Ohad's Blog

Using Remoting IpcChannel in Framework 2.0

Using the new remoting IPC Channel is easy ! 

The remote object will look the same as before…. no changes at all…

On the server and client follow these steps :

1. Add a reference to System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Ipc
2. Add a using statement to System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Ipc
3. Replace your old TcpChannel objects with the new IpcChannel objects.
    When you declare an IpcChannel using IpcChannel("Server")
      you are actually creating a named pipe.
4. Point the client to where the named pipe is located :  "ipc://Server/RemotingServer"

If you were working with Config files… its all about changing them…
no need to even touch one line of code…
Check Daniel Moth blog (thanks Daniel)

I’ve left commented the old TcpChannel  decleration (in gray) just to point out that it isn’t a realy hard work to do.

Sample Code:
Sample Remote Object

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;

namespace RemotingSample
{
     public class RemoteObject : MarshalByRefObject
    {
        //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        ///constructor
        public RemoteObject()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Remote object activated");
        }
        //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        ///return message reply
        public String ReplyMessage(String msg)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Client : " + msg);//print given message on console
            return "Server : I'm alive !";
        }
    }
}

Sample Remote Server
using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
//using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Ipc;
namespace RemotingSample
{
    public class Server
    {
        /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        ///constructor
        public Server()
        {}
        /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        ///main method
        public static int Main(string[] args)
        {
            //select channel to communicate
            //TcpChannel chan = new TcpChannel(8085);
            IpcChannel chan = new IpcChannel("Server");
            //register channel
            ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(chan);
            //register remote object
            RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType(
                   Type.GetType("RemotingSample.RemoteObject,RemoteObject"),
                   "RemotingServer",
                   WellKnownObjectMode.SingleCall);
             //inform consol
             Console.WriteLine("Server Activated");
             Console.ReadLine();
             return 0;
         }
    }
}

Sample Remote Client
using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;
//using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Ipc;
using RemotingSample;
namespace RemotingSample
{
    public class Client
    {
        /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        ///constructor
        public Client()
        {}
        //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        ///main method
        public static int Main(string[] args)
        {
            //select channel to communicate with server
            //TcpChannel chan = new TcpChannel();
            IpcChannel chan = new IpcChannel("Client");
            ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(chan);
            RemoteObject remObject = (RemoteObject)Activator.GetObject(
                        typeof(RemotingSample.RemoteObject),
                        //"tcp://localhost:8085/RemotingServer");
                        "ipc://Server/RemotingServer");
            if (remObject == null)
                   Console.WriteLine("cannot locate server");
            else
                   remObject.ReplyMessage("You there?");
            return 0;
        }
    }
}