I am using Named Pipes to transfer data from a client (C++) to a server (C#), the client does the following:
struct MESSAGE
{
char cCommand[8];
string sParameter;
};
MESSAGE msg;
strcpy(msg.cCommand, "COMMAND");
strcpy(msg.sParameter, "DO SOMETHING");
DWORD dwWrote = 0;
WriteFile (hpipe, &msg, sizeof(msg), dwWrote, NULL);
Then, at the receiving end the C# server does the following:
IntPtr chRequest;
bool fSuccess = ReadFile(hPipeInst, chRequest, uSize, cbRead, OverlappedPtr);
if (fSuccess)
byte[] temp = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi(chRequest));
Now, at the receiving end, I need to transform the temp (byte[]) back into the STRUCT or something equivalent so I can access the members cCommand and sPatameter - but at this point I have no clue how to proceed... In reality doesn't need to be a struct, I just need to extract the data itself.
Note - the STRUCT MESSAGE is something I came up with, meaning that it can be changed if a different format would be helpful in the reconstruction (add the length of sParameter for example?), I just need a COMMAND and PARAMETER to be transfered in a single block (if possible).
Requirements are simple:
- COMMAND is a fixed-length 8-characters long string that indicates what action needs to be performed
- PARAMETER is a variable-length (unless this causes issues) parameter dependant on each COMMAND
For example:
COMMAND = TRANS
PARAMETER = C:\FILE.txt C:\NewFolder\FILE.TXT
(this is just to illustrate, there are a lot more applications)
If possible I would like to extract it as a chunk of data (byte[]) and then pass it along to my application where it could be decomposed, not a fan of reading in the size, then a field, then a size, then a field - that requires that my Communication be overly linked with my implementation.
If there is a more suitable way to implement this transfer please let me know... advice would be welcome...
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,