Applications Talking To Each Other?

[mas0]

I came across a situation where I have to make 2 applications communicate;

APP 1: Checks for a specific condition; and has to send a message to APP 2 that the event occurred; APP 2 responds by sending back a value after executing certain functions. The 2 applications are sitting on the same computer; but are coded in 2 different languages. VB and Delphi.

I could use winsock to send and receive data (As in APP1 is my client APP2 is my server, client connects to server, sends data through sockets) but... I would rather avoid that... as much as possible.

Both applications are gui applications, and its not as simple as emulating a button press or filling a textbox with my info and are both running at the same time. So i cannot just Shellexec the APP2 with a command line param.

What technology should I be using?

 

[whosrdaddy]

try windows messaging.

use functions like PostMessage or SendMessage.

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[sggaunt]

Depends on what you want to do. If its control then you should look at COM and OLE automation. Quote from Delphi help.

COM is the Component Object Model, a Windows-based distributed object architecture designed to provide object interoperability using predefined routines called interfaces. COM applications use objects that are implemented by a different process or, if you use DCOM, on a separate machine. You can also use COM+, ActiveX and Active Server Pages.

COM is a language-independent software component model that enables interaction between software components and applications running on a Windows platform. The key aspect of COM is that it enables communication between components, between applications, and between clients and servers through clearly defined interfaces. Interfaces provide a way for clients to ask a COM component which features it supports at runtime. To provide additional features for your component, you simply add an additional interface for those features.

I think that .net allows this sort of linking but I have no experience of this.

If you simply wanted to transfer data, then reading and writing files with periodic checking for changes may be all that is required.


Steve [The sane]: Delphi a feersum engin indeed.

 

[mas0]

PostMessage and SendMessage wouldnt work for me; I quickly looked at some examples and the only data I can actually send are either KEYBOARD or MOUSE events; sending custom data does not work .
he things to be aware of if you use this approach:

1. It can only be used if you are sending messages within the same process - because memory in the sending process cannot be accessed by other processes.

http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian/delphi/howto_send_custom_window_message.htm#DefineCustomMessage

What I actually need to accomplish is executing a remote procedure while passing a few parametres (strings and integer).

i tried to look for examples using COM, however google seems to not want to find anything useful

 

[whosrdaddy]

mas0,

you can always use a shared memory block to bypass that problem. but I must agree with steve, COM is the way to go.

for the delphi side, look here :

http://delphi.about.com/od/comoleactivex/l/aa112304a.htm

-----------------------------------------------------
What You See Is What You Get
Never underestimate tha powah of tha google!