PipeClient Component
Properties Methods Events Config Settings Errors
The PipeClient component is a simple client for connecting and communicating over named pipes.
Syntax
TiipPipeClient
Remarks
The PipeClient component is used to connect to an existing pipe server. After connecting the transfer of data is handled very similarly to socket communication.
To begin, first set PipeName to the name of the pipe to which the connection will be made. Call Connect or set Connected to True to establish the connection. The Connected event will fire when the connection is complete.
After connecting call Send or SendFile to send data. Incoming data is received through the DataIn event.
To disconnect call Disconnect or set Connected to False.
Synchronous and Asynchronous Operation
If the Timeout property is set to 0, the component will behave asynchronously and all operations return immediately, potentially failing with an error if they can't be completed immediately.
If Timeout is set to a positive value, the component will behave synchronously and wait for the operation to complete before returning control.
The component will use DoEvents to enter an efficient wait loop during any potential waiting period, making sure that all system events are processed immediately as they arrive. This ensures that the host application does not freeze and remains responsive.
If Timeout expires, and the operation is not yet complete, the component raises an exception.
Note: By default, all timeouts are inactivity timeouts, that is, the timeout period is extended by Timeout seconds when any amount of data is successfully sent or received.
The default value for the Timeout property is 60 seconds.
Property List
The following is the full list of the properties of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.
AcceptData | This property indicates whether data reception is currently enabled. |
BytesSent | This property includes the number of bytes actually sent after a call to the SendBytes method. |
Connected | Triggers a connection or disconnection. |
EOL | This property is used to break the incoming data stream into chunks separated by EOL . |
PipeName | The name of the pipe. |
RecordLength | The length of received data records. |
SingleLineMode | This property includes a special mode for line-oriented protocols. |
Timeout | This property includes the timeout for the component. |
Method List
The following is the full list of the methods of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.
Config | Sets or retrieves a configuration setting. |
Connect | Connects to a named pipe. |
Disconnect | Disconnects from the named pipe. |
DoEvents | This method processes events from the internal message queue. |
GetLine | This method gets a line of text from the server. |
Interrupt | This method interrupts the current action. |
ProcessData | This method reenables data reception after a call to PauseData . |
Send | Sends data over the connected pipe. |
SendBytes | This method sends binary data over the connected pipe. |
SendFile | Sends the file over the connected pipe. |
SendLine | This method sends a string followed by a newline. |
SendText | This method sends text over the connected pipe. |
Event List
The following is the full list of the events fired by the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.
Connected | Fired immediately after a connection completes. |
DataIn | This event is fired when data (complete lines) come in. |
Disconnected | Fired when a connection is closed. |
Error | Fired when information is available about errors during data delivery. |
ReadyToSend | Fired when the component is ready to send data. |
Config Settings
The following is a list of config settings for the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.
AbsoluteTimeout | Determines whether timeouts are inactivity timeouts or absolute timeouts. |
CloseStreamAfterTransfer | If true, the component will close the upload or download stream after the transfer. |
InBufferSize | The size in bytes of the output buffer. |
MaxLineLength | The maximum amount of data to accumulate when no EOL is found. |
OutBufferSize | The size in bytes of the input buffer. |
PipeDirection | Determines the direction data flows. |
BuildInfo | Information about the product's build. |
CodePage | The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations. |
LicenseInfo | Information about the current license. |
MaskSensitiveData | Whether sensitive data is masked in log messages. |
UseInternalSecurityAPI | Whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation. |
AcceptData Property (PipeClient Component)
This property indicates whether data reception is currently enabled.
Syntax
property AcceptData: Boolean read get_AcceptData;
Default Value
true
Remarks
This property indicates whether data reception is currently enabled. When False, data reception is disabled and the DataIn event will not fire. Use the PauseData and ProcessData methods to pause and resume data reception.
This property is read-only and not available at design time.
BytesSent Property (PipeClient Component)
This property includes the number of bytes actually sent after a call to the SendBytes method.
Syntax
property BytesSent: Integer read get_BytesSent;
Default Value
0
Remarks
This property indicates how many bytes were sent after the last call to SendBytes. Please check the SendBytes method for more information.
