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How to correctly parse received serial data into lines?

I'm creating a program which communicates with a serial device which is constantly sending data. I'm reading data from device every 100ms (using a timer). I use port.ReadExisting() to receive all currently available data from the device then I try split it into lines, because I need to check some of the received data and the best way is to check lines. The problem occurs when device sends data which doesn't end with "\r\n" or '\n'.
In a perfect situation port.ReadExisting() returns: "sampletext\r\nsomesampletext\nsampletext\r\n
But a problem occurs when there's no CR or LF character at the end:
First time port.ReadExisting() returns this: "text\nsamp"
Second time port.ReadExisting() returns this: letext\r\ntext\r\n"
End result should look like this:
text
sampletext
text
But what I get looks like this:
text
samp
letext
text
My code:
This is the timer which runs every 100ms:
private void CommandTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker seriaDataWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
seriaDataWorker.DoWork += (obj, p) => PrintSerialData();
seriaDataWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
}
BackgroundWorker which gets called by the timer:
private void PrintSerialData()
{
try
{
if (RandomReboot)
{
RebootWatch.Start();
}
if (COMport.IsOpen)
{
if (COMport.BytesToRead != 0)
{
SerialPrint(COMport.ReadExisting());
}
}
}
catch (System.IO.IOException SerialException)
{
return;
}
}
Function which parses received data into lines:
private void SerialPrint(string data)
{
using (var buffer = new StringReader(data))
{
string line = "";
while((line = buffer.ReadLine()) != null)
{
if (CheckForAnsw)
{
ReceivedCommandData = line;
if (ReceivedCommandData.Contains(AnswExpected))
{
ReceivedAnsw = true;
ReceivedLine = ReceivedCommandData;
ReceivedCommandData = "";
}
}
this.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
{
AppendText(TextBox_System_Log, Color.Black, line + "\r\n");
}
));
}
}
}
I know that the problem is that buffer.ReadLine() treats remainder of the string which doesn't end with a CR or LF character as a seperate line but I don't know how to fix it.
I tried using port.ReadLine() in the past but it is way slower and causes problems for me when serial ports get disconnected etc.

I don't think there's an easy way to handle this with the StringReader. Instead, you can split the string yourself:
private static string _buffer = string.Empty;
private static void SerialPrint(string data)
{
// Append the new data to the leftover of the previous operation
data = _buffer + data;
int index = data.IndexOf('\n');
int start = 0;
while (index != -1)
{
var command = data.Substring(start, index - start);
ProcessCommand(command.TrimEnd('\r'));
start = index + 1;
index = data.IndexOf('\n', start);
}
// Store the leftover in the buffer
if (!data.EndsWith("\n"))
{
_buffer = data.Substring(start);
}
else
{
_buffer = string.Empty;
}
}
private static void ProcessCommand(string command)
{
Console.WriteLine(command);
}

You can use AnonymousPipes to transport and buffer the incoming data and read them as lines to output them to somewhere.
Here is a little example which creates a server and client pipe stream, then writes data to the server in one task (with some newline in the data) and reads the data in a different task per line and outputs them to the console.
public class Program
{
public static async Task Main()
{
(var writer, var reader) = CreatePipe();
using (writer)
using (reader)
{
var writerTask = Task.Run(async () =>
{
writer.AutoFlush = true;
writer.Write("?");
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
if (i % 10 == 9)
{
await writer.WriteAsync("!");
await writer.WriteAsync(Environment.NewLine);
await writer.WriteAsync("?");
}
else
{
await writer.WriteAsync((i % 10).ToString());
}
await Task.Delay(100);
}
writer.Close();
});
var readerTask = Task.Run(async () =>
{
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
{
var line = await reader.ReadLineAsync();
Console.WriteLine(line);
}
});
await Task.WhenAll(writerTask, readerTask);
}
}
public static (StreamWriter, StreamReader) CreatePipe()
{
var server = new AnonymousPipeServerStream(PipeDirection.Out);
var client = new AnonymousPipeClientStream(server.GetClientHandleAsString());
return
(
new StreamWriter(server, Encoding.UTF8),
new StreamReader(client, Encoding.UTF8)
);
}
}
Try to adapt this code to your use case and comment if there are difficulies.

