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TSock The TSock Component
Freeware Windows Socket Component For Delphi & C++ Builder
Version 1.0k, tested with Delphi 2.0, 3.0 & 4.0
Written By Tom Bradford
Maintained By Ward van Wanrooij (ward@ward.nu, http://www.ward.nu)

Copyright © 1997-2000, Beach Dog Software, Inc.
Copyright © 2000-2003, Ward van Wanrooij.
® All Rights Reserved

Latest version can be obtained at http://www.ward.nu/computer/tsock

Contents

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Introduction
Why use TSock and not [...]
Download
Release Notes
Features
Properties
Events
Methods
Support Routines
Examples

Introduction

Welcome to the 1.0k release of TSock. TSock is a Delphi component which wraps basic WinSock functionality and provides some support functions for writing networked applications. TSock is released as freeware and ships with complete source code! If you are upgrading from a previous version, please check-out the release notes first!

If you are able to isolate and fix a bug in the component, please email the changes to Ward van Wanrooij for incorporation into future releases of the component. The point of TSock is to make it easier for everyone who develops socket applications. Please do not redistribute modified versions of the TSock component.

Because it is freeware, there is no charge for using this component in your own applications. Be aware that you use the component at your own risk. Beach Dog Software, Tom Bradford and Ward van Wanrooij are in no way responsible for anything bad that might happen through the product's use. When you do use it though, please give us credit for the component, and maybe a hyperlink to our site. It would be nice.

TSock has been developed by Tom Bradford of Beach Dog Software. Development started in 1997 and halted in 2000, when Beach Dog Software closed it's doors and Tom went to the dbXML Group. Since this moment, Ward van Wanrooij is the custodian and maintainer of this excellent piece of software.

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Why use TSock and not [...]

Other socket components exist, like WinShoes and Internet Component Suite, which consist of several components. For example the TWinshoeHTTPClient provides an easy way to download web pages.

Why do you want to use TSock instead of these components?

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Download TSock

You are free download the TSock package or view the source code online.

It is highly recommended that you subscribe to the mailinglist to keep up-to-date about new releases.

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1.0k Release Notes

1.0j Release Notes

1.0i Release Notes

1.0h Release Notes

1.0g Release Notes

1.0f Release Notes

1.0e Release Notes

Release Notes Prior To 1.0e

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Features

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Properties

Property Name

Type

Scope

Description

AutoAccept Boolean Design Auto-Accept Incoming Connections. TRUE causes a Listening socket (Listen = TRUE) to automatically accept an incoming connection and call OnAutoAccept as a new thread. If no OnAutoAccept is defined, OnAccept is called. If No OnAccept is defined, the incoming connection will linger.
Blocking Boolean Design Blocking Socket I/O. TRUE causes a socket to block while connecting, waiting for incoming data and writing to the socket. FALSE causes an asynchronous window message to be sent when a connection is made, data is available to be read and written.
BlockingTimeout Integer Design BlockingTimeout will force TSock to wait for a specific number of milliseconds while attempting to fill its receive buffer. Receives will return when the buffer is filled or when the blocking timeout has elapsed with no data.
Connected Boolean RunTime Connect Socket Or Check Connection. If set to TRUE, the component attempts to open a socket connection. If set to FALSE, the component closes a current connection. If the value returned is TRUE, the socket is connected, otherwise, it is not.
EndOfFile Boolean RunTime EndOfFile will return TRUE if the socket is no longer connected and the input buffer is empty. You should use EndOfFile if you are performing buffered input using ReceiveLine.
HostName String Design Host Name or IP Address. The Socket Component will automatically distinguish a Host Name (ex: www.cinteractive.com) from an IP Address (ex: 127.0.0.1).
LineBreak TLineBreak Design Sets the method of scanning incoming data for possible line breaks. This property is used in cooperation with the ReceiveLine method for reading an incoming data stream 1 text line at a time. The possible values for this property are lbCR, lbLF, lbCRLF and lbSmart. lbSmart will make guesses as to the form of the incoming data stream based upon content and break the lines accordingly.
Listen Boolean Design Listen For Incoming Connections. If TRUE, creates a thread that loops, listening for incoming sockets and handling them based on the AutoAccept, OnAccept, and OnAutoAccept properties.
LocalPortName String Design -1 means LocalPortName=PortName, 0 means I Really Don't Care (using the standard Microsoft Winsock2 Stack, this translates to a semi-random port from 1024-5000), >1 means that port number, a String means that Service Name. LocalPortName defaults to -1 for backward compatibility reasons. It is recommended for client applications to use 0.
PortName String Design Port Number or Service Name. Port Numbers are well known ports such as 80 for HTTP or 7 for Echo. Service Names perform a database lookup into the SERVICES file.
RecvAddrIn TSockAddrIn RunTime Provides a readonly datastructure describing the remote host. You will probably never need this, since RemoteHost wraps most of its functionality.
RemoteHost String RunTime RemoteHost returns the remote IP address if SocketType=stStream (TCP) or the IP address of the most recent incoming datagram if SocketType=stDatagram (UDP).
Socket TSocket RunTime Returns Socket Value. Returns the value of a connected socket. Returns INVALID_SOCKET (-1) if the socket isn't currently connected. This property also allows the user to set the value of the socket, but this is inadvisable.
SocketType TSocketType Design Type of socket. This value can either be stStream or stDatagram. If Listen is set to TRUE, this property will automatically be set to stStream because Datagram sockets do not support listening mode. Likewise, if the socket type is set to stDatagram, the Listen property will be set to False (in design mode).
Stream TStream RunTime Returns a TStream compatible object to allow performing Stream-based I/O on a TSock instance.
Text String RunTime Sends And Receives Text. If being assigned to, the value being assigned will be sent to the socket. If being read from, any incoming data from the socket will be returned.