Note: that BytesSent will always return 0 when the component is operating in synchronous mode (i.e., the Timeout property is set to a positive value.)
This property is read-only and not available at design time.
Connected Property (PipeClient Component)
Triggers a connection or disconnection.
Syntax
property Connected: Boolean read get_Connected write set_Connected;
Default Value
false
Remarks
This property indicates whether the component is connected to the remote host. Use the Connect and Disconnect methods to manage the connection.
This property triggers a connection or disconnection. Setting this property to True makes the component attempt to connect to the pipe identified by the PipeName property. If successful, after the connection is achieved the value of the property changes to True and the Connected event is fired.
Setting this property to False closes the connection.
This property is not available at design time.
EOL Property (PipeClient Component)
This property is used to break the incoming data stream into chunks separated by EOL .
Syntax
property EOL: String read get_EOL write set_EOL; property EOLB: TBytes read get_EOLB write set_EOLB;
Default Value
''
Remarks
This property is used to define boundaries in the input stream using the value of the property.
This property is especially useful with ASCII files. Setting it to CRLF ('#13#10') enables the incoming ASCII text stream to split into defined lines. In this case, one event is fired for each line received (as well as in packet boundaries). The CRLF ('#13#10') bytes are discarded.
This property is a binary string. Notably, this means that it can be more than one byte long, and it can contain NULL bytes.
PipeName Property (PipeClient Component)
The name of the pipe.
Syntax
property PipeName: String read get_PipeName write set_PipeName;
Default Value
''
Remarks
This property specifies the name of the pipe.
This may be the name by itself, for instance "MyPipe", or in the format "\\.\pipe\MyPipe".
RecordLength Property (PipeClient Component)
The length of received data records.
Syntax
property RecordLength: Integer read get_RecordLength write set_RecordLength;
Default Value
0
Remarks
If set to a positive value, this property defines the length of data records to be received. The component will accumulate data until RecordLength is reached and only then fire the DataIn event with data of length RecordLength. This allows data to be received as records of known length. This value can be changed at any time, including within the DataIn event.
The default value is 0, meaning this property is not used.
This property is not available at design time.
SingleLineMode Property (PipeClient Component)
This property includes a special mode for line-oriented protocols.
Syntax
property SingleLineMode: Boolean read get_SingleLineMode write set_SingleLineMode;
Default Value
false
Remarks
When this property is set to True, the component treats the incoming data stream as lines separated by carriage return line feed (CRLF), CR, or LF. The EOL property is ignored.
When this property is set to True, AcceptData automatically will be set to False. Please refer to the GetLine method for more information.
This property is not available at design time.
Timeout Property (PipeClient Component)
This property includes the timeout for the component.
Syntax
property Timeout: Integer read get_Timeout write set_Timeout;
Default Value
60
Remarks
If the Timeout property is set to 0, all operations return immediately, potentially failing with a WOULDBLOCK error if data cannot be sent immediately.
If Timeout is set to a positive value, data is sent in a blocking manner and the component will wait for the operation to complete before returning control. The component will handle any potential WOULDBLOCK errors internally and automatically retry the operation for a maximum of Timeout seconds.
The component will use DoEvents to enter an efficient wait loop during any potential waiting period, making sure that all system events are processed immediately as they arrive. This ensures that the host application does not freeze and remains responsive.
If Timeout expires, and the operation is not yet complete, the component raises an exception.
Note: By default, all timeouts are inactivity timeouts, that is, the timeout period is extended by Timeout seconds when any amount of data is successfully sent or received.
The default value for the Timeout property is 60 seconds.
Config Method (PipeClient Component)
Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.
Syntax
function Config(ConfigurationString: String): String;
Remarks
Config is a generic method available in every component. It is used to set and retrieve configuration settings for the component.
These settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the component, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.
To set a configuration setting named PROPERTY, you must call Config("PROPERTY=VALUE"), where VALUE is the value of the setting expressed as a string. For boolean values, use the strings "True", "False", "0", "1", "Yes", or "No" (case does not matter).