Your issue with \r\n and \n can be covered by using Environment.NewLine. I'm not sure what AppendText does, but if you're using it to store the values, then you're overdoing it. What you need is to store all data first in a StringBuilder then process them, OR process each data and store them in managed type such as Array, to define each line separately. Only use the string in the presentation layer (if you have some GUI that you want the user to see the results).
So, what I suggest is to store the lines in StringBuilder Something like this :
private readonly StringBuilder _strDataBuilder = new StringBuilder();
private void PrintSerialData()
{
try
{
if (RandomReboot)
{
RebootWatch.Start();
}
if(COMport.IsOpen && COMport.BytesToRead != 0)
{
var data = COMport.ReadExisting();
if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(data)) {
_strDataBuilder.Append(data);
}
}
}
catch (System.IO.IOException SerialException)
{
return;
}
}
private void SerialPrint()
{
var data = _strDataBuilder.ToString();
if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(data)) { return; }
var lines = data.Split(Environment.NewLine);
if(lines.Length == 0) { return; }
for(int x = 0; x < lines.Length; x++)
{
var line = lines[x];
if (CheckForAnsw)
{
ReceivedCommandData = line;
if (ReceivedCommandData.Contains(AnswExpected))
{
ReceivedAnsw = true;
ReceivedLine = ReceivedCommandData;
ReceivedCommandData = "";
}
}
this.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
{
AppendText(TextBox_System_Log, Color.Black, line + Environment.NewLine);
}
));
}
}
Storing them first would make things more maintainability and fixability when you want to add more processing steps or reuse the results.
Although the SerialPrint() is unnessary if you just re-print the data in the GUI. As the data already separated in lines. So, if you do
TextBox_System_Log.Text = _strDataBuilder.ToString();
Directly, would list them in lines in the default color. However, if you intended to split them to process each line separately (to validate for instance), then it would be okay.

You can try like below code:
public void DataReceivedSerialPort(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
readExistingData = "";
SerialPort sp = (SerialPort)sender;
sp.ReadTimeout = 100;
do
{
readExistingData = "";
try
{
readExistingData = sp.ReadLine();
if (readExistingData == "")
{
readExistingData = sp.ReadLine();
}
dataReadFromSerialPort += readExistingData;
}
catch
{
try
{
readExistingData = sp.ReadExisting();
dataReadFromSerialPort += readExistingData + "\r\n";
}
catch { }
}
UI.insert_new_items_into_textBoxUARTLog(readExistingData);
} while (readExistingData != "");
}

