My C# app needs to talk with a DLL written in C++. I don't have the code of this DLL, but I have the code for a demo app (also in C++) that uses the DLL and works.
Here's the interesting code from the C++ demo app. It has two functions, one of which accepts a callback set of 4 delegates.
typedef BOOL (CBAPI* OPENSCANNERSDK)(HWND hwnd, TCallBackSet* callbackSet, wchar_t* configPath);
typedef void (CBAPI* CLOSESCANNERSDK)();
typedef struct TCallBackSet
{
TOnScannerStatusEvent scannerStatusEvent;
TOnScannerNotifyEvent scannerNotifyEvent;
TOnRFIDStatusEvent rfidStatusEvent;
TOnRFIDNotifyEvent rfidNotifyEvent;
} TCallBackSet;
typedef void (cdecl* TOnScannerStatusEvent ) (int scannerStatus);
typedef void (cdecl* TOnScannerNotifyEvent) (int scannerNotify, int lParam);
typedef void (cdecl* TOnRFIDStatusEvent ) (int rfidStatus);
typedef void (cdecl* TOnRFIDNotifyEvent ) (int rfidnotify);
So, I have to call OpenScannerSDK, pass a callback set with pointers to some functions, do some stuff, and finally call CloseScannerSDK.
I have declared this in my C# app like so:
[DllImport(DllName, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl, EntryPoint = "_OpenScannerSDK")]
extern public static bool OpenScannerSDK(IntPtr hwnd, TCallBackSet callbackSet,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]string configPath);
[DllImport(DllName, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl, EntryPoint = "_CloseScannerSDK")]
extern public static void CloseScannerSDK();
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public class TCallBackSet
{
[UnmanagedFunctionPointer(CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public delegate void TOnScannerStatusEvent(int scannerStatus);
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.FunctionPtr)]
public TOnScannerStatusEvent ScannerStatusEvent;
(I have removed the other 3 callbacks for brevity)
}
Finally I use the library like so:
var callback = new TCallBackSet() { ... set the delegates ... }
OpenScannerSDK(IntPtr.Zero, callback, ".");
... do other stuff...
CloseScannerSDK();
All this seems to work - both OpenScannerSDK and CloseScannerSDK and all the others I use between them work correctly. The problem is that as soon as the application tries to exit, I get an APPCRASH in KERNELBASE.dll. I don't see any relevant information in the crash report file. I have noticed that if I do not call OpenScannerSDK, but just some other functions of the DLL that are not related to delegates, the APPCRASH doesn't happen.
I also tried GC.KeepAlive for the delegates, no effect.
I had a similar issue porting other C DLL to C# some years ago.
Function pointers in C# are represented as delegates. Internally, delegates are class instances and they're collected by GC the same way other objects are collected.
Probably in your DLL there's some method that "stops" the API, making it stopping invoking the C++ function pointers. You must call this before you close the application.
Probably your app collects the delegate objects and when the C++ DLL tries to invoke from unmanaged code, finds an invalid object reference.
It's interesting to keep the references in C# of these delegates in private fields, to avoid them to be collected when the application is running. The sympton of this issue is that the application crashes intermitently.
Hope this helps.
To anyone interested, here is the final working solution.
First, CallBackSet is defined like so:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public class CallBackSet
{
public IntPtr ScannerStatusEvent;
public IntPtr ScannerNotifyEvent;
public IntPtr RfidStatusEvent;
public IntPtr RfidNotifyEvent;
}
And then:
OnScannerStatusEvent onScannerStatus = (ScannerStatus status) => {...};
OnScannerNotifyEvent onScannerNotify = (ScannerNotify notify, short lparam) => {...};
OnRfidStatusEvent onRfidStatus = (RfidStatus status) => {...};
OnRfidNotifyEvent onRfidNotify = (RfidNotify notify) => {...};
GCHandle.Alloc(onScannerStatus);
GCHandle.Alloc(onScannerNotify);
GCHandle.Alloc(onRfidStatus);
GCHandle.Alloc(onRfidNotify);
callbackSet = new CallBackSet()
{
RfidNotifyEvent = Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate(onRfidNotify),
RfidStatusEvent = Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate(onRfidStatus),
ScannerNotifyEvent = Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate(onScannerNotify),
ScannerStatusEvent = Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate(onScannerStatus)
};
callbackPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(Marshal.SizeOf(callbackSet));
Marshal.StructureToPtr(callbackSet, callbackPtr, false);
OpenScannerSDK(IntPtr.Zero, callbackPtr, ".");
Upon further testing I found that actually OpenScannerSDK always returns True, which made me believe it was working correctly, but it may not be the case. I did several tests, including passing a TCallBackSet struct that does not have any members and OpenScannerSDK still returned True.
