Having a WCF service and a Consumer I'm not really sure how to handle the Open and Close methods and the lifetime of my Client.
I created the client myself extending and implementing ClientBase and IMyService. Let's call it MyServiceClient
One place I use it for example is MembershipProvider. So I gave MembershipProvider a MyClient as member variable.
I would like to have it instanced once in the MembershipProvider (via IoC container) and then perhaps do a Open and Close call inside every method call in the client.
public bool ValidateUser(string username, string password)
{
this.Open();
bool b = Channel.ValidateUser(username, password);
this.Close();
return b;
}
Is this the right way to go about it. I don't really understand what's really happening when open/close is called and how having one instance of client affects the service (if at all).
One of the problems with using a single client (WCF proxy) instance is that when a fault occurs the proxy enters a faulted state, and it cannot be reused or Dispose-d, only Abort-ed and created anew. On the other hand, if you use/require Sessions on the service side you need the same proxy instance across multiple calls.
In any case, if you would like to use proxy now and worry about transport, sessions or faults later I suggest a wrapper like this that I use for my WCF proxies:
TResult ExecuteServiceMethod<TResult>(Func<MyService, TResult> method)
{
var proxy = new MyService(); //...Or reuse an existing if not faulted
try
{
return method(proxy);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
//...Handle exceptions
}
finally
{
//...Per-call cleanup, for example proxy.Abort() if faulted...
}
}
and you call your service methods like this:
var result = ExecuteServiceMethod((MyService s) => s.VerifyUser(username, password));
Replace MyService with your actual client type. This way you can later change your opening/closing/reusing strategy, add logging, etc. for all service calls by adding code before or after the line return method(client).
Related
we have more than dozon of wcf services and being called using TCP binding. There are a lots of calls to same wcf service at various places in code.
AdminServiceClient client = FactoryS.AdminServiceClient();// it takes significant time. and
client.GetSomeThing(param1);
client.Close();
i want to cache the client or produce it from singleton. so that i can save some time, Is it possible?
Thx
Yes, this is possible. You can make the proxy object visible to the entire application, or wrap it in a singleton class for neatness (my preferred option). However, if you are going to reuse a proxy for a service, you will have to handle channel faults.
First create your singleton class / cache / global variable that holds an instance of the proxy (or proxies) that you want to reuse.
When you create the proxy, you need to subscribe to the Faulted event on the inner channel
proxyInstance.InnerChannel.Faulted += new EventHandler(ProxyFaulted);
and then put some reconnect code inside the ProxyFaulted event handler. The Faulted event will fire if the service drops, or the connection times out because it was idle. The faulted event will only fire if you have reliableSession enabled on your binding in the config file (if unspecified this defaults to enabled on the netTcpBinding).
Edit: If you don't want to keep your proxy channel open all the time, you will have to test the state of the channel before every time you use it, and recreate the proxy if it is faulted. Once the channel has faulted there is no option but to create a new one.
Edit2: The only real difference in load between keeping the channel open and closing it every time is a keep-alive packet being sent to the service and acknowledged every so often (which is what is behind your channel fault event). With 100 users I don't think this will be a problem.
The other option is to put your proxy creation inside a using block where it will be closed / disposed at the end of the block (which is considered bad practice). Closing the channel after a call may result in your application hanging because the service is not yet finished processing. In fact, even if your call to the service was async or the service contract for the method was one-way, the channel close code will block until the service is finished.
Here is a simple singleton class that should have the bare bones of what you need:
public static class SingletonProxy
{
private CupidClientServiceClient proxyInstance = null;
public CupidClientServiceClient ProxyInstance
{
get
{
if (proxyInstance == null)
{
AttemptToConnect();
}
return this.proxyInstance;
}
}
private void ProxyChannelFaulted(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bool connected = false;
while (!connected)
{
// you may want to put timer code around this, or
// other code to limit the number of retrys if
// the connection keeps failing
AttemptToConnect();
}
}
public bool AttemptToConnect()
{
// this whole process needs to be thread safe
lock (proxyInstance)
{
try
{
if (proxyInstance != null)
{
// deregister the event handler from the old instance
proxyInstance.InnerChannel.Faulted -= new EventHandler(ProxyChannelFaulted);
}
//(re)create the instance
proxyInstance = new CupidClientServiceClient();
// always open the connection
proxyInstance.Open();
// add the event handler for the new instance
// the client faulted is needed to be inserted here (after the open)
// because we don't want the service instance to keep faulting (throwing faulted event)
// as soon as the open function call.
proxyInstance.InnerChannel.Faulted += new EventHandler(ProxyChannelFaulted);
return true;
}
catch (EndpointNotFoundException)
{
// do something here (log, show user message etc.)
return false;
}
catch (TimeoutException)
{
// do something here (log, show user message etc.)
return false;
}
}
}
}
I hope that helps :)
In my experience, creating/closing the channel on a per call basis adds very little overhead. Take a look at this Stackoverflow question. It's not a Singleton question per se, but related to your issue. Typically you don't want to leave the channel open once you're finished with it.
I would encourage you to use a reusable ChannelFactory implementation if you're not already and see if you still are having performance problems.
