Posted: 26 December 2007 at 1:03pm | IP Logged

 I am  working on an application now where I need to have some computers communicate using sockets.  The main computer is running a PLC HMI software that has embedded within it VBA.  This machine will need to act as a server to another machine and as a client to yet a third machine.  When I reviewed Microsoft's Winsock object, it looks like it needs to function within a UserForm, which I would rather not use.  I have some general questions about anyone's use of the Ostrosoft object (or even comments from Ostrosoft) because this is my first time trying to set up socket communications and I am a intermediate programmer:

"When I am listening, does my code need to loop until something happens, and if so, what?"  "Once connected, will a connection ever self-terminate or must I call a method to disconnect?" "What is the normal format for data being transferred?"  "Is it best to connect, send data and then disconnect, or just remain connected continuing to look for new data to arrive?"   "If I don't want to use a UserForm, will this control work within a regular module?"  "Has anyone ever created a 'wrapper' class module for the control, and if so, could you share the code?"

Posted: 30 December 2007 at 9:14pm | IP Logged

You can use Winsock Component in a regular module or in a class module without any wrapper.

Data format depends on what your application expects (on a protocol you'll be using) - Winsock Component support both binary and text data.

It's always a good idea to explicitely disconnect from the server (call .CloseWinsock method).

Winsock Component is event-based. When data arrives it fires OnDataArrival() event. You don't need any loops