To read (query) the value of a configuration setting, you must call Config("PROPERTY"). The value will be returned as a string.
Connect Method (PipeClient Component)
Connects to a named pipe.
Syntax
procedure Connect();
Remarks
This method connects to a named pipe specified by PipeName. Calling this method is equivalent to setting the Connected property to True.
Example (Connecting)
PipeClient.PipeName = "MyPipe";
PipeClient.Connect();
Disconnect Method (PipeClient Component)
Disconnects from the named pipe.
Syntax
procedure Disconnect();
Remarks
This method disconnects from the pipe. Calling this method is equivalent to setting the Connected property to False.
DoEvents Method (PipeClient Component)
This method processes events from the internal message queue.
Syntax
procedure DoEvents();
Remarks
When DoEvents is called, the component processes any available events. If no events are available, it waits for a preset period of time, and then returns.
GetLine Method (PipeClient Component)
This method gets a line of text from the server.
Syntax
function GetLine(): String;
Remarks
This method gets a line of text from the server. This method is an alternative method of receiving data for line-oriented protocols. The component will block if necessary and then will return the received line. AcceptData will be set automatically to True when the method is called, and then will be set to False after a line is received.
Please refer to the SingleLineMode property for more information.
Interrupt Method (PipeClient Component)
This method interrupts the current action.
Syntax
procedure Interrupt();
Remarks
This method interrupts the current action. If you use SendFile to upload a file, the component will run synchronously until the upload is completed. This method will allow you to stop the file from uploading without disconnecting from the host.
ProcessData Method (PipeClient Component)
This method reenables data reception after a call to PauseData .
Syntax
procedure ProcessData();
Remarks
This method reenables data reception after a previous call to PauseData. When PauseData is called, the DataIn event will not fire. To reenable data reception and allow DataIn to fire, call this method.
Note: This method is used only after previously calling PauseData. It does not need to be called to process incoming data by default.
Send Method (PipeClient Component)
Sends data over the connected pipe.
Syntax
procedure Send(Text: TBytes);
Remarks
This method sends data to the server.
SendBytes Method (PipeClient Component)
This method sends binary data over the connected pipe.
Syntax
procedure SendBytes(Data: TBytes);
Remarks
This method sends the specified binary data to the server. To send text, use the SendText method instead.
When Timeout is set to 0 the component will behave asynchronously. If you are sending data to the receiving process faster than it can process it, the outgoing queue might fill up. When this happens, the component raises the exception with errorcode 10035 and message '[10035] Operation would block' (WSAEWOULDBLOCK). You can handle this exception, and then try to send the data again. The BytesSent property shows how many bytes were sent (if any). If 0 bytes were sent, then you can wait for the ReadyToSend event before attempting to send data again. (However, please note that ReadyToSend is not fired when part of the data is successfully sent).
SendFile Method (PipeClient Component)
Sends the file over the connected pipe.
Syntax
procedure SendFile(FileName: String);
Remarks
This method sends the specified file to the server/process over the connected pipe.
Timeout must be set to a positive value so that the component will operate synchronously.
SendLine Method (PipeClient Component)
This method sends a string followed by a newline.
Syntax
procedure SendLine(Text: String);
Remarks
This method sends a string followed by a newline. This method is used to send data with line-oriented protocols. The line is followed by CRLF ('#13#10') .
Please refer to the GetLine method and SingleLineMode property for more information.
SendText Method (PipeClient Component)
This method sends text over the connected pipe.
Syntax
procedure SendText(Text: String);
Remarks
This method sends the specified text to the server. To send binary data, use the SendBytes method instead.
When Timeout is set to 0 the component will behave asynchronously. If you are sending data to the receiving process faster than it can process it, the outgoing queue might fill up. When this happens, the component raises the exception with errorcode 10035 and message '[10035] Operation would block' (WSAEWOULDBLOCK). You can handle this exception, and then try to send the data again. The BytesSent property shows how many bytes were sent (if any). If 0 bytes were sent, then you can wait for the ReadyToSend event before attempting to send data again. (However, please note that ReadyToSend is not fired when part of the data is successfully sent).
Connected Event (PipeClient Component)
Fired immediately after a connection completes.
