How to handle server-client requests

Currently I'm working on a Server-Client system which will be the backbone of my application. I have to find the best way to send requests and handle them on the server-side.

The server-side should be able to handle开发者_StackOverflow中文版 requests like this one:

getPortfolio -i 2 -d all

In an old project I decided to send such a request as string and the server application had to look up the first part of the string ("getPortfolio"). Afterwards the server application had to find the correct method in a map which linked the methods with the the first part of the string ("getPortfolio"). The second part ("-i 2 -d all") got passed as parameter and the method itself had to handle this string/parameter.

I doubt that this is the best solution in order to handle many different requests.

Rgds Layne

To me it seems you're having two different questions.

For the socket part, I suggest you use Beej's guide to socket programming if you want to have full control about what you do. If you don't want to/don't have the time to treat this part yourself, you can just use a C++ socket library as well. There are plenty of them; I only used this one so far, but others might be as just good (or even better).

Regarding your parsing algorithm, you may first write down everything about the message format, so you'll have a strict guideline to follow. Then process step by step:

First, extract the "first word" and just keep the following parameters in some list. Check if the first word is valid and if it is known. If the "first word" does not match with any of the predefined existing functions, just ignore the message (and eventually report the error to the client application).

Once you have the matching function, simply call it passing the others parameters.

This way, each function will do a specific task and your code will be splitted in an elegant way.

Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to be any more explicit since we somehow lack of details here.