Can someone recommend a better alternative to InternetOpenUrl(..) ?

Question

Environment: Win32 for Windows Mobile using C/C++ (VS2008)

I need a clean and reliable method of updating some GPS coordinates (or other data) to a web server using http.

Currently I've been using the following piece of code:

wsprintf (threadParam.wszLocInfo, L"%s/LOGGPS/?U=%s&LAT=%.07f&LNG=%.07f&V=%s", ...);

HANDLE hHTTPthread = CreateThread ( NULL,     // No security attributes in Windows CE.
            0,    // Initial thread stack size, in bytes  (Must be 0 under Windows CE)
            (LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE) HTTPthread, // Thread procedure/function.
            &threadParam, // The argument for the new thread
            0,    // Creation flags 
            NULL );   // Returned ID value (ignored).

// Wait for the worker thread to complete.  (with timeout)
if (WaitForSingleObject (hHTTPthread, g_progSettings.dInetTimeout) == WAIT_TIMEOUT)
{
    if (g_hHttpOpen)
     InternetCloseHandle (g_hHttpOpen); // terminate session.

    // Wait until the worker thread exits
    WaitForSingleObject (hHTTPthread, INFINITE);

    CloseHandle (hHTTPthread);
    g_txtbox.print (L"Worker thread has exited.\r\n");

    return 0;
}




/////////////////// WorkerFunction ////////////////////// 
DWORD WINAPI HTTPthread (IN LPVOID vThreadParam)
{
    // Get pointer to thread parameters.
    THREADPARAM *pThreadParam = (THREADPARAM*)vThreadParam;

    // Initialize an application's use of the Win32 Internet functions.
    g_hHttpOpen = InternetOpen (APP_CLASSNAME,    // Application ID
           INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_DIRECT, // No proxy server access
           NULL,      // No name for proxy server
           NULL,      // No bypass addresses
           0);       // No flags - Typical
    if (g_hHttpOpen == NULL)
     return 1; // failure


    // Set timeout.  Whether they work or not, every bit might help.
    InternetSetOption (g_hHttpOpen, INTERNET_OPTION_CONNECT_TIMEOUT,         &g_progSettings.dInetTimeout, sizeof(DWORD));
    InternetSetOption (g_hHttpOpen, INTERNET_OPTION_RECEIVE_TIMEOUT,         &g_progSettings.dInetTimeout, sizeof(DWORD));
    InternetSetOption (g_hHttpOpen, INTERNET_OPTION_SEND_TIMEOUT,            &g_progSettings.dInetTimeout, sizeof(DWORD));
    InternetSetOption (g_hHttpOpen, INTERNET_OPTION_CONTROL_RECEIVE_TIMEOUT, &g_progSettings.dInetTimeout, sizeof(DWORD));
    InternetSetOption (g_hHttpOpen, INTERNET_OPTION_CONTROL_SEND_TIMEOUT,    &g_progSettings.dInetTimeout, sizeof(DWORD));
    InternetSetOption (g_hHttpOpen, INTERNET_OPTION_DATA_RECEIVE_TIMEOUT,    &g_progSettings.dInetTimeout, sizeof(DWORD));
    InternetSetOption (g_hHttpOpen, INTERNET_OPTION_DATA_SEND_TIMEOUT,       &g_progSettings.dInetTimeout, sizeof(DWORD));


    g_hHttpUrl = InternetOpenUrl (g_hHttpOpen,
             pThreadParam->wszLocInfo,
             NULL,
             0,
             INTERNET_FLAG_RELOAD | INTERNET_FLAG_PRAGMA_NOCACHE | INTERNET_FLAG_NO_CACHE_WRITE,
             0);
    if (g_hHttpUrl == NULL)
    {
     InternetCloseHandle (g_hHttpOpen);
     return 2; // failure
    }

    // clean-up.
    InternetCloseHandle (g_hHttpOpen);
    InternetCloseHandle (g_hHttpUrl);

    return 0; // success
}

Now while this works (mostly), we all know that the timeouts are flaky and this brute force technique isn't very reliable and responsive at all times.

The InternetOpenUrl(..) function makes things easy, but it's half-baked and not very flexible.

So I'm looking for an alternative to perform the same thing. With reliable timeouts.

How are you guys handling such updates to web servers?

Thanks.

Answer 1

May not be a helpful answer, but I am using WTL for my mobile app and it's wrapping up the web service access quite nicely in a CAtlHttpClientT. Haven't played with changing timeouts on the SOAP requests, though.

Answer 2

I've switched to using libcurl.

It's awesome. :)