Queue problems across multiple threads

There are many questions and articles on the subject of using a .NET Queue properly within a multi threaded application, however I can't find subject on our specific problem.
We have a Windows Service that receives messages onto a queue via one thread and is then dequeued and processed within another.
We're using lock when queuing and dequeuing, and the service had run fine for around 2 years without any problems. One day we noticed that thousands of messages had been logged (and so had been queued) but were never dequeued/processed, they seem to have been skipped somehow, which shouldn't be possible for a queue.
We can't replicate the circumstances that caused it as we have no real idea what caused it considering that day was no different from any of the others as far as we're aware.
The only idea we have is to do with the concurrency of the queue. We're not using the ConcurrentQueue data-type, which we plan on using in the hope it is a remedy.
One idea, looking at the source of the Queue type, is that it uses arrays internally, which have to be resized once these buffers have reached a certain length. We hypothesised that when this is being done some of the messages were lost.
Another idea from our development manager is that using multiple threads on a multicore processor setup means that even though locks are used, the individual cores are working on the data in their local registers, which can cause them to be working on different data. He said they don't work on the same memory and seems to think lock only works as expected one a single core processor using multiple threads.
Reading more about ConcurrentQueue's use of volatile I'm not sure that this would help, as I've read that using lock provides a stronger guarantee of threads using the most up-to-date state of memory.
I don't have much knowledge on this specific subject, so my question is whether the manager's idea sounds plausible, and whether we might have missed something that's required for the queue to be used properly.
Code snippet for reference (forgive the messy code, it does need refactoring):
public sealed class Message
{
public void QueueMessage(long messageId, Message msg)
{
lock (_queueLock)
{
_queue.Enqueue(new QueuedMessage() { Id = messageId, Message = msg });
}
}
public static void QueueMessage(string queueProcessorName, long messageId, Message msg)
{
lock (_messageProcessors[queueProcessorName]._queueLock)
{
_messageProcessors[queueProcessorName].QueueMessage(messageId, msg);
_messageProcessors[queueProcessorName].WakeUp(); // Ensure the thread is awake
}
}
public void WakeUp()
{
lock(_monitor)
{
Monitor.Pulse(_monitor);
}
}
public void Process()
{
while (!_stop)
{
QueuedMessage currentMessage = null;
try
{
lock (_queueLock)
{
currentMessage = _queue.Dequeue();
}
}
catch(InvalidOperationException i)
{
// Nothing in the queue
}
while(currentMessage != null)
{
IContext context = new Context();
DAL.Message msg = null;
try
{
msg = context.Messages.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Id == currentMessage.Id);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// TODO: Handle these exceptions better. Possible infinite loop.
continue; // Keep retrying until it works
}
if (msg == null) {
// TODO: Log missing message
continue;
}
try
{
msg.Status = DAL.Message.ProcessingState.Processing;
context.Commit();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// TODO: Handle these exceptions better. Possible infinite loop.
continue; // Keep retrying until it works
}
bool result = false;
try {
Transformation.TransformManager mgr = Transformation.TransformManager.Instance();
Transformation.ITransform transform = mgr.GetTransform(currentMessage.Message.Type.Name, currentMessage.Message.Get("EVN:EventReasonCode"));
if (transform != null){
msg.BeginProcessing = DateTime.Now;
result = transform.Transform(currentMessage.Message);
msg.EndProcessing = DateTime.Now;
msg.Status = DAL.Message.ProcessingState.Complete;
}
else {
msg.Status = DAL.Message.ProcessingState.Failed;
}
context.Commit();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
try
{
context = new Context();
// TODO: Handle these exceptions better
Error err = context.Errors.Add(context.Errors.Create());
err.MessageId = currentMessage.Id;
if (currentMessage.Message != null)
{
err.EventReasonCode = currentMessage.Message.Get("EVN:EventReasonCode");
err.MessageType = currentMessage.Message.Type.Name;
}
else {
err.EventReasonCode = "Unknown";
err.MessageType = "Unknown";
}
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Exception occured\n");
int level = 0;
while (e != null && level < 10)
{
sb.Append("Message: ");
sb.Append(e.Message);
sb.Append("\nStack Trace: ");
sb.Append(e.StackTrace);
sb.Append("\n");
e = e.InnerException;
level++;
}
err.Text = sb.ToString();
}
catch (Exception ne) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Exception occured\n");
int level = 0;
while (ne != null && level < 10)
{
sb.Append("Message: ");
sb.Append(ne.Message);
sb.Append("\nStack Trace: ");
sb.Append(ne.StackTrace);
sb.Append("\n");
ne = ne.InnerException;
level++;
}
EventLog.WriteEntry("Service", sb.ToString(), EventLogEntryType.Error);
}
}
try
{
context.Commit();
lock (_queueLock)
{
currentMessage = _queue.Dequeue();
}
}
catch (InvalidOperationException e)
{
currentMessage = null; // No more messages in the queue
}
catch (Exception ne)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Exception occured\n");
int level = 0;
while (ne != null && level < 10)
{
sb.Append("Message: ");
sb.Append(ne.Message);
sb.Append("\nStack Trace: ");
sb.Append(ne.StackTrace);
sb.Append("\n");
ne = ne.InnerException;
level++;
}
EventLog.WriteEntry("Service", sb.ToString(), EventLogEntryType.Error);
}
}
lock (_monitor)
{
if (_stop) break;
Monitor.Wait(_monitor, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(_pollingInterval));
if (_stop) break;
}
}
}
private object _monitor = new object();
private int _pollingInterval = 10;
private volatile bool _stop = false;
private object _queueLock = new object();
private Queue<QueuedMessage> _queue = new Queue<QueuedMessage>();
private static IDictionary<string, Message> _messageProcessors = new Dictionary<string, Message>();
}

so my question is whether the manager's idea sounds plausible
Uhm. No. If all those synchronization measures would only work on single core machines, the world would have ended in complete Chaos decades ago.
and whether we might have missed something that's required for the queue to be used properly.
As far as your description goes, you should be fine. I would look at how you found out that you have that problem. logs coming in but then vanishing without being properly dequeued, wouldn't that be the default case if I simply turned off the service or rebooted the machine? Are you sure you lost them while your application was actually running?

