How to add extended information to a .Net Remoting call without adding new parameters on the calls?

Question

I am working with a large existing .Net Remoting service. This service needs to be modified in a way that all calls to the service need additional information to allow the service to process the calls correctly.

I would like to avoid adding a new parameter onto each of the existing functions, and would prefer to pass extended information from the client to the server in a way that leaves the interfaces unchanged and still allows the service to process the calls correctly.

Answer 1

This can be accomplished using the following interfaces: IClientChannelSink, IClientChannelSinkProvider, IServerChannelSink, and IServerChannelSinkProvider

Using these interfaces, a client sink can be created, which can add the new global information onto each call as a header value, and the server sink can pull this header value off, and store it for usage by the logic code.

You can find a high level overview of these at http://www.diranieh.com/NETRemoting/ExtendingNET.htm

The client config section to enable your client sink is:

<system.runtime.remoting>
  <application>
      <channels>
            <channel ref="tcp" port="0" encryption="EncryptAndSign">
              <clientProviders>
                  <provider 
                   type="Namespace.ClientSinkProvider, dll"/>
              </clientProviders>
          </channel>
      </channels>
  </application>
</system.runtime.remoting>

The server config section to enable your server sink is:

<system.runtime.remoting>
      <application>
          <channels>
               <channel ref="tcp" port="0" encryption="EncryptAndSign">
                         <serverProviders>
                              <provider 
                               type="Namespace.ServerSinkProvider, dll" />
                              </serverProviders>
              </channel>
          </channels>
      </application>
</system.runtime.remoting>