Passing objects with sockets

[cold]

I'm trying to write an helper class that allows me to serialize objects to a
socket (or a NetworkStream). I know there are plenty of .NET classes that
help me to serialize object to an array of byte, but I can't undestand how I
can send a block of bytes and being sure the receiver will receive only this
block....I mean, if I write the bytes to a NetworkStream the receiver will
get a stream of bytes and he won't have any way to know how to "split" the
data. Am I supposed to build a protocol, using a special byte to mark the
beginning and the end of every "message" (in this case I should stuff the
bytes before sending)?

I hope I've explained well what I would like to do

Thank you for your help

Seba

[Lloyd Dupont]

well, you could if you want to.
but I think you might be interested by remoting !!

which is the .NET RPC mechanism......
"cold" <co****@libero.it> wrote in message
news:e1**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

I'm trying to write an helper class that allows me to serialize objects to
a socket (or a NetworkStream). I know there are plenty of .NET classes
that help me to serialize object to an array of byte, but I can't
undestand how I can send a block of bytes and being sure the receiver will
receive only this block....I mean, if I write the bytes to a NetworkStream
the receiver will get a stream of bytes and he won't have any way to know
how to "split" the data. Am I supposed to build a protocol, using a
special byte to mark the beginning and the end of every "message" (in this
case I should stuff the bytes before sending)?

I hope I've explained well what I would like to do

Thank you for your help

Seba

[Carlos J. Quintero [.NET MVP]]

You can use either:

- fixed-size messages
- variable-size messages with the size in each message
- a special separator at the end of each message.

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET, VB6, VB5 and VBA
You can code, design and document much faster.
Free resources for add-in developers:
http://www.mztools.com

"cold" <co****@libero.it> escribió en el mensaje
news:e1**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

I'm trying to write an helper class that allows me to serialize objects to
a socket (or a NetworkStream). I know there are plenty of .NET classes
that help me to serialize object to an array of byte, but I can't
undestand how I can send a block of bytes and being sure the receiver will
receive only this block....I mean, if I write the bytes to a NetworkStream
the receiver will get a stream of bytes and he won't have any way to know
how to "split" the data. Am I supposed to build a protocol, using a
special byte to mark the beginning and the end of every "message" (in this
case I should stuff the bytes before sending)?

I hope I've explained well what I would like to do

Thank you for your help

Seba

[cold]

And which separator can I use? I mean, I can't be sure the character I'll
use won't be present in the content of the stream of bytes I'm sending. I
suppose I have to stuff the bytes...any suggestion?

thanks

Seba

"Carlos J. Quintero [.NET MVP]" <ca*****@NOSPAMsogecable.com> ha scritto nel
messaggio news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

You can use either:

- fixed-size messages
- variable-size messages with the size in each message
- a special separator at the end of each message.

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET, VB6, VB5 and VBA
You can code, design and document much faster.
Free resources for add-in developers:
http://www.mztools.com

"cold" <co****@libero.it> escribió en el mensaje
news:e1**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

I'm trying to write an helper class that allows me to serialize objects
to a socket (or a NetworkStream). I know there are plenty of .NET classes
that help me to serialize object to an array of byte, but I can't
undestand how I can send a block of bytes and being sure the receiver
will receive only this block....I mean, if I write the bytes to a
NetworkStream the receiver will get a stream of bytes and he won't have
any way to know how to "split" the data. Am I supposed to build a
protocol, using a special byte to mark the beginning and the end of every
"message" (in this case I should stuff the bytes before sending)?

I hope I've explained well what I would like to do

Thank you for your help

Seba

[Carlos J. Quintero [.NET MVP]]

For binary messages there is no safe separator. For text messages, you can
use some sequence of characters that are not part of your protocol.

In general, it's better to include the size in the message header. It will
perform better than checking each byte to find separators...

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET, VB6, VB5 and VBA
You can code, design and document much faster.
Free resources for add-in developers:
http://www.mztools.com

"cold" <co****@libero.it> escribió en el mensaje
news:%2***************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

And which separator can I use? I mean, I can't be sure the character I'll
use won't be present in the content of the stream of bytes I'm sending. I
suppose I have to stuff the bytes...any suggestion?

thanks

Seba

[Lloyd Dupont]

you obviously has to pass the size of the date first, in the message header
so you should serialize to a MemoryStream first, get the byt array, then
construct you message with a simple header, I would say

MSG:
| MSG type (1 byte) | MSG size (4 bytes) | MSG data (your serialized object,
"n" bytes specified in size) |

but why not use remoting?
it's a perfect high level, object oriented, .NET specific, interprocess
communication protocol/tool

"cold" <co****@libero.it> wrote in message
news:%2***************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

And which separator can I use? I mean, I can't be sure the character I'll
use won't be present in the content of the stream of bytes I'm sending. I
suppose I have to stuff the bytes...any suggestion?

thanks

Seba

"Carlos J. Quintero [.NET MVP]" <ca*****@NOSPAMsogecable.com> ha scritto
nel messaggio news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

You can use either:

- fixed-size messages
- variable-size messages with the size in each message
- a special separator at the end of each message.

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET, VB6, VB5 and VBA
You can code, design and document much faster.
Free resources for add-in developers:
http://www.mztools.com

"cold" <co****@libero.it> escribió en el mensaje
news:e1**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

I'm trying to write an helper class that allows me to serialize objects
to a socket (or a NetworkStream). I know there are plenty of .NET
classes that help me to serialize object to an array of byte, but I
can't undestand how I can send a block of bytes and being sure the
receiver will receive only this block....I mean, if I write the bytes to
a NetworkStream the receiver will get a stream of bytes and he won't
have any way to know how to "split" the data. Am I supposed to build a
protocol, using a special byte to mark the beginning and the end of
every "message" (in this case I should stuff the bytes before sending)?

I hope I've explained well what I would like to do

Thank you for your help

Seba