[Boost-users] Transmitting serialized data of multiple types and variable length over a socket

Subject: [Boost-users] Transmitting serialized data of multiple types and variable length over a socket
From: A.Agrawal_at_[hidden]
Date: 2009-08-26 00:37:15

Hello,

I am new to boost (few months).
I have a client - server situation where there can be multiple clients 
(Linux or Window) connected to one server (Linux). Clients send requests 
and Server sends response to the clients. Server also sends new updates 
which the clients will keep receiving.

The request /response has following structure:

struct Message  {
uint8_t     data_name;
uint16_t  count_of_data_records;   //
uint16_t  data_len;                //length of serialized_data
string   serialized_data;   //serialized_data is binary serialized data 
using boost serialization.
};

We have 6 types of structs (identified by data_name) that are serialized 
into serialized_data.  I understand that I have to send two buffers one 
(ASCII buffer) with  data_name, count_of_data_records and data_len   and 
other binary buffer. I have seen example:

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_39_0/doc/html/boost_asio/example/serialization/connection.hpp

Questions:
1. I am not sure if I should use synchronous or asynchronous 
communication, I am inclined towards synchronous.
2. What is the best way to send this data across from a server to multiple 
clients and from one client to one server.I don't know the best way to 
implement it. Please advise what is the best way or if you know of an 
example.

Regards,
Anil Agrawal