I'm working on a Delphi wrapper for the Googledocs api using Delphi XE2. I generated all the classes using the XML Data Binding Wizard. This is a lot easier to explain using code, so here is the function my test calls.
function TGoogleDocsApi.GetEntries : IXMLEntryTypeList;
var
httpHelper : IHttpHelper;
xml, url : string;
xmlDoc : TXmlDocument;
ss : TStringStream;
feed : IXmlFeedType;
begin
ss := TStringStream.Create;
httpHelper := THttpHelper.Create;
if(fToken.IsExpired) then
fToken.Refresh(fClientId,fClientSecret);
url := BaseUrl + 'feeds/default/private/full?showfolders=true&access_token='+fToken.AccessToken+'&v=3';
xml := httpHelper.GetResponse(url);
ss.WriteString(xml);
ss.Position := 0;
xmlDoc := TXmlDocument.Create(nil);
xmlDoc.LoadFromStream(ss);
feed := GoogleData2.Getfeed(xmlDoc);
Result := feed.Entry;
end;
Now, at the point that 'end' is hit, Result.ChildNodes has an address in memory and it's count is 20. IXMLEntryTypeList is a child interface of IXMLNodeCollection.
Now here is my test:
procedure TestIGoogleDocsApi.TestGetEntries;
var
ReturnValue: IXMLEntryTypeList;
begin
ReturnValue := FIGoogleDocsApi.GetEntries;
if(ReturnValue = nil) then
fail('Return value cannot be nil');
if(ReturnValue.ChildNodes.Count = 0) then
fail('ChildNodes count cannot be 0');
end;
On the second if statement, I get an access violation saying "Access violation at address 0061A55C in module 'GoogleDocsApiTests.exe'. Read of address 00000049" and when I look at my watches for ReturnValue and ReturnValue.ChildNodes, I see that ReturnValue has the same address as Result did in the TGoogleDocsApi.GetEntries method, but it gives me the access violation on the watch for ReturnValue.ChildNodes and in the TGoogleDocsApi.GetEntires method, Result.ChildNodes has a valid address and its properties are filled out.
To me it looks like Delphi is releasing the ChildNodes property somewhere along the line, but that doesn't make sense to me since ReturnValue should still be referencing it which (I think) should keep it around.
Any ideas what might be going on?
You're calling TXMLDocument.Create with an Owner of nil. That means its lifetime is controlled via interface reference counting. In order for that to work, you need to actually use interfaces. Change xmlDoc's type to IXMLDocument to maintain a reference, or else something internal to the VCL will free it when you're not expecting it.
Related
I'm trying to create a simple example of using IFileOperation to delete the files in a
given directory, to include in the answer to another q for comparison with other methods.
Below is the code of my MRE. It
successfully creates 1000 files in a subdirectory off C:\Temp and then attempts to delete
them in the DeleteFiles method. This supposedly "easy" task fails but I'm not sure
exactly where it comes off the rails. The comments in the code show what I'm expecting
and the actual results. On one occasion, instead of the exception noted, I got a pop-up
asking for confirmation to delete an item with an odd name which was evidently an array of
numbers referring to a shell item, but my attempt to capture it using Ctrl-C failed;
I'm fairly sure I'm either missing a step or two, misusing the interfaces involved
or both. My q is, could anybody please show the necessary corrections to the code to get IFileOperation.DeleteItems() to delete the files in question, as I am completely out of my depth with this stuff? I am not interested in alternative methods of deleting these files, using the shell interfaces or otherwise.