I'm trying to find an elegant way to retry an operation when a WCF channel is in faulted state. I've tried using the Policy Injection AB to reconnect and retry the operation when a faulted state exception occurs on first call, but the PolicyInjection.Wrap method doesn't seem to like wrapping the TransparentProxy objects (proxy returned from ChannelFactory.CreateChannel).
Is there any other mechanism I could try or how could I try get the PIAB solution working correctly - any links, examples, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
Here is the code I was using that was failing:
var channelFactory = new ChannelFactory(endpointConfigurationName);
var proxy = channelFactory.CreateChannel(...);
proxy = PolicyInjection.Wrap<IService>(proxy);
Thank you.
I would rather use callback functions, something like this:
private SomeServiceClient proxy;
//This method invokes a service method and recreates the proxy if it's in a faulted state
private void TryInvoke(Action<SomeServiceClient> action)
{
try
{
action(this.proxy);
}
catch (FaultException fe)
{
if (proxy.State == CommunicationState.Faulted)
{
this.proxy.Abort();
this.proxy = new SomeServiceClient();
//Probably, there is a better way than recursion
TryInvoke(action);
}
}
}
//Any real method
private void Connect(Action<UserModel> callback)
{
TryInvoke(sc => callback(sc.Connect()));
}
And in your code you should call
ServiceProxy.Instance.Connect(user => MessageBox.Show(user.Name));
instead of
var user = ServiceProxy.Instance.Connect();
MessageBox.Show(user.Name);
Although my code uses proxy-class approach, you can write a similar code with Channels.
Thank you so much for your reply. What I ended up doing was creating a decorator type class that implemented the interface of my service, which then just wrapped the transparent proxy generated by the ChannelFactory. I was then able to use the Policy Injection Application Block to create a layer on top of this that would inject code into each operation call that would try the operation, and if a CommunicationObjectFaultedException occurred, would abort the channel, recreate it and retry the operation. It's working great now - although it works great, the only downside though is the wrapper class mentioned having to implement every service operation, but this was the only way I could use the PIAB as this made sense for me for in case I did find a way in future, it was easy enough to change just using interfaces.
I'm finding mixed answers to my question out in the web. To elaborate on the question:
Should I instantiate a service client proxy once per asynchronous invocation, or once per Silverlight app?
Should I close the service client proxy explicitly (as I do in my ASP.NET MVC application calling WCF services synchronously)?
I've found plenty of bloggers and forum posters out contradicting each other. Can anyone point to any definitive sources or evidence to answer this once and for all?
I've been using Silverlight with WCF since V2 (working with V4 now), and here's what I've found. In general, it works very well to open one client and just use that one client for all communications. And if you're not using the DuplexHttBinding, it also works fine to do just the opposite, to open a new connection each time and then close it when you're done. And because of how Microsoft has architected the WCF client in Silverlight, you're not going to see much performance difference between keeping one client open all the time vs. creating a new client with each request. (But if you're creating a new client with each request, make darned sure you're closing it as well.)
Now, if you're using the DuplexHttBinding, i.e., if you want to call methods on the client from the server, it's of course important that you don't close the client with each request. That's just common sense. However, what none of the documentation tells you, but which I've found to be absolutely critical, is that if you're using the DuplexHttBinding, you should only ever have one instance of the client open at once. Otherwise, you're going to run into all sorts of nasty timeout problems that are going to be really, really hard to troubleshoot. Your life will be dramatically easier if you just have one connection.
The way that I've enforced this in my own code is to run all my connections through a single static DataConnectionManager class that throws an Assert if I try to open a second connection before closing the first. A few snippets from that class:
private static int clientsOpen;
public static int ClientsOpen
{
get
{
return clientsOpen;
}
set
{
clientsOpen = value;
Debug.Assert(clientsOpen <= 1, "Bad things seem to happen when there's more than one open client.");
}
}
public static RoomServiceClient GetRoomServiceClient()
{
ClientsCreated++;
ClientsOpen++;
Logger.LogDebugMessage("Clients created: {0}; Clients open: {1}", ClientsCreated, ClientsOpen);
return new RoomServiceClient(GetDuplexHttpBinding(), GetDuplexHttpEndpoint());
}
public static void TryClientClose(RoomServiceClient client, bool waitForPendingCalls, Action<Exception> callback)
{
if (client != null && client.State != CommunicationState.Closed)
{
client.CloseCompleted += (sender, e) =>
{
ClientsClosed++;
ClientsOpen--;
Logger.LogDebugMessage("Clients closed: {0}; Clients open: {1}", ClientsClosed, ClientsOpen);
if (e.Error != null)
{
Logger.LogDebugMessage(e.Error.Message);
client.Abort();
}
closingIntentionally = false;
if (callback != null)
{
callback(e.Error);
}
};
closingIntentionally = true;
if (waitForPendingCalls)
{
WaitForPendingCalls(() => client.CloseAsync());
}
else
{
client.CloseAsync();
}
}
else
{
if (callback != null)
{
callback(null);
}
}
}
The annoying part, of course, is if you only have one connection, you need to trap for when that connection closes unintentionally and try to reopen it. And then you need to reinitialize all the callbacks that your different classes were registered to handle. It's not really all that difficult, but it's annoying to make sure it's done right. And of course, automated testing of that part is difficult if not impossible . . .
