Parameters or Arguments in WCF service - wcf

A wcf service accessing an SQL database:
private void GetImagesDataFromDB(int imageIndex, int **extraParam**)
{
ServiceReference1.DbServiceClient webService =
new ServiceReference1.DbServiceClient();
webService.GetSeriesImagesCompleted += new EventHandler<ServiceReference1.GetSeriesImagesCompletedEventArgs>(webService_GetSeriesImagesCompleted);
webService.GetSeriesImagesAsync(imageIndex);
}
the GetImageSeriesCompleted EventHandler is here:
void webService_GetSeriesImagesCompleted(object sender,
TheApp.ServiceReference1.GetSeriesImagesCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Result != null)
{
if (**extraParam** == 1)
{
lstImages = e.Result.ToList();
}
else
{
// do something else
}
}
}
The service itself is like this:
public List<Image> GetSeriesImages(int SeriesId)
{
DataClassDataContext db = new DataClassDataContext();
var images = from s in db.Images
where s.SeriesID == SeriesId
select s;
return images.ToList();
}
What is the best way to pass the extraParam to the service completed EventHandler? I need this to direct my service return to a proper UI control.
Thanks.

You've probably figured this out by now, but the webService.GetSeriesImagesAsync() call has a second overload, namely, webService.GetSeriesImagesAsync(int seriesId, object userState). That second parameter will get passed into the callback as e.UserState. A good pattern is actually to pass a lambda callback as the userstate, and execute that in the webService_GetSeriesImagesCompleted() method.

Related

When calling a WCF RIA Service method using Invoke, does the return type affect when the Completed callback is executed?

I inherited a Silverlight 5 application. On the server side, it has a DomainContext (service) with a method marked as
[Invoke]
public void DoIt
{
do stuff for 10 seconds here
}
On the client side, it has a ViewModel method containing this:
var q = Context.DoIt(0);
var x=1; var y=2;
q.Completed += (a,b) => DoMore(x,y);
My 2 questions are
1) has DoIt already been activated by the time I attach q.Completed, and
2) does the return type (void) enter into the timing at all?
Now, I know there's another way to call DoIt, namely:
var q = Context.DoIt(0,myCallback);
This leads me to think the two ways of making the call are mutually exclusive.
Although DoIt() is executed on a remote computer, it is best to attach Completed event handler immediately. Otherwise, when the process completes, you might miss out on the callback.
You are correct. The two ways of calling DoIt are mutually exclusive.
If you have complicated logic, you may want to consider using the Bcl Async library. See this blog post.
Using async, your code will look like this:
// Note: you will need the OperationExtensions helper
public async void CallDoItAndDosomething()
{
this.BusyIndicator.IsBusy = true;
await context.DoIt(0).AsTask();
this.BusyIndicator.IsBusy = false;
}
public static class OperationExtensions
{
public static Task<T> AsTask<T>(this T operation)
where T : OperationBase
{
TaskCompletionSource<T> tcs =
new TaskCompletionSource<T>(operation.UserState);
operation.Completed += (sender, e) =>
{
if (operation.HasError && !operation.IsErrorHandled)
{
tcs.TrySetException(operation.Error);
operation.MarkErrorAsHandled();
}
else if (operation.IsCanceled)
{
tcs.TrySetCanceled();
}
else
{
tcs.TrySetResult(operation);
}
};
return tcs.Task;
}
}

