Library tutorials & articles

Using Interfaces In .NET Remoting

By David Talbot, published on 28 Feb 2002
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 and more. He has also provided technical guidance in different capacities on two C# books. David is currently finishing up work on a real estate analytics application in C# for Pathfinder Technologies and seeking additional contract or permenet work.
Page 1 of 4
  1. Introduction
  2. Implementation & Server Object
  3. Creating the Client
  4. Conclusion

Introduction

Abstract

.NET Remoting allows for a clean seperation between client side code and server side code through the use of interfaces. This allows a developer to distribute generic interfaces to client machines and change the server side code without having to redistribute the code changes back to the clients.

In this article, we will create a remote object and referance it only by interface. We will also create an interfaces DLL that both the client and server code use.

Step 1: Creating The Interface Library

Launch Visual Studio.NET, then choose File->New->Project. Choose to create a new "C# Library" and name it RemotingExampleInterfaces then click on OK. The purpose for this library is to declare the object interfaces that we will use on both the client and server side.

The code for this library is very simple, but a few notes need to be placed on the code below.

First, instead of declaring classes we are declaring interfaces. This tells the compiler that we're not actually creating a class, we are creating a "template" for a class. An interface defines what Methods the object should have as well as the parameters and return values for these methods. Note the ';' at the end of each method declaration instead of the '{}'s that would normally contain the method's implementation. The final thing to mention on interfaces as that they have no access modifiers such as public or private. That is defined by the class that we choose to implement our interface in.

using System;

namespace RemotingExampleInterfaces
{

	public interface IResume
	{
		String GetFormattedResume();
		String GetFormattedName();
	}

	public interface IRemotingExampleService
	{
		IResume GetResume();
		String GetFormattedResume();
	}
}

Choose Build from the Build menu to compile this DLL. The output will be placed in the bin/Debug subdirectory of you project directory.

AddThis

Related tags

.net

Comments

  1. Paul Leo Rayer
    24 May 2004 at 03:42

    Hi,


    I too have the same problem. Did you find any solution for that?


    Regards
    Paul

  2. asafsn
    28 May 2003 at 06:58

    Thanks again but I'm sorry to say I'm still not even in the stage you described in your reply of using a method of the remote object. I'm getting this exception in the following line:


    -----------------------------------VB Code------------------------------------------------------------
    Sub Main()


           ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(New HttpChannel())
           Dim factory As RemotingClientsInterfaces.IAccountantExamFactory   'this is the object Im tring to remote


           'this is the line where the excaption accure
           factory = CType(Activator.GetObject( _
                         Type.GetType("RemotingClientsInterfaces.IAccountantExamFactory"), _
                          "http://10.0.0.172:8080/IExamFactory"), RemotingClientsInterfaces.IAccountantExamFactory)


          .
          .
          .
    ---------------------------end of Code-------------------------------------------------------------------


    See anything suspicious ???



  3. James Crowley
    28 May 2003 at 06:44

    You may well find that is due to the use of the "Optional" keyword in VB.NET with a default value, rather than overloading the methods. Default values are not supported in C#. (... there are a few caveats when using different languages). So basically, when calling the VB.NET methods, ensure you provide all parameters including the "Optional" ones.

  4. asafsn
    28 May 2003 at 06:38

    thanks for the reply.


    Its time for me to be more specific.


    I wrote a server client application in C# using remoting
    and it worked. Then I replaced the client with another
    clients written in VB.NET and got an exception while trying to create the remote object:


    "An unhandled exception of
    type 'System.ArgumentNullException' occurred in
    mscorlib.dll
    Additional information: Value cannot be null."


    do you have any suggestions what so ever ???

  5. James Crowley
    28 May 2003 at 05:35

    I can certainly say that it is possible - the great thing with .NET is its ability to not care what .NET language you write any components in.... but I haven't got any examples, I'm afraid.

  6. asafsn
    28 May 2003 at 05:14

    Can I use remoting when the server is written in C# and the client in VB.NET ? If so does any one knows where I can find an example for this?


    My E-Mail: assaf@nipendo.com


    Thanks

  7. ghanshyam
    12 Nov 2002 at 16:57

    Well the article describes very well how to use .NET Remoting in your application.But does not give a good comparision with widely used remoting procedure i,e DCOM.
    Unless a developer get the comparision between two technologies he/she may not choose the new one.


    Ghanshyam.

  8. Troy
    08 Nov 2002 at 16:40

    Hello, I would like to remote an interface to a client-activated object.  This sample, and others I've seen assume a singleton/single-use object, which won't work for my application.  Or, is there no way to do CAO's with interfaces?  Help!  Thank you.

  9. Nazer Mohamed
    04 Sep 2002 at 04:31

    Hi,


    Can you please pass me the Client application source code for your article .Net Remoting. I think you forgot to upload in your site at http://www.developerfusion.com/show/2082/3/


    Can you please forward the source code to my e-mail ID @ r_nazermd@yahoo.com


    Thanks and Regards
    Nazer Mohamed

  10. tmcdaniel09
    25 Jun 2002 at 00:44

    Good article.  The client side code was missing until I went to the printer friendly version.  I ran the code and it worked as expected.  


    I have a couple of questions about interfaces.  Is it possible to initialize a type "such as byte [] array" within the main program and allow the interfaces to access that initialized type so that the clients could do something with it?  I thought that the use of interfaces would be a good tool for clients to use to get information from a server that is constantly polling external data.  The only examples that I have seen so far, show me that the main thread is completely separate from the interfaces.  Is this true?


    Thanks,


    Tom McDaniel

Leave a comment

Sign in or Join us (it's free).

Related articles

Ask a question

Related discussion

Related jobs

Events coming up

  • Oct 14

    What’s New in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1?

    Birmingham, United Kingdom

    “Service Pack? We’re calling it a Service Pack? Are you kidding??!?!” Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 will release later in 2008 alongside .NET Framework V3.5 Service Pack 1 and, together, they represent a significant upgrade to Visual Studio 2008. There are enhancements across many areas of the .NET Framework such as data access, windows application development and web development and there are also corresponding changes in the development environment to support the new framework features.