How do I cast C++/CX runtime object to native C pointer type? - windows-phone-8.1

Question

I am doing a C++/CX runtime wrapper, and I need pass C++/CX Object pointer to native C. How do I do it, and convert the native pointer back to C++/CX Object reference type?
void XClassA::do(XClass ^ B)
{
void * ptr = (void*)(B); // how to convert it?
}
And also, C++/CX uses Reference Counting, if I cast the Object reference to native pointer, how do I manage the pointer life cycle?
update (request from #Hans Passant)
Background of the question,
Native C
I am trying to use C++/CX wrap Native C library (not C++) as Windows Runtime Component. Native c has many callback functions which declared as the following,
for example,
//declare in native c
typedef int (GetData*)(void *, char* arg1, size_t arg2);
void * is a pointer to object instance.
and the callback will be executed in native c during runtime.
We expect Application(C#/C++CX ...) to implement the method.
WinRT wrapper (C++/CX)
my idea is the following,
(1) Provide interface to Application
// XRtWrapperNamespace
public interface class XWinRtDataWrapper
{
//declare in base class
void getData(IVector<byte> ^ data);
}
to let Application implement the function. As I cannot export native data type, I provide IVector to get data from Application.
(2) Declare a global callback function to convert IVector<byte>^ to native data type char *, like following,
// when Native C executes callback function,
// it will forward in the method in C++/CX.
// The method calls the implementation method via object pointer.
// (And here is my my question)
void XRtWrapperNamespace::callbackWrapper(void * ptr, char *, int length)
{
// create Vector to save "out" data
auto data = ref new Vector<byte>();
// I expect I could call the implementation from Application.
ptr->getData(data); // bad example.
// convert IVector data to char *
// ...
}
My question is
How do I keep windows object reference to native C?
It looks impossible, but any solution to do it?
Application (example)
//Application
public ref class XAppData: public XWinRtDataWrapper
{
public:
virtual void getData(IVector<byte> ^ data)
{
//implementation here
}
}

Answer 1

You are not on the right track. I'll assume you #include a c header in your component:
extern "C" {
#include "native.h"
}
And this header contains:
typedef int (* GetData)(void* buffer, int buflen);
void initialize(GetData callback);
Where the initialize() function must be called to initialize the C code, setting the callback function pointer. And that you want the client code to directly write into buffer whose allocated size is buflen. Some sort of error indication would be useful, as well as allowing the client code to specify how many bytes it actually wrote into the buffer. Thus the int return value.
The equivalent of function pointers in WinRT are delegates. So you'll want to declare one that matches your C function pointer in functionality. In your .cpp file write:
using namespace Platform;
namespace YourNamespace {
public delegate int GetDataDelegate(WriteOnlyArray<byte>^ buffer);
// More here...
}
There are two basic ways to let the client code use the delegate. You can add a method that lets the client set the delegate, equivalent to way initialize() works. Or you can raise an event, the more WinRT-centric way. I'll use an event. Note that instancing is an issue, their is no decent mapping from having multiple component objects to a single C function pointer. I'll gloss this over by declaring the event static. Writing the ref class declaration:
public ref class MyComponent sealed
{
public:
MyComponent();
static event GetDataDelegate^ GetData;
private:
static int GetDataImpl(void* buffer, int buflen);
};
The class constructor needs to initialize the C code:
MyComponent::MyComponent() {
initialize(GetDataImpl);
}
And we need the little adapter method that makes the C callback raise the event so the client code can fill the buffer:
int MyComponent::GetDataImpl(void* buffer, int buflen) {
return GetData(ArrayReference<byte>((byte*)buffer, buflen));
}