How do I send a string from one instance of my Delphi program to another?

Question

What is the best and easiest way to send a string from one instance of my program to another instance of my program? The receiving program has to execute a procedure, using the received string as a parameter.

I started reading about DDE but I got confused. What other options do I have, and what is the easiest way to implement this?

Answer 1

Use named Pipes, but I would recommend Russell Libby's named Pipe components. There is a TPipeClient and TPipeServer component.

As of (2013-10-04) Francoise Piette and [email protected] updated this source code to compile with Delphi 7 to XE5 (earlier versions may compile however untested) and put it here: http://www.overbyte.be/frame_index.html?redirTo=/blog_source_code.html

These 2 components make using named pipes incredibly easy, and named pipes are great for inter-process communication (IPC).

His website is here. Look for "Pipes.zip". The description from the source is: // Description : Set of client and server named pipe components for Delphi, as // well a console pipe redirection component.

Also, Russell helped me out on Experts-Exchange with using an older version of this component to work in a console app to send/receive messages over named pipes. This may help as a guide in getting you up and running with using his components. Please note, that in a VCL app or service, you don't need to write your own message loop as I did in this console app.

program CmdClient;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

uses
  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Pipes;

type
  TPipeEventHandler =  class(TObject)
  public
     procedure  OnPipeSent(Sender: TObject; Pipe: HPIPE; Size: DWORD);
  end;

procedure TPipeEventHandler.OnPipeSent(Sender: TObject; Pipe: HPIPE; Size: DWORD);
begin
  WriteLn('On Pipe Sent has executed!');
end;

var
  lpMsg:         TMsg;
  WideChars:     Array [0..255] of WideChar;
  myString:      String;
  iLength:       Integer;
  pcHandler:     TPipeClient;
  peHandler:     TPipeEventHandler;

begin

  // Create message queue for application
  PeekMessage(lpMsg, 0, WM_USER, WM_USER, PM_NOREMOVE);

  // Create client pipe handler
  pcHandler:=TPipeClient.CreateUnowned;
  // Resource protection
  try
     // Create event handler
     peHandler:=TPipeEventHandler.Create;
     // Resource protection
     try
        // Setup clien pipe
        pcHandler.PipeName:='myNamedPipe';
        pcHandler.ServerName:='.';
        pcHandler.OnPipeSent:=peHandler.OnPipeSent;
        // Resource protection
        try
           // Connect
           if pcHandler.Connect(5000) then
           begin
              // Dispatch messages for pipe client
              while PeekMessage(lpMsg, 0, 0, 0, PM_REMOVE) do DispatchMessage(lpMsg);
              // Setup for send
              myString:='the message I am sending';
              iLength:=Length(myString) + 1;
              StringToWideChar(myString, wideChars, iLength);
              // Send pipe message
              if pcHandler.Write(wideChars, iLength * 2) then
              begin
                 // Flush the pipe buffers
                 pcHandler.FlushPipeBuffers;
                 // Get the message
                 if GetMessage(lpMsg, pcHandler.WindowHandle, 0, 0) then DispatchMessage(lpMsg);
              end;
           end
           else
              // Failed to connect
              WriteLn('Failed to connect to ', pcHandler.PipeName);
        finally
           // Show complete
           Write('Complete...');
           // Delay
           ReadLn;
        end;
     finally
        // Disconnect event handler
        pcHandler.OnPipeSent:=nil;
        // Free event handler
        peHandler.Free;
     end;
  finally
     // Free pipe client
     pcHandler.Free;
  end;

end.