Syntax
type TConnectedEvent = procedure ( Sender: TObject ) of Object;
property OnConnected: TConnectedEvent read FOnConnected write FOnConnected;
Remarks
When the connection is successfully established this event will fire.
DataIn Event (PipeClient Component)
This event is fired when data (complete lines) come in.
Syntax
type TDataInEvent = procedure ( Sender: TObject; const Text: String; TextB: TBytes; EOL: Boolean ) of Object;
property OnDataIn: TDataInEvent read FOnDataIn write FOnDataIn;
Remarks
Trapping the DataIn event is your only chance to get the data coming from the other end of the connection. The incoming data are provided through the Text parameter.
EOL indicates whether or not the EOL string was found at the end of Text. If the EOL string was found, then EOL is True.
If Text is part of a data portion of length larger than MaxLineLength with no EOL strings in it, then EOL is False. Note: This means that one or more DataIn events with EOL set to False can be received during a connection.
If the EOL property is '' (empty string), then EOL can be disregarded (it is always True).
Note: Events are not re-entrant. Performing time-consuming operations within this event will prevent it from firing again in a timely manner and may affect overall performance.
Disconnected Event (PipeClient Component)
Fired when a connection is closed.
Syntax
type TDisconnectedEvent = procedure ( Sender: TObject ) of Object;
property OnDisconnected: TDisconnectedEvent read FOnDisconnected write FOnDisconnected;
Remarks
When the connection is closed this event will fire.
Error Event (PipeClient Component)
Fired when information is available about errors during data delivery.
Syntax
type TErrorEvent = procedure ( Sender: TObject; ErrorCode: Integer; const Description: String ) of Object;
property OnError: TErrorEvent read FOnError write FOnError;
Remarks
The Error event is fired in case of exceptional conditions during message processing. Normally the component raises an exception.
The ErrorCode parameter contains an error code, and the Description parameter contains a textual description of the error. For a list of valid error codes and their descriptions, please refer to the Error Codes section.
ReadyToSend Event (PipeClient Component)
Fired when the component is ready to send data.
Syntax
type TReadyToSendEvent = procedure ( Sender: TObject ) of Object;
property OnReadyToSend: TReadyToSendEvent read FOnReadyToSend write FOnReadyToSend;
Remarks
The ReadyToSend event indicates that the underlying pipe is ready to accept data again after a failed send. The event is also fired immediately after a connection to the remote host is established.
Config Settings (PipeClient Component)
The component accepts one or more of the following configuration settings. Configuration settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the component, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.PipeClient Config Settings
If an EOL string is found in the input stream before MaxLineLength bytes are received, the DataIn event is fired with the EOL parameter set to True, and the buffer is reset.
If no EOL is found, and MaxLineLength bytes are accumulated in the buffer, the DataIn event is fired with the EOL parameter set to False, and the buffer is reset.
The default value is 2048 bytes. The maximum value is 65536 bytes.
