ESPTelnet

ESP8266/ESP32 library that allows you to setup a telnet server.

• Author: Lennart Hennigs (https://www.lennarthennigs.de)
• Copyright (C) 2018-2022 Lennart Hennigs.
• Released under the MIT license.

Description

Use this library to set up a the telnet server to communicate status messages or debug / error log output. This is especially useful when you don't have a serial connection to the ESP.

It has been tested with ESP8266 and ESP32 devices.

To see the latest changes to the library please take a look at the Changelog.

If you find this library helpful please consider giving it a ⭐️ at GitHub and/or buy me a ☕️. Thanks!

How To Use

Definition

• Use the begin() and stop() to start or stop the telnet server.

• It needs an active WiFi connection, or the ESP needs to be in softAP mode

• You can set a custom port (other than 23) via the begin() function

• The telnet server only allows you to connect a single client to it.

• You can use getIP() to get the connected client's IP address.

• You manually disconnect the client via disconnectClient()

Callback Handlers

• The library uses callback handlers to notify you of different telnet events

  • void onConnect(CallbackFunction f);
  • void onConnectionAttempt(CallbackFunction f);
  • void onReconnect(CallbackFunction f);
  • void onDisconnect(CallbackFunction f);
  • void onInputReceived(CallbackFunction f);

• All callback functions need a String parameter. There the IP from the connected client is sen, or the input text in case of onInputReceived().

Output and Input

• Via print() and println() you can output text on the telnet server.
• To receive and parse input from the telnet client you can add a handler via onInputReceived().
• By default, the library waits for a newline character from the client, and sends data to the callback handler one line at a time. This behaviour can be deactivated by calling setlineMode(false).

Using it to Debug Code

• A common use case is to use it for debuging remote devices, where you might not have access to Serial. Thus I added a few macros to make debugging easier:

• To enable debugging you need to set DEBUG_ON #define DEBUG_ON 1

• You can then define the output channels (serial and/or telnet)

  #define DEBUG_USE_SERIAL 1
  #define DEBUG_USE_TELNET 1
  

• After this you can use the following macros

  • DEBUG_INFO to see compilation the date & time of your sketch
  • DEBUG_WHERE to print where this message is located (file & line number)
  • DEBUG_MSG(x) to print a message
  • DEBUG_VAR(...) to print a variable value

• See the DebugMacroExample for more details.

The Loop

• For the class to work, you need to call the loop() member function in your sketch's loop() function.

Examples

• TelnetServerExample – basic example
• TelnetServerExampleWithWiFiManager – basic example using WiFiManager
• DebugMacroExample – to see the debug macros in action

Notes

• To see the latest changes to the library please take a look at the Changelog.

• And if you find this library helpful, please consider giving it a star at GitHub. Thanks!

Class Definition

These are the constructors and the member functions the library provides:

    ESPTelnet();

    bool begin();
    void loop();
    void stop();

    void print(String str);
    void print(char c);
    void println(String str);
    void println(char c);
    void println();

    String getIP() const;
    String getLastAttemptIP() const;
    
    void onConnect(CallbackFunction f);
    void onConnectionAttempt(CallbackFunction f);
    void onReconnect(CallbackFunction f);
    void onDisconnect(CallbackFunction f);
    void onInputReceived(CallbackFunction f);

    void disconnectClient();

Installation

Open the Arduino IDE choose "Sketch > Include Library" and search for "ESPTelnet". Or download the ZIP archive (https://github.com/lennarthennigs/ESPTelnet/zipball/master), and choose "Sketch > Include Library > Add .ZIP Library..." and select the downloaded file.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2018-2021 Lennart Hennigs

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.