How to send/receive data with complicated data structure via pipe?

Question

HRESULT GrabberCB :: SampleCB ( double SampleTime , IMediaSample * pSample )   {      

How to send the pSample content via pipe?

}  

I know how to send/receive string by WriteFile/ReadFile after reading this sample:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365592%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

But how to send a pSample over?

Answer 1

Why are you trying to send it on a pipe? It would be a lot easier if the pipe reader were a COM object instead and you just let the COM framework take care of everything. That being said, you can marshal a COM object into a stream (even out-of-process) with CoMarshalInterface; perhaps you could then send that stream across the pipe and reconstitute it with CoUnmarshalInterface.

Answer 2

You need to serialize your data before sending over any transport and at the other end you need to deserialize the data to convert it back. There are lots and lots of ways to do it depending on simple / complex your data is.

You could roll your own or use some sort of framework like Google Protocol Buffers or COM. There is no right answer, it all depends on what you are trying to do, how complex your data is and what sort of performance you require.