You should open your client per call and close it immediately after. If you in doubt browse using IE to a SVC file and look at the example they have there.
WCF have configuration settings that tells it how long it should wait for a call to return, my thinking is that when it does not complete in the allowed time the AsyncClose will close it. Therefore call client.AsyncClose().
In classic ASP.NET I’d persist data extracted from a web service in base class property as follows:
private string m_stringData;
public string _stringData
{ get {
if (m_stringData==null)
{
//fetch data from my web service
m_stringData = ws.FetchData()
}
return m_stringData;
}
}
This way I could simply make reference to _stringData and know that I’d always get the data I was after (maybe sometimes I’d use Session state as a store instead of a private member variable).
In Silverlight with a WCF I might choose to use Isolated Storage as my persistance mechanism, but the service call can't be done like this, because a WCF service has to be called asynchronously.
How can I both invoke the service call and retrieve the response in one method?
Thanks,
Mark
In your method, invoke the service call asynchronously and register a callback that sets a flag. After you have invoked the method, enter a busy/wait loop checking the flag periodically until the flag is set indicating that the data has been returned. The callback should set the backing field for your method and you should be able to return it as soon as you detect the flag has been set indicating success. You'll also need to be concerned about failure. If it's possible to get multiple calls to your method from different threads, you'll also need to use some locking to make your code thread-safe.
EDIT
Actually, the busy/wait loop is probably not the way to go if the web service supports BeginGetData/EndGetData semantics. I had a look at some of my code where I do something similar and I use WaitOne to simply wait on the async result and then retrieve it. If your web service doesn't support this then throw a Thread.Sleep -- say for 50-100ms -- in your wait loop to give time for other processes to execute.
Example from my code:
IAsyncResult asyncResult = null;
try
{
asyncResult = _webService.BeginGetData( searchCriteria, null, null );
if (asyncResult.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne( _timeOut, false ))
{
result = _webService.EndGetData( asyncResult );
}
}
catch (WebException e)
{
...log the error, clean up...
}
Thanks for your help tvanfosson. I followed your code and have also found a pseudo similar solution that meets my needs exactly using a lambda expression:
private string m_stringData;
public string _stringData{
get
{
//if we don't have a list of departments, fetch from WCF
if (m_stringData == null)
{
StringServiceClient client = new StringServiceClient();
client.GetStringCompleted +=
(sender, e) =>
{
m_stringData = e.Result;
};
client.GetStringAsync();
}
return m_stringData;
}
}
EDIT
Oops... actually this doesn't work either :-(
I ended up making the calls Asynchronously and altering my programming logic to use MVVM pattern and more binding.
I'm trying to implement a reconnect logic for a wcf client. I'm aware that you have to create a new channel after the current channel entered the faulted state. I did this in a channel faulted event handler:
internal class ServiceClient : DuplexClientBase, IServiceClient
{
public ServiceClient(ICallback callback, EndpointAddress serviceAddress)
: base(callback, MyUtility.GetServiceBinding("NetTcpBinding"), serviceAddress)
{
// Open the connection.
Open();
}
public void Register(string clientName)
{
// register to service
}
public void DoSomething()
{
// some code
}
}
public class ClientApp
{
private IServiceClient mServiceClient;
private ICallback mCallback;
public ClientApp()
{
mServiceClient = new ServiceClient( mCallback, new EndpointAddress("someAddress"));
mServiceClient.Register();
// register faulted event for the service client
((ICommunicationObject)mServiceClient).Faulted += new EventHandler(ServiceClient_Faulted);
}
void ServiceClient_Faulted(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Create new Service Client.
mServiceClient = new ServiceClient( mCallback, new EndpointAddress("someAddress"));
// Register the EI at Cell Controller
mServiceClient.Register();
}
public void DoSomething()
{
mServiceClient.DoSomething();
}
}
But in my unit test I still get a "The communication object, System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel, cannot be used for communication because it is in the Faulted state" exception.
Is it possible that the callback channel is still faulted and if yes how can I replace the callback channel?
so far I have experienced that a WCF connection needs to be recreated on fault - there doesn't seem to be a way to recover it otherwise. As for when a fault occurs, the method seems to fire fine, but often it fires and cleans up the WCF connection (establishing a new one, etc) as the current request is going through - causing this to fail - especially true on timeouts.
A couple of suggestions:
- If it is timeout related, keep track of the last time a call was made and a constant containing the timeout value. If the WCF connection will have been dropped due to inactivity, drop it and recreate it before you send the request over the wire.
- The other thing, it looks like you are not re-adding the fault handler, which means the first fault will get handled, but the second time it faults it will fall over without a handler cause no new one has been attached.
Hope this helps
Have you tried to reset the communications channel by calling mServiceClient.Abort in the Faulted event handler?
Edit:
I see that you do not reinitialize the mCallback object in your recovery code. You may need to assign it to a new instance.