aether-social

Social graph, friends, groups, presence, and chat

The aether-social crate provides social features for Aether, including a friend system, blocking, group management, presence tracking, real-time chat, and horizontal sharding for scalability.

Overview

Social interactions are central to a VR platform. This crate handles:

• Friend management with request, accept, reject, and remove workflows.
• Block lists that suppress visibility, chat, and interaction between users.
• Groups for persistent social circles with invitations and member roles.
• Presence tracking that shows where friends are and what they are doing.
• Real-time chat with channels for proximity, group, and direct messages.
• Horizontal sharding that distributes the social graph across database shards.

Key Types

SocialService

The top-level facade that provides access to all social subsystems.

use aether_social::{SocialService, SocialResult};

let service = SocialService::new(db_pool);

FriendManager

Manages the friend relationship lifecycle.

use aether_social::{FriendManager, FriendRequest, FriendStatus};

let mut friends = FriendManager::new();
friends.send_request(user_a, user_b)?;
friends.accept_request(user_b, user_a)?;
let status = friends.status(user_a, user_b);
assert_eq!(status, FriendStatus::Friends);

BlockList

Maintains per-user block lists that affect visibility and communication.

use aether_social::BlockList;

let mut blocks = BlockList::new(user_id);
blocks.block(other_user);
assert!(blocks.is_blocked(other_user));

GroupManager

Handles persistent groups with invitations, membership, and configuration.

use aether_social::{GroupManager, GroupConfig, GroupStatus};

let mut groups = GroupManager::new();
let group_id = groups.create(GroupConfig {
    name: "Explorers Guild".into(),
    max_members: 50,
})?;
groups.invite(group_id, invitee_id)?;

PresenceTracker

Tracks player online status and current location in the world network.

use aether_social::{PresenceTracker, PresenceState, PresenceKind, InWorldLocation};

let mut presence = PresenceTracker::new();
presence.update(user_id, PresenceState {
    kind: PresenceKind::Online,
    location: Some(InWorldLocation {
        world_id: "plaza".into(),
        zone: "main".into(),
    }),
    visibility: PresenceVisibility::FriendsOnly,
});

ChatManager

Manages real-time chat channels with message routing.

use aether_social::{ChatManager, ChatMessage, ChatType, MessageKind};

let mut chat = ChatManager::new();
chat.send(ChatMessage {
    sender: user_id,
    channel: ChatType::Proximity,
    kind: MessageKind::Text,
    content: "Hello everyone!".into(),
})?;

Usage Examples

Friend Workflow

use aether_social::{FriendManager, FriendSummary, FriendState};

let mut friends = FriendManager::new();

// Send and accept a friend request
friends.send_request(alice, bob)?;
friends.accept_request(bob, alice)?;

// List friends
let alice_friends: Vec<FriendSummary> = friends.list(alice);
assert_eq!(alice_friends.len(), 1);

Sharding Policy

use aether_social::ShardMapPolicy;

let policy = ShardMapPolicy::new(num_shards);
let shard = policy.shard_for(user_id);