Remoting Example: Dynamic Publication

.NET remoting supports only default constructors with server-activated remotable types. If you want to publish an object after creating it with some specific constructor and have complete control over the publication of that specific instance, you can publish your instance programmatically.

CAUTION   .NET remoting does not do authentication or encryption by default. Therefore, it is recommended that you take all necessary steps to make certain of the identity of clients or servers before interacting with them remotely. Because .NET remoting applications require FullTrust permissions to execute, if a unauthorized client were granted access on your server, the client could execute code as though it were fully trusted. Always authenticate your endpoints and encrypt the communication streams, either by hosting your remoted types in Internet Information Services (IIS), or by building a custom channel sink pair to do this work.

To compile and run this sample

1. Type the following commands at the command prompt:

   vbc -t:library remote.vb

   vbc -r:System.Runtime.Remoting.dll -r:remote.dll server.vb

   vbc -r:System.Runtime.Remoting.dll -r:remote.dll client.vb

2. Open two command prompts pointing to the same directory. In one, type server. In the other, type client.

To stop publishing the remotable object in stages, press ENTER at the server command prompt, and rerun the client to observe the different exceptions thrown for the different stages. This application runs on a single computer or across a network. If you want to run this application over a network, you must replace "localhost" in the client configuration with the name of the remote computer.

remote.vb

Imports System

Public Class ServiceClass
   Inherits MarshalByRefObject

   Private m_starttime As DateTime

   Public Sub New()
      Console.WriteLine("ServiceClass created without constructor. Instance hash is " & Me.GetHashCode().ToString())
      m_starttime = DateTime.Now
   End Sub   

   Overrides Protected Sub Finalize()
      Console.WriteLine("I'm being collected after " & (New TimeSpan(DateTime.Now.Ticks - m_starttime.Ticks)).ToString() & " seconds.")
      MyBase.Finalize()
   End Sub    

   Public Function GetServerTime() As DateTime
      Console.WriteLine("Time requested by a client.")
      Return DateTime.Now
   End Function   

   Public ReadOnly Property InstanceHash() As Integer
      Get
         Return Me.GetHashCode()
      End Get
   End Property 

End Class

Server.vb

Imports System
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http

Public Class ServerProcess
   <MTAThread()> _
   Public Shared Sub Main()

      Dim channel As New HttpChannel(8080)
      ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(channel)

      Dim object1 As New ServiceClass()

      ' Creates the single instance of ServiceClass. All clients
      ' will use this instance.
      Dim ref1 As ObjRef = RemotingServices.Marshal(object1, "object1uri")
      Console.WriteLine("ObjRef.URI: " & ref1.URI)

      Console.WriteLine("Running. Press Enter to end publication.")
      Console.ReadLine()

      ' This unregisters the object from publication, but leaves
      ' the channel listening.
      RemotingServices.Disconnect(object1)
      Console.WriteLine()
      Console.WriteLine("Disconnected the object. Client now receives a RemotingException.")
      Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to unregister the channel.")
      Console.ReadLine()
      ' At this point, the ServerClass object still exists. The server
      ' could republish it.

      ' This unregisters the channel, but leaves the application 
      ' domain running.
      ChannelServices.UnregisterChannel(channel)
      Console.WriteLine("Unregistered the channel. Client now receives a WebException.")
      ' The ServerClass object still exists. The server could
      ' reregister the channel and republish the object.
      Console.WriteLine("The host application domain is still running. Press Enter to stop the process.")
      Console.ReadLine()

      ' The ServiceClass object's Finalize method writes a message to
      ' the console. A single object will almost always succeed in 
      ' running its Finalize method before the Console is finalized;
      ' in a larger application, you could ensure that all objects 
      ' finalize before the application ends by calling the garbage 
      ' collector and waiting.
      GC.Collect()
      GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers()
   End Sub
   
End Class

Client.vb

Imports System 
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp
Imports System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http

Public Class ClientProcess
   <MTAThread()> _
   Public Shared Sub Main()
      
      Dim channel As New HttpChannel(0)
      ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(channel)

      ' Registers the remote class. (This could be done with a
      ' configuration file instead of a direct call.)
      RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownClientType(Type.GetType("ServiceClass, remote"), "https://localhost:8080/object1uri")

      ' Instead of creating a new object, this obtains a reference
      ' to the server's single instance of the ServiceClass object.
      Dim object1 As ServiceClass = New ServiceClass()

      Try
         Console.WriteLine("ServerTime: " & object1.GetServerTime())
      Catch ex As Exception
         Console.WriteLine("Exception of type: " & ex.GetType.ToString & " occurred.")
         Console.WriteLine("Details: " & ex.Message)
      End Try

   End Sub     ' Main
End Class   ' ClientProcess

See Also

Remoting Examples | RemotingServices.Marshal Method | RemotingServices.Disconnect Method | ChannelServices.UnregisterChannel Method