WebReference.com - Part 1 of Chapter 6: Professional C# Web Services, from Wrox Press Ltd (8/8)

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Professional C# Web Services

System.Runtime.Remoting Namespace

If we use configuration files, only one remoting call is necessary to read the configuration file and start the channel. The only class we used from the System.Runtime.Remoting namespace was Remoting Configuration. Instead of using configuration files the channel startup can be done programmatically. Before we do this let's get an overview of the classes that can be found in the remoting namespaces.

The System.Runtime.Remoting namespaces are contained in the assemblies mscorlib and System.Runtime.Remoting:

• In the namespace System.Runtime.Remoting some utility classes such as RemotingConfiguration and RemotingServices can be found. RemotingConfiguration is used to read configuration files and to get information about the registered channels; RemotingServices is used to publish remote objects.

• System.Runtime.Remoting.Activation: The channel uses the class RemotingDispatcher to dispatch method calls to the remote object. In this namespace, we can also find some interfaces for the activation of remote objects: IActivator, IConstructionCallMessage, and IConstructionReturnMessage.

• The namespace System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels has base classes for channels, and channel registration. An important class in this namespace is ChannelServices. This utility class can be used to register and to unregister a channel with the methods RegisterChannel() and UnRegisterChannel(), and it is also used to dispatch messages into a channel using SyncDispatchMessage() or AsyncDispatchMessage().

• With the .NETF we get two channel types: TCP and HTTP. The TCP channels can be found in the namespace System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp, where as the HTTP channels are in System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http. In the next chapter we will look into the differences between these channels.

• The System.Runtime.Remoting.Contexts namespace not only has classes for the context management inside an application domain, but also defines IContribute<XX> interfaces to intercept remoting calls.

• The lifetime of remote stateful objects is defined by a leasing mechanism. The namespace System.Runtime.Remoting.Lifetime defines the classes LifetimeServices and ClientSponsor, and the interfaces ISponsor and ILease.

• The namespace System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging defines some interfaces for messages, such as IMessage, IMethodCallMessage, and IMethodReturnMessage. Method calls are converted to messages that are passed between message sinks. Message sinks are interceptors that can change messages before they are passed into the channel.

• The soapsuds tool converts assembly metadata to WSDL. The classes that help with these actions can be found in the namespaces System.Runtime.Remoting.Metadata and System.Runtime.Remoting.MetadataServices. We will use the soapsuds tool in Chapter 9.

• The namespace System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies contains classes that control and provide proxies.

The classes in the System.Runtime.Remoting.Services namespace provide services to the remoting framework. The class EnterpriseServicesHelper provides remoting functionality for COM+ services, RemotingService can be used to access ASP.NET properties like Application, Session, and User for web services running in Internet Information Services. RemotingClientProxy is a base class for a proxy that is generated from the soapsuds utility, and TrackingServices provides a way to register tracking handlers.

Let's look in more detail at how to use the .NET Remoting architecture. [Continued in part 2. -Ed.]

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Created: February 13, 2002
Revised: February 13, 2002

URL: http://webreference.com/programming/csharp/webservices/chap6/1/8.html