procedure TForm2.DeleteFiles;
var
iFileOp: IFileOperation;
iIDList : ItemIDList;
iItemArray : IShellItemArray;
iArray : Array[0..1] of ItemIDList;
Count : DWord;
begin
iFileOp := CreateComObject(CLSID_FileOperation) as IFileOperation;
iIDList := ILCreateFromPath(sPath)^;
// IFileOperation.DeleteItems seems to require am IShellItemArray, so the following attempts
// to create one
// The definition of SHCreateShellItemArrayFromIDLists
// seems to require a a zero-terminated array of ItemIDLists so the next steps
// attempt to create one
ZeroMemory(#iArray, SizeOf(iArray));
iArray[0] := iIDList;
OleCheck(SHCreateShellItemArrayFromIDLists(1, #iArray, iItemArray));
// Next test the number of items in iItemArray, which I'm expecting to be 1000
// seeing as the CreateFiles routine creats that many
OleCheck(iItemArray.GetCount(Count));
Caption := IntToStr(Count); // Duh, this shows Count to be 1, not the expected 1000
OleCheck(iFileOp.DeleteItems(iItemArray));
OleCheck( iFileOp.PerformOperations );
// Returns Exception 'No object for moniker'
end;
procedure TForm2.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
DeleteFiles;
end;
procedure CreateFiles;
var
i : Integer;
SL : TStringList;
FileName,
FileContent : String;
begin
SL := TStringList.Create;
try
if not (DirectoryExists(sPath)) then
MkDir(sPath);
SL.BeginUpdate;
for i := 0 to 999 do begin
FileName := Format('File%d.Txt', [i]);
FileContent := Format('content of file %s', [FileName]);
SL.Text := FileContent;
SL.SaveToFile(sPath + '\' + FileName);
end;
SL.EndUpdate;
finally
SL.Free;
end;
end;
procedure TForm2.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
CreateFiles;
end;
You are leaking the memory returned by ILCreateFromPath(), you need to call ILFree() when you are done using the returned PItemIDList.
Also, you should not be dereferencing the PItemIDList. SHCreateShellItemArrayFromIDLists() expects an array of PItemIDList pointers, but you are giving it an array of ItemIDList instances.
Try this instead:
procedure TForm2.DeleteFiles;
var
iFileOp: IFileOperation;
iIDList : PItemIDList;
iItemArray : IShellItemArray;
Count : DWord;
begin
iFileOp := CreateComObject(CLSID_FileOperation) as IFileOperation;
iIDList := ILCreateFromPath(sPath);
try
OleCheck(SHCreateShellItemArrayFromIDLists(1, #iIDList, iItemArray));
finally
ILFree(iIDList);
end;
// Next test the number of items in iItemArray, which I'm expecting to be 1000
// seeing as the CreateFiles routine creates that many
OleCheck(iItemArray.GetCount(Count));
Caption := IntToStr(Count); // Duh, this shows Count to be 1, not the expected 1000
OleCheck(iFileOp.DeleteItems(iItemArray));
OleCheck( iFileOp.PerformOperations );
// Returns Exception 'No object for moniker'
end;
That being said, even if this were working correctly, you are not creating an IShellItemArray containing 1000 IShellItems for the individual files. You are creating an IShellItemArray containing 1 IShellItem for the C:\Temp subdirectory itself.
Which is fine if your goal is to delete the whole folder. But in that case, I would suggest using SHCreateItemFromIDList() or SHCreateItemFromParsingName() instead, and then pass that IShellItem to IFileOperation.DeleteItem().
But, if your goal is to delete the individual files without deleting the subdirectory as well, then you will have to either:
get the IShellFolder interface for the subdirectory, then enumerate the relative PIDLs of its files using IShellFolder.EnumObjects(), and then pass the PIDLs in an array to SHCreateShellItemArray().
get the IShellFolder interface of the subdirectory, then query it for an IDataObject interface using IShellFolder.GetUIObjectOf(), and then use SHCreateShellItemArrayFromDataObject(), or just give the IDataObject directly to IFileOperation.DeleteItems().
get an IShellItem interface for the subdirectory, then query its IEnumShellItems interface using IShellItem.BindToHandler(), and then pass that directly to IFileOperation.DeleteItems().
I assume that it is possible to get the complete path of the unit (not just the name) at runtime, since when I generate an error, Delphi already has this stored information:
try
Assert (False, '#');
except
on E: EAssertionFailed from
begin
ShowMessage (E.Message); // this show me the path
end;
end;
Would anyone know if there is any function that returns me the path of a specific unit, or something similar?
