I am looking for a library for native C++ (library source code has to be gcc compatible and portable across Linux and Windows) that does what WCF does in its very basic form – i.e. OperationContracts and DataContracts in a client-server environment, with data exchanges in binary format (binary serialization).
Ideally I’d like to use a library to achieve this. So if there’s a library already available that compiles OperationContracts and DataContracts into rich C++ classes with metadata for reflection which can be consumed in our code and with client-server TCP communications built-in (i.e. a rudimentary implementation of WCF’s functionality without the need to be compatible with WCF at all), please point me to it.
If not, implementing them myself (unlikely due to time constraints), I could use boost::serialization for DataContracts but how would I implement OperationContracts?
I have found one that fits the purpose called “RCF” (Remote Call Framework) by Delta V Software. It’s open source (GPLv2 or US$195 closed source). So far in my testing, it’s working very well. According to the site, companies like HP, Ericsson and Siemens are users of the library.