You declare the object to be used for the lock as private object.
If you try this:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Test test1 = new Test();
Task Scan1 = Task.Run(() => test1.Run("1"));
Test test2 = new Test();
Task Scan2 = Task.Run(() => test2.Run("2"));
while(!Scan1.IsCompleted || !Scan2.IsCompleted)
{
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}
public class Test
{
private object _queueLock = new object();
public async Task Run(string val)
{
lock (_queueLock)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{val} locked");
Thread.Sleep(10000);
Console.WriteLine($"{val} unlocked");
}
}
}
You will notice that the code that lies under the lock is executed even if another thread is running inside.
But if you change
private object _queueLock = new object();
To
private static object _queueLock = new object();
It changes how your lock works.
Now, this being your issue depends on if you have multiple instances that class or everything is running withing that same class.

Answer and Hangup a call using TAPI3 C#

I'm stuck in TAPI programming. I've created a program to monitor activity of phone call. Everything is working fine, but now I want to implement a functionality to accept and reject a call from web directly.
what I've done is below:
namespace Shared
{
public partial class Site : System.Web.UI.MasterPage
{
public static ITAddress ln;
static int index = -1;
static int line;
static ITAddress[] ia;
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
#region TAPI
TAPIClass tobj;
int[] registertoken;
tobj = new TAPI3Lib.TAPIClass();
tobj.Initialize();
IEnumAddress ea = tobj.EnumerateAddresses();
uint lines;
uint arg3 = 0;
int TotalLines = 0;
lines = 0;
foreach (TAPI3Lib.ITAddress ad in (tobj.Addresses as TAPI3Lib.ITCollection))
{
TotalLines++;
}
callnotification cn = new callnotification();
tobj.ITTAPIEventNotification_Event_Event += new TAPI3Lib.ITTAPIEventNotification_EventEventHandler(cn.Event);
tobj.EventFilter = (int)(TAPI_EVENT.TE_CALLNOTIFICATION |
TAPI_EVENT.TE_DIGITEVENT |
TAPI_EVENT.TE_PHONEEVENT |
TAPI_EVENT.TE_CALLSTATE |
TAPI_EVENT.TE_GENERATEEVENT |
TAPI_EVENT.TE_GATHERDIGITS |
TAPI_EVENT.TE_REQUEST);
registertoken = new int[TotalLines];
ia = new TAPI3Lib.ITAddress[TotalLines];
for (int i = 0; i = 0)
{
ln = ia[line];
}
IEnumCall ec = ln.EnumerateCalls();
uint arg = 0;
ITCallInfo ici;
try
{
ec.Next(1, out ici, ref arg);
ITBasicCallControl2 bc = (TAPI3Lib.ITBasicCallControl2)ici;
if (ici != null && ici.CallState == CALL_STATE.CS_OFFERING)
{
if (bc != null)
{
bc.Answer();
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
COMException comEx = ex as COMException;
if (comEx != null)
comEx.ErrorCode.ToString();
else
{
string aa = ex.Message;
}
}
//addtolist("Call Offering from " + callernumber + " to Ext " + viaextension + " via DID " + DIDNumber);
break;
case TAPI3Lib.CALL_STATE.CS_IDLE:
//addtolist("Call is created!");
break;
}
break;
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//MessageBox.Show(ex.StackTrace.ToString());
}
}
}
#endregion
}
}
I'm always getting ITBasicCallControl2 bc NULL and when I press the Accept button, nothing happens.

