Library tutorials & articles

Introducing .NET Remoting

Creating the shared library

Click on File->New->Project. Choose to create a new "C# Library" and name it ResumeServerLibrary then click on OK. This will create the "shared vocabulary" that both our .NET Remote client and Server will use to communicate.

The full code is below, if you would like to skip the database access portions, replace the ResumeLoader object with:

public class ResumeLoader : System.MarshalByRefObject
{

	public ResumeLoader()
	{
		System.Console.WriteLine("New Referance Added!");
	}

	public Resume GetResumeByUserID(decimal userID)
	{
		return new Resume(1);
	}
}

The namespaces required for the object. Please remember, if you're getting errors that the System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp namespace does not exist, make sure you added the referance to System.Runtime.Remoting.dll by going to Project->Add Referance.

using System;
using System.Runtime;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

The namespace we're using for this particular object is DotNetRemoteTest, the object below is a MarshalByRefObject which means that instead of passing ResumeLoader over the wire, we're creating a referance and all of the work including the database work happens completely on the server side.

namespace DotNetRemoteTest
{

	public class ResumeLoader : System.MarshalByRefObject
	{
		private SqlConnection dbConnection;

		public ResumeLoader()
		{
			this.dbConnection = new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection();
			this.dbConnection.ConnectionString =
		"data source=GRIMSAADO2K;initial catalog=underground;integrated security=SSPI;pers" +
				"ist security info=True;workstation id=GRIMSAADO2K;packet size=4096";
/*Your connection string will be different. Database connections are beyond the scope of this article
 *If you do not know how to create a database connection, please use the alternate version of this object */
			System.Console.WriteLine("New Referance Added!");
		}

		public Resume GetResumeByUserID(decimal userID)
		{
			Resume resume = new Resume();
			try 
			{
				dbConnection.Open();
				SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(
	"SELECT ResumeID, UserID, Title, Body FROM Resume as theResume WHERE theResume.UserID="+ userID +""
	, dbConnection
				);
				SqlDataReader aReader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
				if(aReader.Read())
				{
					resume.ResumeID=aReader.GetDecimal(0);
					resume.UserID=aReader.GetDecimal(1);
					resume.Title=aReader.GetString(2);
					resume.Body=aReader.GetString(3);
				}
				aReader.Close();
				dbConnection.Close();
			} 
			catch(Exception x) { resume.Title="Error:"+x; }
			return resume;
		}
	}

The Resume object needs to be serializable in order to be a return type of a remotely referanced .NET Remote object. The reason for this is the object will have to be turned into raw data to be passed over the network, then re-assembled into an object again on the other end.

This object is extremely simple, and to add to the simplicity of this tutorial, the constructor even initializes the fields with some default content.

	[Serializable]
	public class Resume
	{
		private decimal resumeID, userID;
		private String body, title;

		public Resume(decimal resumeID)
		{
			this.ResumeID=resumeID;
			this.UserID=1;
			this.Body="This is the default body of the resume";
			this.Title="This is the default Title";
		}

		public decimal ResumeID
		{
			get	{ return resumeID; }
			set { this.resumeID=value; }
		}
		public decimal UserID
		{
			get	{ return userID; }
			set { this.userID=value; }
		}
		public String Body
		{
			get	{ return body; }
			set
			{
				this.body=value;
			}
		}
		public String Title
		{
			get	{ return title; }
			set
			{ this.title=value; }
		}

	}//END OF RESUME OBJECT

}//END OF DotNetRemoteTest namespace

Compile this project and you should have a DLL avaiable now to be added to your other assemblies.

Comments

  1. 06 Dec 2005 at 13:00

    forget that last post ...

    I found it in my code ... non-application test code I threw in on the quick ... cause the StackOverflow.
  2. 05 Dec 2005 at 22:17

    Hey, did you ever find out what your problem was?

    I got the same error on a completely different project.

    Same M.O. ...

    ... unhandled exception of type 'System.StackOverflowException' occurred in mscorlib.dll
    during the first call to the object that was returned from the "Activator.GetObject()" call.
  3. 16 Aug 2005 at 06:45

    I encountered the following error message when running the ResumeClient.exe:


    " An unhandled exception of type 'System.StackOverflowException' occurred in mscorlib.dll "


    at the following line of code:


    Resume resume = loader.GetResumeByUserID(1); ;


    but I was able to observe the "New Reference Added!" string on the console of the ResumeSuperServer.  


    Could I safely assume that I already have "loader" as an object of "ResumeLoader", but I failed to obtain "resume" as an object of "Resume" ?

  4. 25 May 2004 at 08:20

    I was looking for a Remoting Sample for beginners for weeks and this was the first that made absolute sense to me. If you are a person with an average IQ like myself, and want to understand the basics of remoting implimentation, this is the tutorial for you!!


    Thanks David for making learning Remoting easy and fun!!




  5. 30 Jan 2004 at 12:11

    I've been looking for a way to implement a cross application boundary component in C# .NET for most of this week. This looks like it will suit my needs perfectly. Thanks.

  6. 27 Feb 2002 at 13:47

    Thanks for pointing this out. I'll update the tutorial

  7. 17 Jan 2002 at 19:48
    I noticed some typo's when playing around with this. (Note I did not use the SQL example since I wanted a very simple example)

    change
       ResumeLoader loader = (ResumeLoader)Activator.GetObject(
           typeof(ResumeServer), "tcp://localhost:9932/ResumeLoader");

       if(rs==null)

    to
       ResumeLoader loader = (ResumeLoader)Activator.GetObject(
           typeof(ResumeLoader), "tcp://localhost:9932/ResumeLoader");

       if(loader==null)


    Note the typeof() change and the change of the test item.

    Hope that is right (I would hate to have typos in my post fixing typos)
  8. 01 Jan 1999 at 00:00

    This thread is for discussions of Introducing .NET Remoting.

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David Talbot David Talbot is an experienced Software Architect with a diverse background including creating network applicances, working with television set top boxes, building Billing/CRM systems, Web Portals ...
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