The complete path of the unit as it was on the machine that compiled the project is only possible using Assert. However personally I don't find that information incredibly useful unless you have many units with the same name in different folders or lost control over your source repository and and library paths in effect when compiling.
To get the unit name you can turn on map file or debug information (aka TD32) and do the following:
Use the FileByLevel function from JclDebug - in your case with the default value (0).
The level parameter tells the function how many calls it look up the callstack. If you put that method into a FormCreate of a VCL form for example and pass 1 it will give you Vcl.Forms.pas as the event handler was called from there.
I hesitate to write this answer as it shows a really dirty hack to get the unit name making use of the Assert compiler magic shown above.
Use the following unit:
unit UnitNameHack;
interface
const
cUnitNameSentinel = '$$$sentinel$$$';
var
HackUnitname: string = '';
implementation
var
OrgAssertErrorProc: TAssertErrorProc = nil;
procedure MyAssertErrorProc(const Message, Filename: string; LineNumber: Integer; ErrorAddr: Pointer);
begin
if Message = cUnitNameSentinel then begin
HackUnitname:= Filename;
end
else begin
OrgAssertErrorProc(Message, Filename, LineNumber, ErrorAddr);
end;
end;
initialization
OrgAssertErrorProc := AssertErrorProc;
AssertErrorProc := MyAssertErrorProc;
finalization
AssertErrorProc := OrgAssertErrorProc;
end.
Now whenever you need the unit name call
Assert(False, cUnitNameSentinel);
and retrieve the unit name from HackUnitname.
Note that you cannot wrap the Assert call and reading HackUnitName into a function, not even if inlined.
You've said, something similar. I see that it might have been in a different context, but anyway, for objects you can inspect UnitName or UnitScope to get the name of the module where the object instance was declared, without the module path (which is not valuable information anyway).
Based on Uwe Raabe's answer:
// directly after the implementation uses:
var
ThisUnit: string = '<unknown>';
procedure MyAssertErrorProc(const Message, Filename: string; LineNumber: Integer; ErrorAddr: Pointer);
begin
ThisUnit := Filename;
end;
procedure InitThisUnit;
var
OrgAssertErrorProc: TAssertErrorProc;
begin
OrgAssertErrorProc := AssertErrorProc;
try
AssertErrorProc := MyAssertErrorProc;
Assert(False);
finally
AssertErrorProc := OrgAssertErrorProc;
end;
end;
// [...]
// call InitThisUnit in the initialization section
initialization
InitThisUnit;
end.
It's still a hack, but a bit more elegant. ;-)
We would like to share an ADOConnection across a DLL boundary (Delphi to Delphi at the moment, though could also be C# to Delphi in the near future).
As we would like the flexibility to call the DLL from c# in future, we were hoping to be able to define the DLL call using _Connection as a parameter. Something like:
procedure DoStuff (ADOConnection: _Connection)
var
InnerConnection: TADOConnection;
begin
InnerConnection := TADOConnection.create(nil);
try
InnerConnection.ConnectionObject := ADOConnection;
DoMoreStuff(InnerConnection);
finally
InnerConnection.free;
end;
end;
Unfortunately, the TADOConnection destructor code closes the connection passed into it, which is an unwanted side-effect. Adding
InnerConnection.ConnectionObject := nil
prior to the free doesn't do anything, as it's caught by
if Assigned(Value) = nil
in TADOConnection.SetConnectionObject, which results in the call not doing anything.
Is there a better way of achieving this? Passing the connection string is an alternative, but would mean that we would have to deal with username/password issues and encryption across the boundary. Passing the TADOConnection is another option, but that prevents calling from other languages.
