Communications with a Pipeline server is accomplished with the use of TCP sockets. There are 3 parts of the total packet structure.

• The first 4 bytes of a packet specify the size of the header section.
  • [0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01] -> header has 1 byte
  • [0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00] -> header has 256 bytes
• The PipelinePacketHeader
• The PipelinePacketAttachment

EstablishPipelineConnection describes the process in which a connection with a Pipeline server is established.

Once the connection (and associated encryption) has been established, messages are communicated using Pipeline packets. In every packet, the following info is required:

• User login and password (every packet is authenticated)
• ... anything more?

PipelineConnectionPackets lists the packets used to communicate messages.

Note: The Pipeline currently uses its own packet structure, which is very SOAP-like. Migration of this packet structure to SOAP will be completed shortly.

To enable the Pipeline to make use of external protocols, see ImplementingAdditionalConnectionProtocols.

-- MichaelJPan - 22 Mar 2005