CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#androidserialization
ConditionRacer
ConditionRacer

Reputation: 4498

Easiest way to serialize data between C# and Android app

I have a desktop application written in C# that will communicate with an Android app. What is the easiest way to pass data between them over a tcp/ip connection? I'm less interested in performance, more interested in ease of implementation.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 805

Answers (1)

Kelvin Trinh
Kelvin Trinh

Reputation: 1248

I naturally don't understand you by the meaning of ease of implementation. But as I guessed, you should need these:

In [C#]:

//util function
public static void WriteBuffer(BinaryWriter os, byte[] array) {
            if ((array!=null) && (array.Length > 0) && (array.Length < MAX_BUFFER_SIZE)) {
                WriteInt(os,array.Length);
                os.Write(array);
            } else {
                WriteEmptyBuffer(os);
            }
        }

//write a string
public static void WriteString(BinaryWriter os, string value)  {
            if (value!=null) {
                byte[] array = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(value);
                WriteBuffer(os,array);
            } else {
                WriteEmptyBuffer(os);
            }
        }

In [Java] Android:

/** Read a String from the wire.  Strings are represented by
 a length first, then a sequence of Unicode bytes. */
public static String ReadString(DataInputStream input_stream) throws IOException  
{
    String ret = null;
    int len = ReadInt(input_stream);
    if ((len == 0) || (len > MAX_BUFFER_SIZE)) {
        ret = "";
    } else {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[len];
        input_stream.readFully(buffer);
        ret = new String(buffer, DATA_CHARSET);
    }
    return (ret);
}

For further structural data, For e.g you want to send objects between C# and Java, please use XML Serialization in C# and XML Parser in Java. You can search for these on Internet; many examples are on Code Project website.

In Android part, you can use XStream library for ease of use.

Upvotes: 2

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