Edit: For clarity, the Username/Password of the original TADOConnection object is set using the .Open routine, so these details aren't in the connection string (in fact, the wrong username is usually stored, as it's the name used to 'test connection' in the MS UDL editor)
You can try this way:
type TInit_StFattDLL = procedure( var DataBase:TAdoConnection);
var Init_StFattDLL:TInit_StFattDll;
The caller is:
Function ConnectDll():Boolean;
var
handleDll:THandle;
begin
handleDll := LoadLibrary('mydll.DLL');
#Init_StFattDLL := GetProcAddress(handleDll , 'myConnectFunction');
if #Init_StFattDLL <> nil then
begin
Init_StFattDLL(ADOConnection1);
result:=true;
end
else
result:=false;
end;
into the the dll put the following:
in the project file put the exports:
Exports myConnectFunction;
global section:
var Database:TAdoConnection;
the exported procedure is the following:
procedure myConnectFunction( var MyDataBase:TAdoConnection);export;
begin
Database:=MyDataBase;
end
I have list of pointers to some complex records. Sometimes when I try disposing them I get invalid pointer operation error. I'm not really sure if I'm creating and disposing them properly.
The record looks like this:
type
PFILEDATA = ^TFILEDATA;
TFILEDATA = record
Description80: TFileType80; // that's array[0..80] of WideChar
pFullPath: PVeryLongPath; // this is pointer to array of WideChar
pNext: PFILEDATA; // this is pointer to the next TFILEDATA record
end;
As I understand when I want a pointer to such record I need to initialize the pointer and the dynamic arrays like this:
function GimmeNewData(): PFILEDATA;
begin
New(Result);
New(Result^.pFullPath);
end;
Now to dispose of series of these records I wrote this:
procedure DisposeData(var pData: PFILEDATA);
var pNextData: PFILEDATA;
begin
while pData^.pNext <> nil do begin
pNextData := pData^.pNext; // Save pointer to the next record
Finalize(pData^.pFullPath); // Free dynamic array
Dispose(pData); // Free the record
pData := pNextData;
end;
Finalize(pData^.pFullPath);
Dispose(pData);
pData := nil;
end;
When I run my program in the debug mode (F9) in the Delphi 2010 IDE something weird happens. When I step trough DisposeData code with F8 it appears that program skips Finalize(pData^.pFullPath) line and jumps to Dispose(pData). Is this normal? Also when Dispose(pData) is executed the Local variables window that displays contents of the pointers does not change. Does this mean that dispose fails?
Edit:
PVeryLongPath is:
type
TVeryLongPath = array of WideChar;
PVeryLongPath = ^TVeryLongPath;
Edit2
So I create 2 TFILEDATA records then I dispose them. Then I create the same 2 records again. For some reason this time pNext in the second record is not nil. It points to the 1st record. Disposing this weird thing gets invalid pointer operation error.
Randomly I have inserted pData^.pNext := nil in the DisposeData procedure.
Now the code looks like this:
procedure DisposeData(var pData: PFILEDATA);
var pNextData: PFILEDATA;
begin
while pData <> nil do begin
pNextData := pData^.pNext;
pData^.pNext := nil; // <----
Dispose(pData^.pFullPath);
Dispose(pData);
pData := pNextData;
end;
end;
The error is gone.
I'll try to change PVeryLongPath into TVeryLongPath.
First, if you free something, the contents of pointers to it do not change. That is why you don't see a change in the local variables display.
EDIT: declare pFullPath as TVeryLongPath. This is a reference type already, and you should not use a pointer to such a type. New() doesn't do what you think it does, in such a case.
It would probably be better if you declared it as UnicodeString, or if your Delphi doesn't have that, WideString.
If pFullPath is declared as a dynamic "array of WideChar", then you should not use New() on it. For dynamic arrays, use SetLength() and nothing else. Dispose() will properly dispose of all items in your record, so just do:
New(Result);
SetLength(Result^.pFullPath, size_you_need);
and later:
Dispose(pData);
In normal code, you should never have to call Finalize(). This is all taken care of by Dispose, as long as you pass a pointer of the correct type to Dispose().
FWIW, I would recommend this and this article of mine.
