Encode and Decode messages send to and from apps

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Introduction

The code is a Data Encoder / Decoder library. It makes inter application communication easier, by providing a way to encode and decode a message based on a user defined protocol.

It also makes a simple compression of the "message" created by the encoder part. The decoder part will then decompress and decode message, based on the provided protocol

Background

It is using a simplified version of ASN (Abstract Syntax Notation) to encode / decode the data, and the compression algorithm is based on a simplified version of Hoffman coding

Using the code

The DataEncoderDecoder is a standard static library and should be added to your project as a header file and a library file - the library is static which means that it will be embedded in your projects executable

Example: Creating an event message to be send to a server asking it to use method MusicPlayer passing on a transaction id and action Start/Stop.  All data is in pCompressedData!!! It is this memory that should be send:

// Client code
// Create DataEncoderDecoder response
// Encode
DED_START_ENCODER(encoder_ptr);
DED_PUT_STRUCT_START( encoder_ptr, "event" );
    DED_PUT_METHOD    ( encoder_ptr, "name",      "MusicPlayer" );
    DED_PUT_USHORT    ( encoder_ptr, "trans_id",  trans_id);
    DED_PUT_BOOL    ( encoder_ptr, "startstop", action );
DED_PUT_STRUCT_END( encoder_ptr, "event" );
DED_GET_ENCODED_DATA(encoder_ptr,data_ptr,iLengthOfTotalData,pCompressedData,sizeofCompressedData);

// Data to be sent is in pCompressedData

// Server code
// retrieve data ...
//...

CString strName,strValue;
unsigned short iValue;
bool bValue;

DED_PUT_DATA_IN_DECODER(decoder_ptr,pCompressedData,sizeofCompressedData);

// decode data ...
if( DED_GET_STRUCT_START( decoder_ptr, "event" ) &&
     DED_GET_METHOD    ( decoder_ptr, "name", strValue ) &&
     DED_GET_USHORT    ( decoder_ptr, "trans_id", iValue) &&
     DED_GET_BOOL    ( decoder_ptr, "startstop", bValue ) &&
 DED_GET_STRUCT_END( decoder_ptr, "event" ))
{
    TRACE0(_T("FAIL!!!\n"));
}
else
{
    TRACE0(_T("SUCCESS!!!\n"));
}

Points of Interest

When trying to use this type of data encoder / decoder, then remember from which type of computer you are sending / receiving, I am thinking about the Big/Little  Endian principle - so far the DataEncoderDecoder does not take care of this (perhaps a smart reader could add this)