Okay, so the first thing you have to do in order to successfully answer calls, is to register your line with owner rights.
tobj.RegisterCallNotifications(ln, true, true, TapiConstants.TAPIMEDIATYPE_AUDIO, 2);
After that, you can either iterate through every call using EnumerateCalls(), or you can implement the ITTAPIEventNotification interface to get notified if there is a change in callstate (for example).
One way or the other, at some point, you have found the call you want to answer. Now you need to make sure, that the call is in an alerting state (CS_OFFERING for inbound calls), before you can finally call the answer method.
try
{
ec.Next(1, out ici, ref arg);
if (ici != null && ici.CallState == CALL_STATE.CS_OFFERING)
{
ITBasicCallControl2 bc = (TAPI3Lib.ITBasicCallControl2)ici;
if (bc != null)
{
bc.Answer();
}
}
}
catch (Exception exp)
{
COMException comEx = exp as COMException;
if (comEx != null)
MessageBox.Show(comEx.ErrorCode.ToString());
else
MessageBox.Show(exp.Message);
}
If the call you want to answer is not in the callstate CS_CONNECTED, the method will throw a COMException with an error code of 0x800040010.
For further information on the ITTAPIEventNotification interface, see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms732506(v=vs.85).aspx
EDIT:
If you want to detect new incoming calls, I'd recommend to use the TE_CALLNOTIFICATION-Event, because it is triggered only once per new incoming call.
The TE_CALLSTATE-Event will be triggered every time the callstate changes.
Now, i've updated the callnotification class:
public class callnotification : TAPI3Lib.ITTAPIEventNotification
{
public InboundCall OnNewIncomingCall;
public void Event(TAPI_EVENT TapiEvent, object pEvent)
{
switch (TapiEvent)
{
case TAPI_EVENT.TE_CALLNOTIFICATION:
this.OnCallNotification((ITCallNotificationEvent)pEvent);
break;
}
}
private void OnCallNotification(ITCallNotificationEvent callNotification)
{
ITCallInfo ici = callNotification.Call;
if (ici != null && ici.CallState == CALL_STATE.CS_OFFERING)
this.OnNewIncomingCall(ici);
}
}
I've also declared a delegate Method to use if there is a new inbound call:
public delegate void InboundCall(ITCallInfo ici);
So your initialization of the callnotification event could look like this:
callnotification cn = new callnotification();
cn.OnNewIncomingCall += this.OnNewIncomingCall;
And finally, in the OnNewIncomingCallMethod, you can answer the call:
private void OnNewIncomingCall(ITCallInfo ici)
{
ITBasicCallControl bcc = (ITBasicCallControl)ici;
if (bcc != null)
{
string caller = ici.get_CallInfoString(CALLINFO_STRING.CIS_CALLERIDNUMBER);
DialogResult dlg = MessageBox.Show(string.Format("New incoming call from {0}\r\nDo you wish to answer the call now?", caller), "New incoming call", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Question);
if (dlg == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Yes)
bcc.Answer();
}
}
I've tested your code with the additions of mine and it worked fine. Should you be having any exceptions when answering or during the initialization, let me know.