The fact that you accepted Serg's answer indicates that there is something wrong with your node creation code. Your comment to that answer confirms that.
I'm adding this as a new answer because the edits to the question significantly change it.
Linked list code should look like this:
var
Head: PNode=nil;
//this may be a global variable, or better, a field in a class,
//in which case it would be initialized to nil on creation
function AddNode(var Head: PNode): PNode;
begin
New(Result);
Result.Next := Head;
Head := Result;
end;
Notice that we are adding the node to the head of the list. We don't need to initialize Next to nil anywhere because we always assign another node pointer to Next. That rule is important.
I've written this as a function which returns the new node. Since the new node is always added at the head this is somewhat redundant. Because you can ignore function return values it doesn't really do any harm.
Sometimes you may want to initialize the contents of the node when you add new nodes. For example:
function AddNode(var Head: PNode; const Caption: string): PNode;
begin
New(Result);
Result.Caption := Caption;
Result.Next := Head;
Head := Result;
end;
I much prefer this approach. Always make sure that your fields are initialized. If zero initialization is fine for you then you can use AllocMem to create your node.
Here's a more concrete example of using such a method:
type
PNode = ^TNode;
TNode = record
Caption: string;
Next: PNode;
end;
procedure PopulateList(Items: TStrings);
var
Item: string;
begin
for Item in Items do
AddNode(Head, Item);
end;
To destroy the list the code runs like this:
procedure DestroyList(var Head: PNode);
var
Next: PNode;
begin
while Assigned(Head) do begin
Next := Head.Next;
Dispose(Head);
Head := Next;
end;
end;
You can clearly see that this method can only return when Head is nil.
If you encapsulate your linked list in a class then you can make the head pointer a member of the class and avoid the need to pass it around.
The main point I would like to make is that manual memory allocation code is delicate. It is easy to make little mistakes in the details. In situations like that it pays to put the delicate code in helper functions or methods so you only need to write it once. Linked lists are a great example of a problem that loves to be solved with generics. You can write the memory management code once and re-use it for all sorts of different node types.
I recommend that you avoid using a dynamic array of WideChar which is not at all convenient to work with. Instead use string if you have Delphi 2009 or later, or WideString for earlier Delphi versions. Both of these are dynamic string types with WideChar elements. You can assign to them and Delphi deals with all the allocation.
So, assuming that you now have the following record:
TFILEDATA = record
Description80: TFileType80;
pFullPath: WideString;
pNext: PFILEDATA;
end;
you can simplify things considerably.
function GimmeNewData(): PFILEDATA;
begin
New(Result);
end;
procedure DisposeData(var pData: PFILEDATA);
var pNextData: PFILEDATA;
begin
while pData <> nil do begin
pNextData := pData^.pNext;
Dispose(pData);
pData := pNextData;
end;
end;
You should also initialize pNext field to nil - without it you will finally get access violation. Taking into account what was already said in the previous answers, you can change your code as
type
TFileType80 = array[0..80] of WideChar;
PFILEDATA = ^TFILEDATA;
TFILEDATA = record
Description80: TFileType80;
FullPath: WideString;
pNext: PFILEDATA;
end;
function GimmeNewData: PFILEDATA;
begin
New(Result);
Result^.pNext:= nil;
end;
I think most of your problems are caused by the assumption that New() gives you memory that is zeroed out. I'm pretty sure (and I'm also sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), but Delphi does not guarantee that that is the case. This can be rectified by changing your code to this:
function GimmeNewData(): PFILEDATA;
begin
New(Result);
ZeroMemory(Result, SizeOf(TFILEDATA));
end;
You should always either zero the memory you get allocated for a record, or at least fill all the fields with something else relevant. This behavior is different to objects, which are guaranteed to be zeroed on allocation.
Hope this helps.
I wrote Delphi debug visualizer for TDataSet to display values of current row, source + screenshot: http://delphi.netcode.cz/text/tdataset-debug-visualizer.aspx . Working good, but very slow. I did some optimalization (how to get fieldnames) but still for only 20 fields takes 10 seconds to show - very bad.
