1. Jim Fawcett CSE791 – Distributed Objects Spring 2002
.Net Remoting
Jim Fawcett
CSE791 – Distributed Objects
Spring 2002

2. Distributed Computing under .Net
In .Net, there are three levels of access to distributed computing machinery:
Low Level:
System.Net.Sockets
Intermediate Level
System.Runtime.InteropSerives
Access COM objects and Win32 API
System.Runtime.Remoting
Access channels and CLR activation
Channels based on TCP or HTTP over TCP
High Level
System.Web.Services
System.Web.UI
.Net Remoting

3. Distributed Computing under .Net
System.Net.Sockets
Provides low-level access to socket objects
You create listeners and send and receive just like we did in CSE691 – Software Modeling and Analysis
System.Runtime.Remoting
Provides access at a medium level of abstraction.
You create channels and proxies and do RPCs on remote objects
Data marshaling is much richer than under COM. You can send anything the CLR understands as long as it has a [serializable] attribute or derives from MarshalByRef.
Basically you just add those .Net identifiers and the CLR takes care of everything else.
.Net Remoting

4. Remoting .Net Libraries
System.Runtime.Remoting.Activation
Activate remote objects
System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels
Sets up channel sinks and sources for remote objects
System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.HTTP
Uses SOAP protocol to communicate with remote objects
System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.TCP
Uses binary transmission over sockets
System.Runtime.Remoting.Contexts
Set threading and security contexts for remoting
System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging
Classes to handle message passing through message sinks
System.Runtime.Remoting.Metadata
Customize HTTP SoapAction type output and XML Namespace URL
System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies
System.Runtime.Remoting.Services
.Net Remoting

5. Distributed Computing under .Net
System.Web.Services
Servers are hosted under IIS
Use HTTP-GET and HTTP-POST or higher level SOAP
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Wraps XML message in SOAP envelope (XML tags)
SOAP messages are interpreted by IIS and ASP
Typically use standard and/or custom COM components in ASP pages.
Active Server Pages (ASP) are XHTML pages with embedded server-side and client-side scripts that may access COM and C# objects for a significant part of their processing.
.Net Remoting

6. Web Related .Net Libraries
System.Web
System.Web.Hosting
Communicate with IIS and ISAPI run-time
System.Web.Mail
System.Web.Security
cookies, web authentication, Passport
System.Web.Services – close ties to ASP.NET
System.Web.Services.Description
System.Web.Services.Discovery
System.Web.Services.Protocol – raw HTTP and SOAP requests
System.Web.SessionState – maintain state between page requests
System.Web.UI – access to WebForms
.Net Remoting

7. Remoting Architecture
.Net Remoting uses System.Runtime.Remoting
It is built on processing that supports:
Channels
A channel is a socket-based communication mechanism that can use either basic TCP protocol or the higher HTTP layer.
Activation
Activation is basically the same process that the CLR uses to create local objects.
You just have to tell the CLR what object you want.
The CLR manages its lifetime and marshals data and references back and forth, using a channel.
.Net Remoting

8. Remoting Architecture
.Net Remoting

9. Basic .Net Remoting – Remote Object
First create a remote-able object:
Design an object to be invoked remotely, derived from MarshalByRef
Implement the class as a C# library – this creates a dll.
Any objects that you need to pass to that object need to be serializable.
The basic types like ints and strings already are serializable.
Your class objects need to have the [Serializable] attribute and contain only serializable data members.
Or they can derive from MarshalByRef.
.Net Remoting

10. Remoting Architecture
.Net Remoting

11. Basic .Net Remoting – the Server
Create a server:
Design a C# class, using a C# Console Application, or Empty Project in which you will create a WinForm.
In a member function – main will work:
Create a TcpServerChannel
Register the Channel with ChannelServices
Register the type of object clients want to use remotely by calling RegisterWellKnownServiceType
Then, block the main thread.
The object will be created by the CLR on its own thread and remote clients will access the object through the CLR.
You don’t have to write any server code to support this access – the CLR takes care of it for you.
Create a reference to the remote-able object’s assembly, build, and run the server.
.Net Remoting

12. Remoting Architecture
.Net Remoting

13. Basic .Net Remoting – the Client
Create a client:
Design a C# class, using a C# Console Application, or Empty Project in which you will create a WinForm.
In a member function – main will work:
Create a TcpServerChannel
Register the Channel with ChannelServices
Create a proxy to access the remote component. You do this by calling Activator.GetObject(…) and casting the result to the type of the remote object.
Note that both client and server need the assembly for the remote-able object.
Then, make calls on the remote object as needed.
You simply use the proxy as if it were the real object.
Create a reference to the remote-able object’s assembly, build, and run the client.
.Net Remoting

14. Remoting Architecture
.Net Remoting

15. Architecture for Project #3
The previous slides described a classic client/server configuration.
For Project #3 we need something a little more sophisticated.
In a classic client/server only the client initiates communication.
In Project #3 you will have to have the “server” make notifications back on the “client”.
I would create a reply function that works just like the server, described earlier, except that the thread does not block after setting up the channel, but instead returns.
I would create a request function that works just like the client, described earlier.
I would have my Main function call the reply function then, as needed, call the request function. Everything else is just servicing the user interface.
I would do this for both the “client” that subscribes to notifications, and the “server” that sends out directory change notifications.
.Net Remoting