Returning IQueryable but need Raven stats to insert TotalResults header

I have a WebApi method which returns an IQueryable of RavenDB documents. The caller needs to know the number of possible results (because the actual results are limited/paged).
So, I have something like this at the end of my WebApi method:
HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Total-Result-Count",
resultsStats.TotalResults.ToString())
Unfortunately, this won't work, because the IQueryable hasnt actually executed yet - so the stats will be empty.
How do I go about deferring the population of the stats response-header until AFTER the query has executed?
[UPDATE]
I attempted to apply an ActionFilter to capture the result after the controller action had executed... but it seems the ActionFilter is invoked BEFORE the IQueryable is actually enumerated...
public class CountQueryableResultsActionFilter : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuted(HttpActionExecutedContext filterContext)
{
var controllerStats = filterContext.ActionContext.ControllerContext.Controller as IControllerStatistics;
System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Total-Result-Count", controllerStats.TotalResults.ToString());
}
}
IF, I called "IQueryable.ToArray()" at the end of the WebApi method, then the Linq query gets executed immediately, it generates statistics, and everything works - but that will prevent the user from being able to apply their own OData filters etc...
Ok - I figured it out.
The following will result in only a single Raven query being issued, which returns both the result, and the result-count.
Thanks to David Ruttka for his experiments in this area. I have adapted his code to work with with RavenDb. This code will return the results, and the result-count through one database query, as RavenDB intended.
I have appended my code below - to use this, you must return IRavenQueryable<T> from your WebApi method (not IQueryable<T>). Then, appending $inlinecount=allpages to your Uri will invoke the handler. This code will not break the other OData query extensions ($take, $skip etc)
Note: This code uses the 'inline' technique, in that the statistics are returned in the message body - you could change the code to inject the stats in the header if you liked - I just chose to go with the standard way that OData works.
You could adapt this code to include any and all of the statistics that Raven generates.
Use the following code to register the handler with ASP.NET (in your Global.asax.cs)
RegistrationCode:
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.MessageHandlers.Add(new WebApi.Extensions.InlineRavenCountHandler());
Handler code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Net;
namespace WebApi.Extensions
{
public class InlineRavenCountHandler : DelegatingHandler
{
protected override Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
if (!ShouldInlineCount(request))
return base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken);
// Otherwise, we have a continuation to work our magic...
return base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken).ContinueWith(
t =>
{
var response = t.Result;
// Is this a response we can work with?
if (!ResponseIsValid(response)) return response;
var pagedResultsValue = this.GetValueFromObjectContent(response.Content);
Type queriedType;
// Can we find the underlying type of the results?
if (pagedResultsValue is IQueryable)
{
queriedType = ((IQueryable)pagedResultsValue).ElementType;
// we need to work with an instance of IRavenQueryable to support statistics
var genericQueryableType = typeof(Raven.Client.Linq.IRavenQueryable<>).MakeGenericType(queriedType);
