Program Structure

Applications which use the SocketTools controls will tend to have a similar structure, regardless of the specific protocol or programming language. While the details vary based on the control being used, the implementation can be broken down into several general steps:

Initializing the control
Connecting to the server
Authenticating the client
Performing one or more operations
Disconnecting from the server
Uninitializing the control

Initialization prepares the control to be used by your program, and is the first step that must be performed before you can use any other methods. Next, a connection is established with the server using the information provided by your program. For example, most of the connection methods require that you provide a host name, port number, a timeout period for synchronous operations and any additional options.

If the protocol requires that you authenticate the client in order to use the service, your application needs to provide this information. Once the client has been authenticated, it can then perform one or more operations, such as downloading a file, sending an email message and so on.

After you have finished, you disconnect from the server. Finally, before your program terminates, you uninitialize the control which causes it to perform any necessary housekeeping prior to releasing any system resources which were allocated on behalf of your program.