So it seems the problem is with TCallBackSet and these delegates. Something's wrong there. I tried passing the CallBackSet w and w/o ref, no difference. Noticed int in C++ is not the same as int in C#, so changed functions signatures to use short instead of int. None of these made any difference.
Related
The problem is that i've got a C++ DLL that I want to use in my C# project.
The problematic function has the prototype:
int MRK3LINK_Open(void (*pfLog)(const char* s),void (*pfErrorOut)(const char* s));
The documentation states that:
pfLog is a pointer to log handler function of type const char*.
pfErrorOut is a pointer to error out handler function of type const char*.
And an example of how to call the functions of the DLL from C++:
static void _LogHandler(const char* sLog) {
printf(sLog);
}
static void _ErrorOutHandler(const char* sError) {
MessageBox(NULL, sError, "2-Link", MB_OK);
}
MRK3LINK_Open(_LogHandler, _ErrorOutHandler);
I'm stuck on this for 2 days now. Could you provide me some tips ?
Thanks.
The two parameters are function pointers. They will map to delegates in C++. Like this:
[UnmanagedFunctionPointer(CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public delegate void LogHandlerDelegate(string str);
[UnmanagedFunctionPointer(CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public delegate void ErrorOutHandlerDelegate(string error);
Then the function you import is:
[DllImport(dllname, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static extern int MRK3LINK_Open(
LogHandlerDelegate LogHandler,
ErrorOutHandlerDelegate ErrorOutHandler
);
Then you create delegates in the usual way and pass them to MRK3LINK_Open. Make sure that you store references to the delegates if the unmanaged code takes a reference to them and calls them after MRK3LINK_Open returns. Otherwise the garbage collector is liable to collect them.
hey all im trying to get my head around calling this c++ function in c#:
BOOL __stdcall CodecStart(int hRadio,void __stdcall (*CallbackFunc)(void *),void *CallbackTarget);
this is from a WinRadio api found here http://www.winradio.com/home/g305_sdk.htm.
i did find that other people asked about calling this specific function on the net and they had:
public delegate void CallbackFunc( IntPtr p);
[DllImport("WRG305API.dll")]
public static extern bool CodecStart(int hRadio, CallbackFunc func, IntPtr CallbackTarget);
but i cant figure out how to implement this further.
any thoughts or guidance as to how to call this?
many thanks
Here's a simple implementation that will put it all together.
class WinRadioWrapper
{
public delegate void CallbackFunc( IntPtr pData );
[DllImport( "WRG305API.dll" )]
public static extern bool CodecStart( int hRadio, CallbackFunc func, IntPtr CallbackTarget );
public bool CodecStartTest(int hRadio)
{
bool bStarted = CodecStart( hRadio, MyCallbackFunc, IntPtr.Zero );
return bStarted;
}
// Note: this method will be called from a different thread!
static void MyCallbackFunc( IntPtr pData )
{
// Sophisticated work goes here...
}
}
Note that because MyCallbackFunc will be executed on a different thread, I chose to make is static. This way you won't be tempted to access WinRadioWrapper data members.
For simplicity I passed an IntPtr.Zero parameter to the callback, but this can point to any data that you'd like to use in the callback.[Please ignore this paragraph] Look into Marshal.StructureToPtr if you'd like to pass data to the callback, but make sure to also pin the data that you're passing in order to make sure it's not garbage-collected (see GCHandle for more details).
EDIT:
With the interesting words by svick (thanks!), I realize I was mixing a copied object with a pinned one.
So, to sort things out:
Marshal.StructureToPtr should be used if you want to copy an existing data structure and then pass it to the callback function.
If, on the other hand, you'd like to use and existing data structure (e.g. for modifying its content), the you should use GCHandle in order to pin it in memory and prevent it from being garbage-collected.This, however, will add some maintenance overhead for the GCHandle.
A callback function is a code that is called by a dll (you're importing in this case) that performs some functions. You also need to learn how to work with delegates in c#. You can implement the code like this:
public void MyCallback(IntPtr p)
{
//do something
}
and then your dll call will be like this:
[DllImport("WRG305API.dll")]
public static extern bool CodecStart(int hRadio, func, IntPtr CallbackTarget);
If you need more guidance, post the C++ version of the code you want to convert and we can help you with the C# version.
All you need to do is to create a c# function that matches the signature of the delegate you declared. Create a delegate, hold on to a reference to this delegate so it doesn't get garbage collected, and call the dll import with the delegate as the callback.
so you would having something like this:
public void MyCallback(IntPtr P)
{
//do something
}
// somewhere else in your code
var cb = new CallbackFunc(MyCallback);
CodecStart(..., cb, ...);
I am writing a C# app on Windows CE 6 to monitor a 3G modem. The app will call functions in a C DLL to access the modem.