File locking technique in thread synchronization scenario is failing

I was trying to write a class which let me do read and write operation on multiple files (like 5-10) while locking them from any kind of access. Everytime I access a file (doesn't matter if for read or write) a new file with the same name and a different extension is created, so other threads (belonging to different applications) are notified of the lock (ex. message.msg -> lock file message.lock created).
Every instance of the application will write in it's own file and read in all other applications files (including its).
Unfortunately, when I start several instances (like 3-4) of the application which uses this class, even if at first they look like they're working, then in a matter or seconds / maybe a couple of minutes it looks like one thread fails to release a file. This of course blocks the other threads too which are unable to read that specific file.
I say this because when everything app freezes I can see a permanent .lock file.
Of course I could put a Lock expire time (which probably would work in this scenario), but why is this happening?
To me this code looks reasonable, but of course I'm still a newbie...so...is there any mayor flaw in my ratio?
(Don't be scared by the length of this, they're only 2 functions and they do pretty much the same thing, except than for the central part)
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading;
namespace y3kMessenger
{
static class FileLockAccess
{
public static string[] readAllLines(string path)
{
bool isLocked = false;
string[] toReturn;
string lockPath = path.Replace(Global.msgExtension, Global.lockExtension);
StreamWriter w;
//locking ...
while (!isLocked)
{
if (!File.Exists(lockPath))
{
try
{
using (w = new StreamWriter(lockPath))
{
w.WriteLine(" ");
}
isLocked = true;
}
catch (Exception e) { }
}
Thread.Sleep(10);
}
//locked, proceed with read
toReturn = File.ReadAllLines(path);
//release the lock
while (isLocked)
{
try
{
File.Delete(lockPath);
}
catch (Exception e) { }
isLocked = false;
}
return toReturn;
}
public static void writeLine(string path, string text, bool append)
{
bool isLocked = false;
string lockPath = path.Replace(Global.msgExtension, Global.lockExtension);
StreamWriter w;
//locking ...
while (!isLocked)
{
if (!File.Exists(lockPath))
{
try
{
using (w = new StreamWriter(lockPath))
{
w.WriteLine(" ");
}
isLocked = true;
}
catch (Exception e) { }
}
Thread.Sleep(10);
}
//locked, proceed with write
using (w = new StreamWriter(path, append))
w.WriteLine(text);
//release the lock
while (isLocked)
{
try
{
File.Delete(lockPath);
}
catch (Exception e) { }
isLocked = false;
}
}
}
}
EDIT: as an add to the discussion, the following code seems to work:
public static string[] readAllLines(string path)
{
bool done = false;
string[] toReturn = null;
while (!done)
{
try
{
toReturn = File.ReadAllLines(path);
done = true;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Thread.Sleep(50);
}
}
return toReturn;
}
public static void writeLine(string path, string text, bool append)
{
bool done = false;
while (!done)
{
try
{
using (StreamWriter w = File.AppendText(path))
{
w.WriteLine(text);
}
done = true;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Thread.Sleep(50);
}
}
}
So the problem shouldn't reside in what threads are doing (I haven't changed anything else since the interface exposed by these methods is the same as the first 2)

IRCBot C# connection issues

I am having an issue with my IRC Bot I am trying to write in c# just as a way to help get my head around the IRC protocol, I am planning on writing a client/server in the future but as you can prolly guess I am far off this :P
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.IO;
namespace LolBot
{
struct IRCConfig
{
public string server;
public int port;
public string nick;
public string name;
}
class IRCBot
{
TcpClient IRCConnection = null;
IRCConfig config;
NetworkStream ns = null;
StreamReader sr = null;
StreamWriter sw = null;
public IRCBot(IRCConfig config)
{
this.config = config;
try
{
IRCConnection = new TcpClient(config.server, config.port);
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("Connection Error");
}
try
{
ns = IRCConnection.GetStream();
sr = new StreamReader(ns);
sw = new StreamWriter(ns);
sendData("USER", config.nick + config.name);
sendData("NICK", config.nick);
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("Communication error");
}
finally
{
if (sr != null)
sr.Close();
if (sw != null)
sw.Close();
if (ns != null)
ns.Close();
if (IRCConnection != null)
IRCConnection.Close();
}
}
public void sendData(string cmd, string param)
{
if (param == null)
{
sw.WriteLine(cmd);
sw.Flush();
Console.WriteLine(cmd);
}
else
{
sw.WriteLine(cmd + " " + param);
sw.Flush();
Console.WriteLine(cmd + " " + param);
}
}
public void IRCWork()
{
string[] ex;
string data;
bool shouldRun = true;
while (shouldRun)
{
data = sr.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine(data);
char[] charSeparator = new char[] { ' ' };
ex = data.Split(charSeparator, 5);
if (ex[0] == "PING")
{
sendData("PONG", ex[1]);
}
if (ex.Length > 4) //is the command received long enough to be a bot command?
{
string command = ex[3]; //grab the command sent
switch (command)
{
case ":!join":
sendData("JOIN", ex[4]); //if the command is !join send the "JOIN" command to the server with the parameters set by the user
break;
case ":!say":
sendData("PRIVMSG", ex[2] + " " + ex[4]); //if the command is !say, send a message to the chan (ex[2]) followed by the actual message (ex[4]).
break;
case ":!quit":
sendData("QUIT", ex[4]); //if the command is quit, send the QUIT command to the server with a quit message
shouldRun = false; //turn shouldRun to false - the server will stop sending us data so trying to read it will not work and result in an error. This stops the loop from running and we will close off the connections properly
break;
}
}
}
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
IRCConfig conf = new IRCConfig();
conf.name = "LolBot";
conf.nick = "LolBot";
conf.port = 6667;
conf.server = "irc.strictfp.com";
new IRCBot(conf);
Console.WriteLine("Bot quit/crashed");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Whenever I execute the Bot, it comes up with:
USER AspiBot google.com google.com :AspiBot
NICK AspiBot
Bot quit/crashed
I don't really understand why it is quiting before connecting to the server and I am also looking on how to set it up to join a channel, I am aware that I need to use JOIN but I'm not sure how to implent it.