if (genericQueryableType.IsInstanceOfType(pagedResultsValue))
{
Raven.Client.Linq.RavenQueryStatistics stats = null;
// register our statistics object with the Raven query provider.
// After the query executes, this object will contain the appropriate stats data
dynamic dynamicResults = pagedResultsValue;
dynamicResults.Statistics(out stats);
// Create the return object.
var resultsValueMethod =
this.GetType().GetMethod(
"CreateResultValue", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic).MakeGenericMethod(
new[] { queriedType });
// Create the result value with dynamic type
var resultValue = resultsValueMethod.Invoke(
this, new[] { stats, pagedResultsValue });
// Push the new content and return the response
response.Content = CreateObjectContent(
resultValue, response.Content.Headers.ContentType);
return response;
}
else
return response;
}
else
return response;
});
}
private bool ResponseIsValid(HttpResponseMessage response)
{
// Only do work if the response is OK
if (response == null || response.StatusCode != HttpStatusCode.OK) return false;
// Only do work if we are an ObjectContent
return response.Content is ObjectContent;
}
private bool ShouldInlineCount(HttpRequestMessage request)
{
var queryParams = request.RequestUri.ParseQueryString();
var inlinecount = queryParams["$inlinecount"];
return string.Compare(inlinecount, "allpages", true) == 0;
}
// Dynamically invoked for the T returned by the resulting ApiController
private ResultValue<T> CreateResultValue<T>(Raven.Client.Linq.RavenQueryStatistics stats, IQueryable<T> pagedResults)
{
var genericType = typeof(ResultValue<>);
var constructedType = genericType.MakeGenericType(new[] { typeof(T) });
var ctor = constructedType
.GetConstructors().First();
var instance = ctor.Invoke(null);
var resultsProperty = constructedType.GetProperty("Results");
resultsProperty.SetValue(instance, pagedResults.ToArray(), null);
var countProperty = constructedType.GetProperty("Count");
countProperty.SetValue(instance, stats.TotalResults, null);
return instance as ResultValue<T>;
}
// We need this because ObjectContent's Value property is internal
private object GetValueFromObjectContent(HttpContent content)
{
if (!(content is ObjectContent)) return null;
var valueProperty = typeof(ObjectContent).GetProperty("Value", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
if (valueProperty == null) return null;
return valueProperty.GetValue(content, null);
}
// We need this because ObjectContent's constructors are internal
private ObjectContent CreateObjectContent(object value, MediaTypeHeaderValue mthv)
{
if (value == null) return null;
var ctor = typeof(ObjectContent).GetConstructors(BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance).FirstOrDefault(
ci =>
{
var parameters = ci.GetParameters();
if (parameters.Length != 3) return false;
if (parameters[0].ParameterType != typeof(Type)) return false;
if (parameters[1].ParameterType != typeof(object)) return false;
if (parameters[2].ParameterType != typeof(MediaTypeHeaderValue)) return false;
return true;
});
if (ctor == null) return null;
return ctor.Invoke(new[] { value.GetType(), value, mthv }) as ObjectContent;
}
}
public class ResultValue<T>
{
public int Count { get; set; }
public T[] Results { get; set; }
}
}
You can wrap the IQueryable and intercept the GetEnumerator. A sample of this is for example here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alexj/archive/2010/03/01/tip-55-how-to-extend-an-iqueryable-by-wrapping-it.aspx. It does something a bit different but it should give you the idea.
Also - the caller can use $inlinecount=allpages in the URL to do this using the OData protocol. Although I'm not sure if WebAPI supports this query option yet.

