<concept id="GUID-50BE8F1A-513A-433C-B045-66658FC226D7" xml:lang="en"><title>Client/server communication</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p><xref href="GUID-E530CBB9-C20D-5426-89AA-DC0281C05381.dita">Inter

Process Communication</xref> (IPC) is the basis for client/server

architecture. Clients and servers run in different threads, although

not necessarily in different processes, and communicate through message

passing protocol. There are no direct pointers between the parties,

leaving the integrity of the server and its resources untouched by

clients. For more information, see <xref href="GUID-D4C7A714-F7BB-5A8D-A875-4796395B9B6C.dita">Introduction to the

client/server architecture</xref>.</p>

<p>Communication between the client and the server is managed by <xref href="GUID-E651C7A7-D6EB-533E-A97A-360D089DE7A5.dita">Inter-thread data

transfer</xref>. Only the server and its clients can decode the parameters

of the message. This is also a security feature, because process boundaries

are separators of memory space, direct pointers to the client's data

structures cannot be delivered. All data not fitting in the provided

integers must be represented as a <xref href="GUID-261ADCEC-C8C8-46E3-A7DC-804AC868C233.dita">descriptor</xref>, and an address to the descriptor (or actually a <codeph><xref href="jar:GUID-35228542-8C95-4849-A73F-2B4F082F0C44.jar!/sdk/doc_source/reference/reference-cpp/Kernel_Architecture_2/TPckgClass.html" format="application/java-archive">TPckg</xref></codeph> object) is delivered within the message.

The server then uses safe inter-thread read and write functions to

access the provided descriptor.</p>

<fig id="GUID-715F1B96-AFC4-4FB2-AF51-6E720077F83A"><title>Relationship of a message package and a descriptor class</title><image href="GUID-D99BA4CA-9823-4968-953D-36AA7F266B39_d0e12157_href.png"/></fig>

<p>Consider the following issues when implementing the client-side

API:</p>

<li><p>Determine if the server is already running with the <codeph><xref href="jar:GUID-35228542-8C95-4849-A73F-2B4F082F0C44.jar!/sdk/doc_source/reference/reference-cpp/Kernel_Architecture_2/TFindServerClass.html" format="application/java-archive">TFindServer</xref></codeph> class. If not, then it should be

launched.</p></li>

<li><p>Once the server is running, create the connection

with <codeph><xref href="jar:GUID-35228542-8C95-4849-A73F-2B4F082F0C44.jar!/sdk/doc_source/reference/reference-cpp/Kernel_Architecture_2/RSessionBaseClass.html" format="application/java-archive">RSessionBase::CreateSession</xref></codeph> and make sure there

are free message slots available to avoid lost messages.</p>

</li>

<li><p>When packaging message arguments, make sure they

are in a format that the server understands. For more information,

see <codeph><xref href="jar:GUID-35228542-8C95-4849-A73F-2B4F082F0C44.jar!/sdk/doc_source/reference/reference-cpp/Kernel_Architecture_2/TIpcArgsClass.html" format="application/java-archive">TIpcArgs</xref></codeph>.</p></li>