How to pass string between 2 Delphi applications

delphi, delphi-7

Solution

Pipes are perfect for that job. You can implement a pipe reader thread at your service side and send corresponding string data through the pipe in ProcessFile method at client side.

A quick, simple no error checking Pipe usage example:

PipeServer

var
  Form1: TForm1;
  t: TReadpipe;

  h: THandle;
  msg: string;

const BufSize=512;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TForm1.FormClose(Sender: TObject; var Action: TCloseAction);
var
  chandle: THandle;
begin
  t.Terminate;

  chandle := CreateFile('\\.\pipe\myNamedPipe', GENERIC_WRITE, 0, nil,
    OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH, 0);
  CloseHandle(chandle);

  t.WaitFor;
  t.Free;
  CloseHandle(h);
end;

procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  t := Treadpipe.Create(false);
end;

{ TReadPipe }

procedure TReadPipe.Execute;
var
  buf: array [0 .. BufSize-1] of char;
  read: cardinal;
begin
  while not Terminated do
  begin
    h := CreateNamedPipe('\\.\pipe\myNamedPipe', PIPE_ACCESS_DUPLEX,
      PIPE_TYPE_MESSAGE or PIPE_READMODE_MESSAGE or PIPE_WAIT,
      PIPE_UNLIMITED_INSTANCES, BufSize, BufSize, 0, nil);

    ConnectNamedPipe(h, nil);

    if Terminated then
      break;

    msg := '';

    repeat
      FillChar(buf, BufSize, #0);
      ReadFile(h, buf[0], BufSize, read, nil);

      msg := msg + Copy(buf, 0, read);
    until GetLastError <> ERROR_MORE_DATA;

    if msg <> '' then
      Synchronize(
        procedure
        begin
          form1.Memo1.Lines.Add(msg)
        end);
  end;

  DisconnectNamedPipe(h);
end;

PipeClient

var
  Form1: TForm1;
  i: Integer = 0;
  pipe: THandle;

const
  BufSize = 512;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  buf: array [0 .. BufSize - 1] of char;
  written: Cardinal;
  str: pchar;
begin
  pipe := CreateFile('\\.\pipe\myNamedPipe', GENERIC_WRITE, 0, nil,
    OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH, 0);

  if pipe = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
    Halt;

  inc(i);
  str := pchar('someStr' + inttostr(i));
  fillchar(buf, BufSize, #0);
  move(str[0], buf[0], Length(str) * Sizeof(char));
  WriteFile(pipe, buf[0], Length(str) * Sizeof(char), written, nil);

  CloseHandle(pipe);
end;

Also remember pipes works as FIFO.

Problem

Possible Duplicate: Looking for an alternative to windows messages used in inter-process communication Inter-process communication I have a Delphi 7 App running that exposes a Type Library. One of the function the TLB exposes is ProcessFile(fileName: string). When that function is called I would like a Windows Service running (also a Delphi 7 application) to get notified that this event was called and what the filename is. Any thoughts on how to do this would be much appreciated. I have already tried to do this via changed callbacks using the registry and a txt file, but either way I occasionally lose a file that is to be processed as this ProcessFile method can be called many times a second. Thanks!

Original source

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