You should probably not do so much in the constructor, but the problem you are encountering here is that you are not calling IRCWork() after newing up the bot.
var bot = new IRCBot(conf);
bot.IRCWork();
EDIT You are also closing all of your connections in the finally block of your constructor, so IRCWork() isn't going to work anyway. Try implementing IDisposable, and putting your close logic in Dispose():
using (var bot = new IRCBot(conf))
{
bot.IRCWork();
}
Quick refactor of posted code
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.IO;
namespace LolBot
{
internal struct IRCConfig
{
public string server;
public int port;
public string nick;
public string name;
}
internal class IRCBot : IDisposable
{
private TcpClient IRCConnection = null;
private IRCConfig config;
private NetworkStream ns = null;
private StreamReader sr = null;
private StreamWriter sw = null;
public IRCBot(IRCConfig config)
{
this.config = config;
}
public void Connect()
{
try
{
IRCConnection = new TcpClient(config.server, config.port);
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("Connection Error");
throw;
}
try
{
ns = IRCConnection.GetStream();
sr = new StreamReader(ns);
sw = new StreamWriter(ns);
sendData("USER", config.nick + config.name);
sendData("NICK", config.nick);
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("Communication error");
throw;
}
}
public void sendData(string cmd, string param)
{
if (param == null)
{
sw.WriteLine(cmd);
sw.Flush();
Console.WriteLine(cmd);
}
else
{
sw.WriteLine(cmd + " " + param);
sw.Flush();
Console.WriteLine(cmd + " " + param);
}
}
public void IRCWork()
{
string[] ex;
string data;
bool shouldRun = true;
while (shouldRun)
{
data = sr.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine(data);
char[] charSeparator = new char[] {' '};
ex = data.Split(charSeparator, 5);
if (ex[0] == "PING")
{
sendData("PONG", ex[1]);
}
if (ex.Length > 4) //is the command received long enough to be a bot command?
{
string command = ex[3]; //grab the command sent
switch (command)
{
case ":!join":
sendData("JOIN", ex[4]);
//if the command is !join send the "JOIN" command to the server with the parameters set by the user
break;
case ":!say":
sendData("PRIVMSG", ex[2] + " " + ex[4]);
//if the command is !say, send a message to the chan (ex[2]) followed by the actual message (ex[4]).
break;
case ":!quit":
sendData("QUIT", ex[4]);
//if the command is quit, send the QUIT command to the server with a quit message
shouldRun = false;
//turn shouldRun to false - the server will stop sending us data so trying to read it will not work and result in an error. This stops the loop from running and we will close off the connections properly
break;
}
}
}
}
public void Dispose()
{
if (sr != null)
sr.Close();
if (sw != null)
sw.Close();
if (ns != null)
ns.Close();
if (IRCConnection != null)
IRCConnection.Close();
}
}
internal class Program
{
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
IRCConfig conf = new IRCConfig();
conf.name = "LolBot";
conf.nick = "LolBot";
conf.port = 6667;
conf.server = "irc.strictfp.com";
using (var bot = new IRCBot(conf))
{
bot.Connect();
bot.IRCWork();
}
Console.WriteLine("Bot quit/crashed");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}