1 | In. The server can only receive data. |
2 | Out. The server can only send data. |
3 | In/Out (default). The server can both receive and send data. |
Base Config Settings
The following is a list of valid code page identifiers:
Identifier | Name |
037 | IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada |
437 | OEM - United States |
500 | IBM EBCDIC - International |
708 | Arabic - ASMO 708 |
709 | Arabic - ASMO 449+, BCON V4 |
710 | Arabic - Transparent Arabic |
720 | Arabic - Transparent ASMO |
737 | OEM - Greek (formerly 437G) |
775 | OEM - Baltic |
850 | OEM - Multilingual Latin I |
852 | OEM - Latin II |
855 | OEM - Cyrillic (primarily Russian) |
857 | OEM - Turkish |
858 | OEM - Multilingual Latin I + Euro symbol |
860 | OEM - Portuguese |
861 | OEM - Icelandic |
862 | OEM - Hebrew |
863 | OEM - Canadian-French |
864 | OEM - Arabic |
865 | OEM - Nordic |
866 | OEM - Russian |
869 | OEM - Modern Greek |
870 | IBM EBCDIC - Multilingual/ROECE (Latin-2) |
874 | ANSI/OEM - Thai (same as 28605, ISO 8859-15) |
875 | IBM EBCDIC - Modern Greek |
932 | ANSI/OEM - Japanese, Shift-JIS |
936 | ANSI/OEM - Simplified Chinese (PRC, Singapore) |
949 | ANSI/OEM - Korean (Unified Hangul Code) |
950 | ANSI/OEM - Traditional Chinese (Taiwan; Hong Kong SAR, PRC) |
1026 | IBM EBCDIC - Turkish (Latin-5) |
1047 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin 1/Open System |
1140 | IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada (037 + Euro symbol) |
1141 | IBM EBCDIC - Germany (20273 + Euro symbol) |
1142 | IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway (20277 + Euro symbol) |
1143 | IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden (20278 + Euro symbol) |
1144 | IBM EBCDIC - Italy (20280 + Euro symbol) |
1145 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain (20284 + Euro symbol) |
1146 | IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom (20285 + Euro symbol) |
1147 | IBM EBCDIC - France (20297 + Euro symbol) |
1148 | IBM EBCDIC - International (500 + Euro symbol) |
1149 | IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic (20871 + Euro symbol) |
1200 | Unicode UCS-2 Little-Endian (BMP of ISO 10646) |
1201 | Unicode UCS-2 Big-Endian |
1250 | ANSI - Central European |
1251 | ANSI - Cyrillic |
1252 | ANSI - Latin I |
1253 | ANSI - Greek |
1254 | ANSI - Turkish |
1255 | ANSI - Hebrew |
1256 | ANSI - Arabic |
1257 | ANSI - Baltic |
1258 | ANSI/OEM - Vietnamese |
1361 | Korean (Johab) |
10000 | MAC - Roman |
10001 | MAC - Japanese |
10002 | MAC - Traditional Chinese (Big5) |
10003 | MAC - Korean |
10004 | MAC - Arabic |
10005 | MAC - Hebrew |
10006 | MAC - Greek I |
10007 | MAC - Cyrillic |
10008 | MAC - Simplified Chinese (GB 2312) |
10010 | MAC - Romania |
10017 | MAC - Ukraine |
10021 | MAC - Thai |
10029 | MAC - Latin II |
10079 | MAC - Icelandic |
10081 | MAC - Turkish |
10082 | MAC - Croatia |
12000 | Unicode UCS-4 Little-Endian |
12001 | Unicode UCS-4 Big-Endian |
20000 | CNS - Taiwan |
20001 | TCA - Taiwan |
20002 | Eten - Taiwan |
20003 | IBM5550 - Taiwan |
20004 | TeleText - Taiwan |
20005 | Wang - Taiwan |
20105 | IA5 IRV International Alphabet No. 5 (7-bit) |
20106 | IA5 German (7-bit) |
20107 | IA5 Swedish (7-bit) |
20108 | IA5 Norwegian (7-bit) |
20127 | US-ASCII (7-bit) |
20261 | T.61 |
20269 | ISO 6937 Non-Spacing Accent |
20273 | IBM EBCDIC - Germany |
20277 | IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway |
20278 | IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden |
20280 | IBM EBCDIC - Italy |
20284 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain |
20285 | IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom |
20290 | IBM EBCDIC - Japanese Katakana Extended |
20297 | IBM EBCDIC - France |
20420 | IBM EBCDIC - Arabic |
20423 | IBM EBCDIC - Greek |
20424 | IBM EBCDIC - Hebrew |
