS ADVANCED Hostnames or path to hostnames is not provided, listening to a host is compromised!

• At the moment you cannot unpublish services undividually or by hostname and there might be a way using the included bonjour library.

Details :

Functions	Params	Type	Description
new mdnsListenerAdvanced.Core(['MyDevice2']);	hostsList	Array<string>	List of hostnames
new advanced_mdns(..,mdnsHostsPath)	mdnsHostsPath	string	Full path of your .mdns-hosts (not available)
new advanced_mdns(..,..,options)	options	{debug:boolean}	Enable debug default value is false
new advanced_mdns(..,..,options)	options	{disableListener:boolean}	Disable listener the default value is false
new advanced_mdns(..,..,options)	options	{disablePublisher:boolean}	Disable publisher the default value is false
.listen().on(event,callback(object))	event	string	To catch a response event when set to "response"
	callback	function(object)	callback to do custome code
	object	object	a received object i.e {MyDevice1:{...}}
.stop()			to stop the event listener
.publish(hostname)	hostname	string	to publish an mdns host protocol
.unpublishAll()			to unpublish all mdns host protocol

Buy me a coffee

Want to contribute or have any suggestions or questions?

Contact me on Linkedin Here.

Other notes

Note: The original idea was from @Richie765 https://github.com/Richie765/mdns-listener and got updated and enhanced, few parts of the original code might still exist.