The SocketWrench ActiveX control and library provides reliable network communication services for your application using the TCP/IP protocol and compatible Windows Sockets library. The control offers the following features:

• Client and server functionality in a single component
• Support for blocking and non-blocking socket operations
• Support for both stream and datagram protocols
• Support for standard and secure (SSL) network connections

SocketWrench is distributed as both an ActiveX component and as a standard Windows dynamic link library (DLL). For those developers who are using a visual programming language such as Visual Basic or Visual FoxPro, it is recommended that the ActiveX control be used. Virtually all socket functions can be performed by setting control properties, calling a method and responding to events. For those developers who are not familiar with the details of socket programming, SocketWrench can also insulate them from many of the common pitfalls, without sacrificing functionality or flexibility.

Each control that you use corresponds to one socket (which may or may not be connected to a remote host). If you need access to multiple sockets, you must use multiple controls, typically as a control array. This is most commonly needed when your application acts as a server and must be able to handle several connections at one time.

In general, the SocketWrench ActiveX control provides a simpler interface for developing network applications. However, the ActiveX control is slightly larger than its DLL counterpart and may be more complicated than using the library directly in languages such as C++. The SocketWrench DLL can be used with any Windows programming language that supports calling functions in external libraries. Both the ActiveX control and the library have minimal dependencies and do not require additional support libraries such as the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) or Microsoft Visual C Runtime. For C++ developers, an MFC based class is included to simplify development using the SocketWrench library.

Copyright © 2008 Catalyst Development Corporation. All rights reserved.