How to use approval check? Password Secured Lobby

How can I use NetworkManager.Singleton.ConnectionApprovalCallback the right way? I would like to create a password secured lobby. This is the code in the documentation, but nothing written how to use it.

Code (CSharp):

1. using Unity.Netcode;
2.  
3. private void Setup()
4. {
5.     NetworkManager.Singleton.ConnectionApprovalCallback = ApprovalCheck;
6.     NetworkManager.Singleton.StartHost();
7. }
8.  
9. private void ApprovalCheck(NetworkManager.ConnectionApprovalRequest request, NetworkManager.ConnectionApprovalResponse response)
10. {
11.     // The client identifier to be authenticated
12.     var clientId = request.ClientNetworkId;
13.  
14.     // Additional connection data defined by user code
15.     var connectionData = request.Payload;
16.  
17.     // Your approval logic determines the following values
18.     response.Approved = true;
19.     response.CreatePlayerObject = true;
20.  
21.     // The prefab hash value of the NetworkPrefab, if null the default NetworkManager player prefab is used
22.     response.PlayerPrefabHash = null;
23.  
24.     // Position to spawn the player object (if null it uses default of Vector3.zero)
25.     response.Position = Vector3.zero;
26.  
27.     // Rotation to spawn the player object (if null it uses the default of Quaternion.identity)
28.     response.Rotation = Quaternion.identity;
29.  
30.     // If additional approval steps are needed, set this to true until the additional steps are complete
31.     // once it transitions from true to false the connection approval response will be processed.
32.     response.Pending = false;
33. }

 

var connectionData = request.Payload;

You'd send your password ... actually, you'd send the hash of a password in the payload (not the password itself because payload transfer is not secure). On the server in the ApprovalCheck you get the hash out of the payload and compare it with the server's password hash. If they match, you set response.Approved to true, otherwise false.

Before calling StartClient() you would set the payload like so, you can replace PlayerName with PasswordHash:

Code (CSharp):

1. private void SetConnectionPayload()
2. {
3.     var payload = JsonUtility.ToJson(new ConnectionPayload { PlayerName = _playerName });
4.     NetworkManager.Singleton.NetworkConfig.ConnectionData = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(payload);
5. }

And the server does this in ApprovalCheck:

Code (CSharp):

1. var payload = JsonUtility.FromJson<ConnectionPayload>(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(request.Payload));

The transferred struct looks like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. [Serializable]
2. public struct ConnectionPayload
3. {
4.    public string PlayerName;
5. }

 

I tried doing it the way CodeSmile recommended. I pass the password and the player name as a string in the ConnectionPayload.

When I try to run a host, I get an error saying:
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
UnityEngine.JsonUtility.FromJson[T] (System.String json) (at <eb9295277491416588c36aeb93a5fb70>:0)

After some quick debugging I found out that the JSON messes up with the following line:
var payload = JsonUtility.FromJson<ConnectionPayload>(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(request.Payload));

This line should transform the request.Payload from a ConnectionApprovalRequest to a ConnectionPayload, but the JSON returns a null.

Does anyone know how I can solve this?

 

Check if the request.Payload isn‘t null to begin with. If it isn‘t log it to see if it matches the field layout of the ConnectionPayload class. Perhaps you serialized a different class to json than the one you try to deserialize the json to. Also make sure Encoding.ASCII (or any other encoding) are the same for both encoding and decoding the json string.