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Events

Event Name

Event Description

OnAccept
(TObject)		 Occurs when a socket is in queue to be accepted. This event can be used in cooperation with the Accept method to perform multi-client server operations.
OnAutoAccept
(TObject, TSock)		 Occurs when AutoAccept is TRUE. Creates a new client socket and invokes OnAutoAccept as a thread separate from the main application. It is no longer the implementer's responsibility to Free the TSock component that is passed.
OnConnect
(TObject)		 Occurs when a client socket connects to a remote host.
OnDisconnect
(TObject)		 Occurs when a client socket disconnects from a remote host or when the connection is unexpectedly terminated.
OnInfo
(TObject, TSocketInfo, String)		 Occurs when the component produces a state message. This event sends a TSocketInfo parameter as well as a string with information specific to the task that is being reported on.
OnRead
(TObject, Integer)		 Occurs when data is available to be read from the socket.
OnWrite
(TObject)		 Occurs when the socket will allow data to be written.

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Methods

Method Name

Method Description

Accept(TSock) : Boolean Accepts the next available incoming socket from the listening loop. Accept return TRUE if successful. This method also assigned the TSock parameter to a valid TSock connection component. It is the implementer's responsibility to Free this component when it is no longer needed. Also, the new component is created with no Event handlers, so the implementer is responsible for assigning them if the socket is non-blocking. This event will only be triggered if Listen is TRUE.
Close : Boolean Closes any existing remote connection.
Open : Boolean Opens a connection to the remote HostName using PortName. Returns TRUE if successful. Returns FALSE if the connection could not be established.
Receive : String Returns any incoming data from the socket. Will block while waiting for data if Blocking is set to TRUE and no data is available in the queue.
ReceiveCount(Integer) : String ReceiveCount allows you to limit the size of the receive buffer. ReceiveCount doesn't necessarily force the size of the returned string, but does ensure that BlockingTimeout will return when it is able to fill to requested buffer size.
ReceiveDatagram(Var String) : String Returns a string with the Datagram content received from any address through the bound UDP PortName. ReceiveDatagram will set the String parameter to the IP address of the Datagram's originator.
ReceiveLine : String Returns the next input line from the input stream for a socket with SocketType set to stStream. This method uses the LineBreak property to determine how to scan the input stream. If the SocketType is set to stDatagram, this method returns the next incoming Datagram in its entirety. Because the entire Input Stream isn't returned by this method, the socket may have already determined that the connection has been closed. In this case, it is the user's responsibility to check for incoming data even if the socket is no longer connected.
Send(String) : Boolean Sends a string to the remote connection. Returns TRUE if successful.
SendLine(String) : Boolean Sends a line to the remote connection. Returns TRUE if successful.
SendDatagram(String, String) : Boolean Sends the text in the first String parameter as a Datagram to the HostName address defined in the second String parameter. Because UDP is by-definition unreliable, this method always returns TRUE.
StartListen : Boolean Sets the socket component into listening mode. The result is TRUE if successful and FALSE otherwise. This method is the same as setting Listen=TRUE and then checking the value of Listen.
StopListen : Boolean Turns listening mode off.
HostLookup(String) : TInAddr Looks up a remote host using the String parameter. The parameter can either be an IP address (ex: 111.111.111.111) or a domain name (ex: www.cinteractive.com). The value that is returned is a TInAddr structure that can be used when building a TSockAddrIn for binding a socket to an address.
PortLookup(String) : Word Looks up a service port using the String parameter. The parameter can either be a textual service name (ex: echo or Finger) or a port number (ex: 80). The value that is returned is a unsigned short in network byte order.

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Support Routines

Routine Name

Routine Description

WSDescription : String Returns a vendor-defined string that describes the presently running WinSock implementation. This information is obtained while performing an initial WSAStartup WinSock call.
WSASystemStatus : String Returns a vendor-defined string containing system status.
GetLocalHostname : String Retrieves the local hostname. The local hostname is often not a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name), and it's implementation differs in WinSock 1.1 and WinSock 2.0. Only to be used for informational purposes, nothing connection critical.
SocketInfoText(TSocketInfo) : String Given the TSocketInfo parameter, returns a string that describes the parameter. This function can be used in conjunction with an OnInfo event.
ErrToStr(Integer) : String Given the Integer parameter, returns the WinSock defined string associated with a particular error code. TSock uses this support routine internally for translating asynchronous errors to TSockException exceptions.
Base64Encode(String) : String Converts the String parameter to a MIME-standard Base-64 encoded block and returns the conversion as the String result.
Base64Decode(String) : String Converts the String parameter from a MIME-standard Base-64 encoded block and returns the conversion as the String result.
URLEncode(String) : String Converts the String parameter to a URLEncoding scheme and returns the conversion as the String result.
URLDecode(String) : String Converts the String parameter from a URLEncoding scheme and returns the conversion as the String result.

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Examples

There are a few sample applications ready. The examples in the 'old_samp' directory have not been checked for memory issues or exception handling, and can be flaky.

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