In startup, C# app will call this function to create a new connection:
[DllImport("swmodem.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Winapi)]
public static extern int CreateDataConnection(EVENT_CALLBACK callback);
The EVENT_CALLBACK is defined as:
public delegate void EVENT_CALLBACK(int e, IntPtr data);
A data structure is also defined:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct ECIO_INFO
{
public UInt32 ecio1; /*!< Primary scramble code */
public UInt32 ecio2; /*!< Received signal code power */
public UInt32 ecio3; /*!< Energy per chip per power density */
}
In C DLL, a function pointer is passed in CreateDataConnection() for modem status update.
int CreateDataConnection(EVENT_CALLBACK ecb)
{
.
.
fEventCallback = ecb;
// Create a connection
.
.
}
After a connection is created, the DLL will invoke the callback function to update the modem status, for example EC/IO (The ratio of received pilot energy).
Basically, when ECIO changes, the callback function is called to pass the ECIO data to C# app:
In C DLL:
void ProcessNotification(EVENT_CALLBACK fEventCallback)
{
ECIO_INFO ecio_info;
ecio_info.ecio1 = ecio_info.ecio2 = ecio_info.ecio3 = 0;
if(data.nNumOfCells>0)
ecio_info.ecio1 = data.arCellInfo[0].nEcIo;
if(data.nNumOfCells>1)
ecio_info.ecio2 = data.arCellInfo[1].nEcIo;
if(data.nNumOfCells>2)
ecio_info.ecio3 = data.arCellInfo[2].nEcIo;
if(data.nNumOfCells>0)
fEventCallback(ME_RSCP_ECIO, &ecio_info);
}
In C# app, the callback function is defined as:
private void ModemEventCallback(int e, IntPtr data)
{
.
.
Modem.ECIO_INFO new_reinfo = new Modem.ECIO_INFO();
new_reinfo = (Modem.ECIO_INFO)Marshal.PtrToStructure(
data, typeof(Modem.ECIO_INFO));
.
.
}
Now, the problem comes. When the program starts, everything is fine, the connection is created ok and EC/IO is being updated. but after running for several hours, the EC/IO update is stopped. After a test, I found it is stopped when the callback is invoke:
fEventCallback(ME_RSCP_ECIO, &ecio_info);
I don't know what has gone wrong here Probably passing a function pointer in a C# DLL invoke just not right way to do it, or some fault is buried in the code?
Since callback function is just pointer for C/C++, callback parameter must be declared as IntPtr. Create EVENT_CALLBACK instance end ensure that it remains alive all time your program runs. Use Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate Method to convert delecate instance to IntPtr, and pass resulting IntPtr to CreateDataConnection function.
[DllImport("swmodem.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Winapi)]
public static extern int CreateDataConnection(IntPtr callback);
...
EVENT_CALLBACK c;
c = new EVENT_CALLBACK( ... ); // keep this alive !
...
CreateDataConnection(Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate(c));
Try this
[UnmanagedFunctionPointer(CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public delegate void EVENT_CALLBACK(int e, IntPtr data);
It solved my problem.
I think you must use GCHandl.Alloc with GCHandleType.Pinned, by this you will tell gc that this object must remain in memory even though
there might be no "roots" in the application that refer to this object and the memory for this object cannot be compacted
I have a C++ function that produces a list of rectangles that are interesting. I want to be able to get that list out of the C++ library and back into the C# application that is calling it.
So far, I'm encoding the rectangles like so:
struct ImagePatch{
int xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax;
}
and then encoding some vectors:
void MyFunc(..., std::vector<int>& rectanglePoints){
std::vector<ImagePatch> patches; //this is filled with rectangles
for(i = 0; i < patches.size(); i++){
rectanglePoints.push_back(patches[i].xmin);
rectanglePoints.push_back(patches[i].xmax);
rectanglePoints.push_back(patches[i].ymin);
rectanglePoints.push_back(patches[i].ymax);
}
}
The header for interacting with C# looks like (and works for a bunch of other functions):
extern "C" {
__declspec(dllexport) void __cdecl MyFunc(..., std::vector<int>& rectanglePoints);
}
Are there some keywords or other things I can do to get that set of rectangles out? I found this article for marshalling objects in C#, but it seems way too complicated and way too underexplained. Is a vector of integers the right way to do this, or is there some other trick or approach?
The STL is a C++ specific library, so you cant directly get it across as one object to C#.
The one thing that is guaranteed about std::vector is that &v[0] points to the first element and all the elements lie linearly in memory (in other words, its just like a C array in terms of memory layout)
So marshal as array of int... which shouldn't be hard - There are lot of examples on the web.