20833 | IBM EBCDIC - Korean Extended |
20838 | IBM EBCDIC - Thai |
20866 | Russian - KOI8-R |
20871 | IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic |
20880 | IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Russian) |
20905 | IBM EBCDIC - Turkish |
20924 | IBM EBCDIC - Latin-1/Open System (1047 + Euro symbol) |
20932 | JIS X 0208-1990 & 0121-1990 |
20936 | Simplified Chinese (GB2312) |
21025 | IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Serbian, Bulgarian) |
21027 | Extended Alpha Lowercase |
21866 | Ukrainian (KOI8-U) |
28591 | ISO 8859-1 Latin I |
28592 | ISO 8859-2 Central Europe |
28593 | ISO 8859-3 Latin 3 |
28594 | ISO 8859-4 Baltic |
28595 | ISO 8859-5 Cyrillic |
28596 | ISO 8859-6 Arabic |
28597 | ISO 8859-7 Greek |
28598 | ISO 8859-8 Hebrew |
28599 | ISO 8859-9 Latin 5 |
28605 | ISO 8859-15 Latin 9 |
29001 | Europa 3 |
38598 | ISO 8859-8 Hebrew |
50220 | ISO 2022 Japanese with no halfwidth Katakana |
50221 | ISO 2022 Japanese with halfwidth Katakana |
50222 | ISO 2022 Japanese JIS X 0201-1989 |
50225 | ISO 2022 Korean |
50227 | ISO 2022 Simplified Chinese |
50229 | ISO 2022 Traditional Chinese |
50930 | Japanese (Katakana) Extended |
50931 | US/Canada and Japanese |
50933 | Korean Extended and Korean |
50935 | Simplified Chinese Extended and Simplified Chinese |
50936 | Simplified Chinese |
50937 | US/Canada and Traditional Chinese |
50939 | Japanese (Latin) Extended and Japanese |
51932 | EUC - Japanese |
51936 | EUC - Simplified Chinese |
51949 | EUC - Korean |
51950 | EUC - Traditional Chinese |
52936 | HZ-GB2312 Simplified Chinese |
54936 | Windows XP: GB18030 Simplified Chinese (4 Byte) |
57002 | ISCII Devanagari |
57003 | ISCII Bengali |
57004 | ISCII Tamil |
57005 | ISCII Telugu |
57006 | ISCII Assamese |
57007 | ISCII Oriya |
57008 | ISCII Kannada |
57009 | ISCII Malayalam |
57010 | ISCII Gujarati |
57011 | ISCII Punjabi |
65000 | Unicode UTF-7 |
65001 | Unicode UTF-8 |
Identifier | Name |
1 | ASCII |
2 | NEXTSTEP |
3 | JapaneseEUC |
4 | UTF8 |
5 | ISOLatin1 |
6 | Symbol |
7 | NonLossyASCII |
8 | ShiftJIS |
9 | ISOLatin2 |
10 | Unicode |
11 | WindowsCP1251 |
12 | WindowsCP1252 |
13 | WindowsCP1253 |
14 | WindowsCP1254 |
15 | WindowsCP1250 |
21 | ISO2022JP |
30 | MacOSRoman |
10 | UTF16String |
0x90000100 | UTF16BigEndian |
0x94000100 | UTF16LittleEndian |
0x8c000100 | UTF32String |
0x98000100 | UTF32BigEndian |
0x9c000100 | UTF32LittleEndian |
65536 | Proprietary |
- Product: The product the license is for.
- Product Key: The key the license was generated from.
- License Source: Where the license was found (e.g., RuntimeLicense, License File).
- License Type: The type of license installed (e.g., Royalty Free, Single Server).
- Last Valid Build: The last valid build number for which the license will work.
This setting only works on these components: AS3Receiver, AS3Sender, Atom, Client(3DS), FTP, FTPServer, IMAP, OFTPClient, SSHClient, SCP, Server(3DS), Sexec, SFTP, SFTPServer, SSHServer, TCPClient, TCPServer.
Setting this configuration setting to True tells the component to use the internal implementation instead of using the system security libraries.
This setting is set to False by default on all platforms.
Trappable Errors (PipeClient Component)
PipeClient Errors
401 | Failed to create event. |
402 | Failed to create security descriptor. |
403 | Error creating named pipe. |
404 | Error connecting to named pipe. |
405 | Error disconnecting named pipe. |
408 | Error sending data. |
410 | Invalid MaxLineLength value. |
411 | Error reading data. |
412 | Error invoking RegisterWaitForSingleObject. |
413 | Operation would block. |
414 | Named pipe does not exist. |
415 | Named pipe is already connected. |
416 | Error connecting to named pipe. |
417 | Named pipe not connected. |
419 | Unsupported operation, see error message for details. |