Main problem seems to be slow IOTAThread90.Evaluate used by main code shown below, this procedure cost most of time, line with ** about 80% time. FExpression is name of TDataset in code.
procedure TDataSetViewerFrame.mFillData;
var
iCount: Integer;
I: Integer;
// sw: TStopwatch;
s: string;
begin
// sw := TStopwatch.StartNew;
iCount := StrToIntDef(Evaluate(FExpression+'.Fields.Count'), 0);
for I := 0 to iCount - 1 do
begin
s:= s + Format('%s.Fields[%d].FieldName+'',''+', [FExpression, I]);
// FFields.Add(Evaluate(Format('%s.Fields[%d].FieldName', [FExpression, I])));
FValues.Add(Evaluate(Format('%s.Fields[%d].Value', [FExpression, I]))); //**
end;
if s<> '' then
Delete(s, length(s)-4, 5);
s := Evaluate(s);
s:= Copy(s, 2, Length(s) -2);
FFields.CommaText := s;
{ sw.Stop;
s := sw.Elapsed;
Application.MessageBox(Pchar(s), '');}
end;
Now I have no idea how to improve performance.
That Evaluate needs to do a surprising amount of work. The compiler needs to compile it, resolving symbols to memory addresses, while evaluating properties may cause functions to be called, which needs the debugger to copy the arguments across into the debugee, set up a stack frame, invoke the function to be called, collect the results - and this involves pausing and resuming the debugee.
I can only suggest trying to pack more work into the Evaluate call. I'm not 100% sure how the interaction between the debugger and the evaluator (which is part of the compiler) works for these visualizers, but batching up as much work as possible may help. Try building up a more complicated expression before calling Evaluate after the loop. You may need to use some escaping or delimiting convention to unpack the results. For example, imagine what an expression that built the list of field values and returned them as a comma separated string would look like - but you would need to escape commas in the values themselves.
Because Delphi is a different process than your debugged exe, you cannot direct use the memory pointers of your exe, so you need to use ".Evaluate" for everything.
You can use 2 different approaches:
Add special debug dump function into executable, which does all value retrieving in one call
Inject special dll into exe with does the same as 1 (more hacking etc)
I got option 1 working, 2 should also be possible but a little bit more complicated and "ugly" because of hacking tactics...
With code below (just add to dpr) you can use:
Result := 'Dump=' + Evaluate('TObjectDumper.SpecialDump(' + FExpression + ')');
Demo code of option 1, change it for your TDataset (maybe make CSV string of all values?):
unit Unit1;
interface
type
TObjectDumper = class
public
class function SpecialDump(aObj: TObject): string;
end;
implementation
class function TObjectDumper.SpecialDump(aObj: TObject): string;
begin
Result := '';
if aObj <> nil then
Result := 'Special dump: ' + aObj.Classname;
end;
initialization
//dummy call, just to ensure it is linked c.q. used by compiler
TObjectDumper.SpecialDump(nil);
end.
Edit: in case someone is interested: I got option 2 working too (bpl injection)
I have not had a chance to play with the debug visualizers yet, so I do not know if this work, but have you tried using Evaluate() to convert FExpression into its actual memory address? If you can do that, then type-cast that memory address to a TDataSet pointer and use its properties normally without going through additional Evaluate() calls. For example:
procedure TDataSetViewerFrame.mFillData;
var
DS: TDataSet;
I: Integer;
// sw: TStopwatch;
begin
// sw := TStopwatch.StartNew;
DS := TDataSet(StrToInt(Evaluate(FExpression)); // this line may need tweaking
for I := 0 to DS.Fields.Count - 1 do
begin
with DS.Fields[I] do begin
FFields.Add(FieldName);
FValues.Add(VarToStr(Value));
end;
end;
{
sw.Stop;
s := sw.Elapsed;
Application.MessageBox(Pchar(s), '');
}
end;