NetworkTables
NetworkTables is a communications protocol used on FIRST robots. It is officially supported by the WPILib Control Systems team. NetworkTables is used by GRIP, SmartDashboard, and other software to communicate with the program running on the robot.
NetworkTables is used to communicate information between several computers. There is a single server (often the robot) and zero or more clients. These clients can be on the driver station, a coprocessor, or anything else on the robot’s local control network.
As it was intended to only be used on trusted networks, NetworkTables has no authentication or encryption, and should never be used on untrusted networks such as the Internet.
History
NetworkTables v1 was introduced in 2011.
NetworkTables v2 was introduced in 2013. It got rid of transactions, and introduced complex types such as array types.
NetworkTables v3 was introduced in 2016, and the Java/C++ libraries were completely rewritten.
Implementations
Official implementations:
Unofficial implementations: