csmsgque Tutorial

INDEX

INTRODUCTION
BUILD
SERVER
CLIENT
FILTER

INTRODUCTION

csmsgque is the C# language binding of the libmsgque library.
The library was designed to simplify the client/server development using the following design rules:

1. programming language independent
2. operating system independent
3. processor hardware independent

The C# language binding provide the following basic components:

• abstract class of the csmsgque object: MqS ctx
• interface: IServerSetup and or IServerCleanup to add server functionality
• interface: IFilterFTR and or IFilterEOF to add filter functionality
• interface: IFactory to create a new application instance
• interface: IBgError to act on asyncrone errors
• adding and removing services

BUILD

The build is different between UNIX and WINDOWS. On UNIX the automake (info automake) build environment is used and on WINDOWS the VisualExpress tools from Microsoft are used. The automake build on WINDOWS is possible but not supported.

UNIX

The example from the tutorial is using the automake build-environment from the csmsgque tool. An example automake configuration file is available in: example/C#/Makefile.am

RULE_CS_EXE = $(CSCOMP) -v -nologo $(CSHARP_DEBUG) -reference:../../csmsgque/csmsgque.dll -out:$@ -target:exe "$<"

...

MyServer.exe: $(srcdir)/MyServer.cs ../../csmsgque/csmsgque.dll
        $(RULE_CS_EXE)

...

MyClient.exe: $(srcdir)/MyClient.cs ../../csmsgque/csmsgque.dll
        $(RULE_CS_EXE)

WINDOWS

The VisualExpress build environment is located in the directory win.

SERVER

A csmsgque server requires the following setup:

1. file: example/C#/MyServer.cs
2. an instance of the abstract class MqS ctx
3. the interface IServerSetup and or IServerCleanup
4. the interface IFactory to create a new application instance

The minimal server looks like:

using System;
using csmsgque;

namespace example {

  sealed class MyServer : MqS, IServerSetup, IFactory {

    // create new intances
    MqS IFactory.Call() {
      return new MyServer();
    }

    // service to serve all incomming requests for token "HLWO"
    public void MyFirstService () {
      SendSTART();
      SendC("Hello World");
      SendRETURN();
    }

    // define a service as link between the token "HLWO" and the callback "MyFirstService"
    void IServerSetup.Call() {
      ServiceCreate("HLWO", MyFirstService);
    }

    static void Main(string[] argv) {
      MyServer srv = new MyServer();
      try {
        srv.LinkCreate(argv);
        srv.ProcessEvent(MqS.WAIT.FOREVER);
      } catch (Exception ex) {
        srv.ErrorSet (ex);
      }
      srv.Exit();
    }
  }
}

The server is started as network visible TCP server listen on PORT 2345 using a THREAD for every new connection request:

> mono MyServer.exe --tcp --port 2345 --thread

If you are using UNIX and if you want to setup a high-performance local server then use the build-in UDS (Unix-Domain-Sockets) capability to listen on the FILE /path/to/any/file.uds instead on a network port:

> mono MyServer.exe --uds --file /path/to/any/file.uds --thread

Three things are important:

1. the send style of functions
2. the ctx.ServiceCreate(string token, IService service) function
3. a connected context of type MqS ctx

Sending data is done using a minimum of 2 steps:

1. First: start a data package with ctx.SendSTART()
2. Last: submit the a data package to the link target using one of:
   • ctx.SendEND(string token)
   • ctx.SendEND_AND_WAIT(string token, [int timeout])
   • ctx.SendEND_AND_CALLBACK(string token, IService callback)
   • ctx.SendRETURN()

The first three SendEND... functions are used to call a remote service and the last one is used to answer an incoming service call. In-between ctx.SendSTART() and ctx.SendEND(string token) ... other SEND DATA style commands are available to fill the data package with data.

Services are created with the ctx.ServiceCreate(string token, IService service) function. The first parameter is a 4 byte Token as public name. 4 byte is required because this string is mapped to a 4 byte integer for speed reason. The second parameter is an object providing the SERVICE CALLBACK interface.

The SERVICE CALLBACK function has one parameter of type MqS ctx. This parameter refer to the original object (in our case MyServer). If the service object (in our case MyFirstService) is a subclass of the original MqS ctx object class, the both statements SendSTART() and ctx.sendSTART() are identical.

CLIENT

A csmsgque client requires the following setup:

1. an instance of the abstract class MqS ctx

The minimal client looks like:

using System;
using csmsgque;

namespace example {

  sealed class MyClient : MqS {

    static void Main(string[] argv) {
      MyClient c = new MyClient();
      try {
        c.LinkCreate(argv);
        c.SendSTART();
        c.SendEND_AND_WAIT("HLWO", 5);
        Console.WriteLine(c.ReadC());
      } catch (Exception ex) {
        c.ErrorSet (ex);
      }
      c.Exit();
    }
  }
}

To call a network visible TCP server listen on PORT 2345 use:

> mono MyClient.exe --tcp --port 2345
> Hello World

To call a network visible UDP server listen on FILE /path/to/any/file.uds use:

> mono MyClient.exe --udp --file /path/to/any/file.uds
> Hello World

To call a local server started by the client using PIPE communication use:

> mono MyClient.exe @ mono MyServer.exe
> Hello World

FILTER

A filter has to implement the IFilterFTR or the IFilterEOF interface which requires the following functions:

• IFilterFTR, a service function to act on filter data rows. Every filter input data is a list of filter data rows and every row is a list of filter data columns. Every row is send from one filter-command to the following filter-command as FTR service request
• IFilterEOF, a service function to act on End-Of-Filter data. This service is called after the whole filter data was send. Sometimes the filter data can not be served as filter data rows (example: sorting of the input rows need to read all rows before the data can be send to the next filter command) and the EOF function is used to continue send filter data rows

The minimal filter looks like:

• filter example