How to transfer C# class data over TCP to a C++ app

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Hi,
I am new to C# and .NET in general (ex-Borland C/C++ programmer). I have been given a task to collect and display data from a server program that was written in C/C++. I cannot make changes to the server code, but I have the Interface Control Document for it.

The server requires several initialization messages to be sent before it will pass the data back. Then the data will be streamed real-time (near real-time) to the client. Speed of messages can be as fast as the microsecond level. The server receives and passes data as structures. All data (in both directions) have two header fields: messageId, and messageSize.

My questions are:
1. How do I send class/struct data to the server (not too sure about serialization, yet)?
2. Will the server decode a serialized message properly?
3. Will the client be able to decode the data sent from the server?

I know this is a lot to answer, but I have searched the web for days and have only gotten more confused about serialization (there seems to be so many different ways to do it).

Any help would be immensely appreciated,
Dave

Posted 31-Oct-11 11:38am

cdavel

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 31-Oct-11 18:00pm

Do you mean C++, not C++/CLI?
--SA

4 solutions

Solution 2

I think you need to look at BinaryReader Class[^]
and BinaryWriter Class[^]

I cannot make changes to the server code
Use the above classes to serialize/deserialize the messages according to the format dictated by the server.
You need to determine how many bytes are used for each field, and then decode the message field by field.
Like:
messageId - 4 bytes, int
messageSize - 2 bytes, ushort
timeStamp - 8 bytes, double
quality - 1 byte, sbyte
value - 8 bytes, double

Strings will most likely need special handling as the BinaryReader and BinaryWriter defaults to unicode strings prefixed by a 7-bit encoded integer[^] specifying the length of the string. You need to know about the Encoding Class[^]

Or if you allready have a C++ client use C++/CLI or implement a COM wrapper using C++ builder. The last one is probably the easiest way to do it.

Best regards
Espen Harlinn

Posted 31-Oct-11 12:02pm

Espen Harlinn

Updated 31-Oct-11 14:17pm

v3

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 31-Oct-11 18:18pm

Not sure. How can you guarantee that C# code will write what C++ code will read? How to create identical (from the persistence standpoint) classes in different system? At least you should explain it. Will you look at my solution -- I have some ideas.
--SA

Espen Harlinn 31-Oct-11 18:42pm

OP specified that the server could not be modified

Solution 4

Sorry this took so long. I got pulled off the project for another and completely forgot about the question.

It turns out that I was doing it right, but they (the developers of the other program) changed their code and didn't tell me until I got back on the project. So thanks for the comments, anyway.

Dave

Posted 8-Aug-12 21:06pm

cdavel

Solution 1

Don't understand the question.

Posted 31-Oct-11 12:01pm

rj45

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-31T12:16:00

Please see my comment to the question. A will assume you mean .NET vs. C++, not C++/CLI. If both sides are .NET, there are no problems whatsoever. All code and serialization mechanism are platform-wide in .NET, they are not specific to language. Also, in .NET serialization is fundamentally based on Reflection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_%28computer_programming%29[^]). So, how about interoperability between .NET and "classic" C++.

Well, possible, but in practice very boring stuff, at least these days.

Basically, you need to create logically identical classes in both systems and use identical means of serialization. There can be several boring approaches. First, you can develop such classes or translate from language to language manually. Also, you can develop interfaces for classes using IDL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_description_language[^]) and generate code for both .NET and C++. On top of it, you can use serialization in both system using some common standard. You can try Soap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP[^]) or JSON (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON[^]).

Here you can find assortment of product implementing JSON for different platforms and languages: http://www.json.org/[^].

Good luck,

—SA