InterprocessConnection Class Reference

Manages a simple two-way messaging connection to another process, using either a socket or a named pipe as the transport medium. More...

Public Member Functions
	InterprocessConnection (bool callbacksOnMessageThread=true, uint32 magicMessageHeaderNumber=0xf2b49e2c)
	Creates a connection. More...
virtual	~InterprocessConnection ()
	Destructor. More...
bool	connectToSocket (const String &hostName, int portNumber, int timeOutMillisecs)
	Tries to connect this object to a socket. More...
bool	connectToPipe (const String &pipeName, int pipeReceiveMessageTimeoutMs)
	Tries to connect the object to an existing named pipe. More...
bool	createPipe (const String &pipeName, int pipeReceiveMessageTimeoutMs, bool mustNotExist=false)
	Tries to create a new pipe for other processes to connect to. More...
void	disconnect ()
	Disconnects and closes any currently-open sockets or pipes. More...
bool	isConnected () const
	True if a socket or pipe is currently active. More...
StreamingSocket *	getSocket () const noexcept
	Returns the socket that this connection is using (or nullptr if it uses a pipe). More...
NamedPipe *	getPipe () const noexcept
	Returns the pipe that this connection is using (or nullptr if it uses a socket). More...
String	getConnectedHostName () const
	Returns the name of the machine at the other end of this connection. More...
bool	sendMessage (const MemoryBlock &message)
	Tries to send a message to the other end of this connection. More...
virtual void	connectionMade ()=0
	Called when the connection is first connected. More...
virtual void	connectionLost ()=0
	Called when the connection is broken. More...
virtual void	messageReceived (const MemoryBlock &message)=0
	Called when a message arrives. More...

Detailed Description

Manages a simple two-way messaging connection to another process, using either a socket or a named pipe as the transport medium.

To connect to a waiting socket or an open pipe, use the connectToSocket() or connectToPipe() methods. If this succeeds, messages can be sent to the other end, and incoming messages will result in a callback via the messageReceived() method.

To open a pipe and wait for another client to connect to it, use the createPipe() method.

To act as a socket server and create connections for one or more client, see the InterprocessConnectionServer class.

See also

InterprocessConnectionServer, Socket, NamedPipe

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

InterprocessConnection()

InterprocessConnection::InterprocessConnection	(	bool	callbacksOnMessageThread = true,
		uint32	magicMessageHeaderNumber = 0xf2b49e2c
	)

Creates a connection.

Connections are created manually, connecting them with the connectToSocket() or connectToPipe() methods, or they are created automatically by a InterprocessConnectionServer when a client wants to connect.

Parameters

callbacksOnMessageThread	if true, callbacks to the connectionMade(), connectionLost() and messageReceived() methods will always be made using the message thread; if false, these will be called immediately on the connection's own thread.
magicMessageHeaderNumber	a magic number to use in the header to check the validity of the data blocks being sent and received. This can be any number, but the sender and receiver must obviously use matching values or they won't recognise each other.

~InterprocessConnection()

virtual InterprocessConnection::~InterprocessConnection ( )

virtual

Destructor.

Member Function Documentation

connectToSocket()

bool InterprocessConnection::connectToSocket	(	const String &	hostName,
		int	portNumber,
		int	timeOutMillisecs
	)

Tries to connect this object to a socket.

For this to work, the machine on the other end needs to have a InterprocessConnectionServer object waiting to receive client connections on this port number.

Parameters

hostName	the host computer, either a network address or name
portNumber	the socket port number to try to connect to
timeOutMillisecs	how long to keep trying before giving up

Returns

true if the connection is established successfully

See also

Socket

connectToPipe()

bool InterprocessConnection::connectToPipe	(	const String &	pipeName,
		int	pipeReceiveMessageTimeoutMs
	)

Tries to connect the object to an existing named pipe.

For this to work, another process on the same computer must already have opened an InterprocessConnection object and used createPipe() to create a pipe for this to connect to.

Parameters

pipeName	the name to use for the pipe - this should be unique to your app
pipeReceiveMessageTimeoutMs	a timeout length to be used when reading or writing to the pipe, or -1 for an infinite timeout.

Returns

true if it connects successfully.

See also

createPipe, NamedPipe

createPipe()

bool InterprocessConnection::createPipe	(	const String &	pipeName,
		int	pipeReceiveMessageTimeoutMs,
		bool	mustNotExist = false
	)

Tries to create a new pipe for other processes to connect to.

This creates a pipe with the given name, so that other processes can use connectToPipe() to connect to the other end.

Parameters

pipeName	the name to use for the pipe - this should be unique to your app
pipeReceiveMessageTimeoutMs	a timeout length to be used when reading or writing to the pipe, or -1 for an infinite timeout
mustNotExist	if set to true, the method will fail if the pipe already exists

Returns

true if the pipe was created, or false if it fails (e.g. if another process is already using the pipe)

disconnect()

void InterprocessConnection::disconnect

(

)

Disconnects and closes any currently-open sockets or pipes.

isConnected()

bool InterprocessConnection::isConnected

(

)

const

True if a socket or pipe is currently active.

getSocket()

StreamingSocket* InterprocessConnection::getSocket ( ) const

noexcept

Returns the socket that this connection is using (or nullptr if it uses a pipe).

getPipe()

NamedPipe* InterprocessConnection::getPipe ( ) const

noexcept

Returns the pipe that this connection is using (or nullptr if it uses a socket).

getConnectedHostName()

String InterprocessConnection::getConnectedHostName

(

)

const

Returns the name of the machine at the other end of this connection.

This may return an empty string if the name is unknown.

sendMessage()

bool InterprocessConnection::sendMessage

(

const MemoryBlock &

message

)

Tries to send a message to the other end of this connection.

This will fail if it's not connected, or if there's some kind of write error. If it succeeds, the connection object at the other end will receive the message by a callback to its messageReceived() method.

See also

messageReceived

connectionMade()

virtual void InterprocessConnection::connectionMade ( )

pure virtual

Called when the connection is first connected.

If the connection was created with the callbacksOnMessageThread flag set, then this will be called on the message thread; otherwise it will be called on a server thread.

connectionLost()

virtual void InterprocessConnection::connectionLost ( )

pure virtual

Called when the connection is broken.

If the connection was created with the callbacksOnMessageThread flag set, then this will be called on the message thread; otherwise it will be called on a server thread.

messageReceived()

virtual void InterprocessConnection::messageReceived ( const MemoryBlock &  message )

pure virtual

Called when a message arrives.

When the object at the other end of this connection sends us a message with sendMessage(), this callback is used to deliver it to us.

If the connection was created with the callbacksOnMessageThread flag set, then this will be called on the message thread; otherwise it will be called on a server thread.

See also

sendMessage

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The documentation for this class was generated from the following file:

• juce_InterprocessConnection.h