Passing Binary Data in COM

There are two ways we can pass binary data in COM. SAFEARRAY and a pointer. by using a
buffer pointer , we can get the best performance.

Here is the method declared in server IDL:

HRESULT Transfer([in] long cbSize,
                 [in, size_is(cbSize)] unsigned char cBuffer[])

Here is the client code:

ITargetObj * pITargeObj ;
HRESULT hRC = ::CoCreateInstance(CLSID_TargetObj,
                                 NULL,
                                 CLSCTX_SERVER,
                                 IID_ITargetObj,
                                 (void **)&pITargetObj ) ;
if FAILED( hRC )
{
 AfxMessageBox( "Failed to make target object!" ) ;
 return FALSE ;
}

BYTE * pBuffer = (BYTE *)::CoTaskMemAlloc( 15 ) ;
CopyMemory( pBuffer, "HELLO WORLD!!!!", 15 ) ;
pITargetObj->Transfer( 15, pBuffer ) ;
::CoTaskMemFree( pBuffer ) ;
pITargetObj ->Release() ;

But it only working for a INPROC Server with
an object supporting a custom interface. If the object supporting a dual and
dispatch interface, only the first character is transferred from client to
server. Because the size_is
attribute is stripped out (it’s not supported by Automation), and the type
library is used to marshal the interface. Obviously, this will not do. By the
way, one good way to pass an array that does work for dual and dispatch
interfaces is to use a SAFEARRAY.

Using CBufferVariant

Well,It’s
seem we have to using the SAFEARRAY, It’s easy for a VB program, but I wanna
same to VC program. I’v created a class named CBufferVariant, What’s the cool
things:

Here is the method declared in server IDL:

HRESULT Transfer([in] VARIANT vData)

Here is the server code:

STDMETHODIMP CTargeObj::Transfer(VARIANT Data)
{
 CBufferVariant bvData=Data;
 if(bvData.GetLength()==0)
  return S_OK;
 send(m_nSocketFD,bvData,bvData.GetLength(),0);
 return S_OK;
}

Here is the client code:

#include "BufferVariant.h"

ITargetObj * pITargeObj ;
HRESULT hRC = ::CoCreateInstance(CLSID_TargetObj,
                                 NULL,
                                 CLSCTX_SERVER,
                                 IID_ITargetObj,
                                 (void **)&pITargetObj ) ;
if FAILED( hRC )
{
 AfxMessageBox( "Failed to make target object!" ) ;
 return FALSE ;
}

CBufferVariant bvData;

SomeStruct stData;
bvData.AssignData(&stData,sizeof(SomeStruct));
pITargetObj->Transfer( bvData );

bvData="Hello World!";
bvData+="n";
pITargetObj->Transfer( bvData );

char buffer[2048];
File1.Read(buffer,2048);
bvData.AssignData(buffer,2048);
File2.Read(buffer,1024);
bvData.AppendData(buffer,1024);
pITargetObj->Transfer( bvData );

pITargetObj->Transfer( CBufferVariant("This is a ANSI string.") ) ;

pITargetObj->Release();

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