Added
Assuming you only pass the data from C++ to C# :
C# cannot handle a C++ vector object, so do not try passing it by reference : Instead your C++ code must return a pointer to an array of ints...
If you are not going to be using this function from multiple threads, you can use static storage :
int *getRects(bool bClear)
{
static vector<int> v; // This variable persists across invocations
if(bClear)
{
v.swap(vector<int>());
}
else
{
v.clear();
// Fill v with data as you wish
}
return v.size() ? &v[0] : NULL;
}
call getRects(true) if the returned data is significant in size, so you release the memory in v.
For simplicity, instead of passing out the size of the vector data too, just put a sentinel value at the end (like say -1) so the C# code can detect where the data ends.
Yes. You can. Actually, not just std::vector, std::string, std::wstring, any standard C++ class or your own classes can be marshaled or instantiated and called from C#/.NET.
Wrapping a std::vector<any_type> in C# is indeed possible with just regular P/Invoke Interop, it is complicated though. even a std::map of any type can be done in C#/.NET.
public class SampleClass : IDisposable
{
[DllImport("YourDll.dll", EntryPoint="ConstructorOfYourClass", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
public extern static void SampleClassConstructor(IntPtr thisObject);
[DllImport("YourDll.dll", EntryPoint="DestructorOfYourClass", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
public extern static void SampleClassDestructor(IntPtr thisObject);
[DllImport("YourDll.dll", EntryPoint="DoSomething", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
public extern static void DoSomething(IntPtr thisObject);
[DllImport("YourDll.dll", EntryPoint="DoSomethingElse", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.ThisCall)]
public extern static void DoSomething(IntPtr thisObject, int x);
IntPtr ptr;
public SampleClass(int sizeOfYourCppClass)
{
this.ptr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(sizeOfYourCppClass);
SampleClassConstructor(this.ptr);
}
public void DoSomething()
{
DoSomething(this.ptr);
}
public void DoSomethingElse(int x)
{
DoSomethingElse(this.ptr, x);
}
public void Dispose()
{
if (this.ptr != IntPtr.Zero)
{
// The following 2 calls equals to "delete object" in C++
// Calling the destructor of the C++ class will free the memory allocated by the native c++ class.
SampleClassDestructor(this.ptr);
// Free the memory allocated from .NET.
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(this.ptr);
this.ptr = IntPtr.Zero;
}
}
}
Please see the below link,
C#/.NET PInvoke Interop SDK
(I am the author of the SDK tool)
Once you have the C# wrapper class for your C++ class ready, it is easy to implement ICustomMarshaler so that you can marshal the C++ object from .NET.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.runtime.interopservices.icustommarshaler.aspx
I'm pretty sure you can't do this. You have to be able to translate the C++ code directly to a C# class, so you would at least have to replicate the internals of the vector class to marshall it correctly. I'm also pretty sure you won't be able to move references across the boundary, you'll have to use IntPtr (raw pointers). The approach that i know works is to marshall a raw array of the structs.
Is there a simple example of how to pass messages from unsafe callback to managed code?
I have a proprietary dll which receives some messages packed in structs and all is coming to a callback function.
The example of usage is as follows but it calls unsafe code too. I want to pass the messages into my application which is all managed code.
*P.S. I have no experience in interop or unsafe code. I used to develop in C++ 8 yrs ago but remember very little from that nightmarish times :)
P.P.S. The application is loaded as hell, the original devs claim it processes 2mil messages per sec.. I need a most efficient solution.*
static unsafe int OnCoreCallback(IntPtr pSys, IntPtr pMsg)
{
// Alias structure pointers to the pointers passed in.
CoreSystem* pCoreSys = (CoreSystem*)pSys;
CoreMessage* pCoreMsg = (CoreMessage*)pMsg;
// message handler function.
if (pCoreMsg->MessageType == Core.MSG_STATUS)
OnCoreStatus(pCoreSys, pCoreMsg);
// Continue running
return (int)Core.CALLBACKRETURN_CONTINUE;
}
Thank you.
You can use Marshal class to deal with interop code.
example:
C:
void someFunction(int msgId, void* funcCallback)
{
//do something
funcCallback(msgId); //assuming that function signature is "void func(int)"
}
C#
[DllImport("yourDllname.dll")]
static extern someFunction(int msgId, IntPtr funcCallbackPtr);
public delegate FunctionCallback(int msgId);
public FunctionCallback functionCallback;
public void SomeFunction(int msgId, out FunctionCallback functionCallback)
{
IntPtr callbackPtr;
someFunction(msgId, callbackPtr);
functionCallback = Marshal.DelegateToPointer(callbackPtr);
}
you can call as:
SomeFunction(0, (msgIdx) => Console.WriteLine("messageProcessed"));
I hope I did it right. I did not try to compile it :)