MMVM Light Using WCF Asynchronously

What is a good practice to implement MMVM with WCF Services? The View model will be communicating with the service. So lets say in a view I have 3-4 data display modules. All this information for the modules is coming from different WCF Service calls.
If I do this synchronously, I have a feeling that the data in the view model will take time to load.
I want to do the calls for all these service methods asynchronously with out waiting for the first call to come back. What is good way of doing this?
I think the best way is to call the Service Asynchronously and then assign value on Complete method, like:
class TestViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
private ObservableCollection<string> data;
public ObservableCollection<string> Data
{
get { return data; }
set
{
if (value == data) return;
data = value;
RaisePropertyChanged("Data");
}
}
public TestViewModel()
{
GetDataClient proxy = new GetDataClient();
System.EventHandler<GetDataCompletedEventArgs> Client_GetDataCompleted = null;
Client_GetDataCompleted = (s, e) =>
{
if (e.Error == null && e.Result != null)
{
Data = new ObservableCollection<SelectionItem<string>>(e.Result));
}
proxy.GetDataCompleted -= Client_GetDataCompleted;
};
proxy.GetDataCompleted += Client_GetDataCompleted;
proxy.GetDataAsync();
}
}

WCF closing best practice

I read that the best practice for using WCF proxy would be:
YourClientProxy clientProxy = new YourClientProxy();
try
{
.. use your service
clientProxy.Close();
}
catch(FaultException)
{
clientProxy.Abort();
}
catch(CommunicationException)
{
clientProxy.Abort();
}
catch (TimeoutException)
{
clientProxy.Abort();
}
My problem is, after I allocate my proxy, I assign event handlers to it and also initialize other method using the proxy:
public void InitProxy()
{
sdksvc = new SdkServiceClient();
sdksvc.InitClusteringObjectCompleted += new EventHandler<InitClusteringObjectCompletedEventArgs>(sdksvc_InitClusteringObjectCompleted);
sdksvc.InitClusteringObjectAsync(Utils.DSN, Utils.USER,Utils.PASSWORD);
sdksvc.DoClusteringCompleted += new EventHandler<DoClusteringCompletedEventArgs>(sdksvc_DoClusteringCompleted);
sdksvc.CreateTablesCompleted += new EventHandler<CreateTablesCompletedEventArgs>(sdksvc_CreateTablesCompleted);
}
I now need to call the InitProxy() method each Time I use the proxy if I want to use it as best practice suggests.
Any ideas on how to avoid this?
There are several options. One option is to write a helper class as follows:
public class SvcClient : IDisposable {
public SvcClient(ICommunicationObject service) {
if( service == null ) {
throw ArgumentNullException("service");
}
_service = service;
// Add your event handlers here, e.g. using your example:
sdksvc = new SdkServiceClient();
sdksvc.InitClusteringObjectCompleted += new EventHandler<InitClusteringObjectCompletedEventArgs>(sdksvc_InitClusteringObjectCompleted);
sdksvc.InitClusteringObjectAsync(Utils.DSN, Utils.USER,Utils.PASSWORD);
sdksvc.DoClusteringCompleted += new EventHandler<DoClusteringCompletedEventArgs>(sdksvc_DoClusteringCompleted);
sdksvc.CreateTablesCompleted += new EventHandler<CreateTablesCompletedEventArgs>(sdksvc_CreateTablesCompleted);
}
public void Dispose() {
try {
if( _service.State == CommunicationState.Faulted ) {
_service.Abort();
}
}
finally {
_service.Close();
}
}
private readonly ICommunicationObject _service;
}
To use this class write the following:
var clientProxy = new YourClientProxy();
using(new SvcClient(clientProxy)) {
// use clientProxy as usual. No need to call Abort() and/or Close() here.
}
When the constructor for SvcClient is called it then sets up the SdkServiceClient instance as desired. Furthermore the SvcClient class cleans up the service client proxy as well aborting and/or closing the connection as needed regardless of how the control flow leaves the using-block.
I don't see how the ClientProxy and the InitProxy() are linked but if they are linked this strong I'd move the initialization of the ClientProxy to the InitProxy (or make a method that initializes both) so you can control both their lifespans from there.

How do you wait/join on a WCF Web Service called from Silverlight?

If you call a web service from Silverlight like this:
MyServiceClient serviceClient = new MyServiceClient();
void MyMethod()
{
serviceClient.GetDataCompleted += new EventHandler<GetDataCompletedEventArgs>(serviceClient_GetDataCompleted);
serviceClient.GetDataAsync();
// HOW DO I WAIT/JOIN HERE ON THE ASYNC CALL, RATHER THAN BEING FORCE TO LEAVE THIS METHOD?
}
I would rather wait/join with the asych service thread inside "MyMethod" rather than leaving "MyMethod" after calling "GetDataAsync", what is the best way to do this?
Thanks,
Jeff
No you cannot do this way. You will end up in a deadlock. GetDataCompleted is called by the mainthreed. The same threed thait is waiting in WaitOne.
I have to ask; why? The point is to provide your user with a fluid experience and waiting on a web service call will not necessarily do that. I suppose you want the full block of content to load before the Silverlight control loads. In that case, I would turn to caching the content rather than forcing the client to wait indefinitely.
To do this you would use a ManualResetEvent in your class (class level variable) and then wait on it.
void MyMethod()
{
wait = new ManualResetEvent(false);
// call your service
wait.WaitOne();
// finish working
}
and in your event handler code
void serviceClient_GetDataCompleted(...)
{
// Set values you need from service
wait.Set();
}
You could also use a lambda and closure to get similar behavior:
serviceClient.GetDataCompleted += (s,e) =>
{
// Your code here
};
serviceClient.GetDataAsync();
If you had a base class provide the mechanics of building a WCF channel, it could then be used to build the BeginX / EndX methods for a async call.
public class ServiceFooCoordinator : CoordinatorBase<IServiceFoo>
{
public IAsyncResult BeginMethodFoo ()
{
IAsyncResult ar = null;
IServiceFoo channel = null;
channel = _factory.GetChannel();
Begin( channel, () => ar = channel.BeginMethodFoo( null, channel ) );
return ar;
}
public Bar[] EndMethodFoo ( IAsyncResult ar )
{
IServiceFoo channel = null;
channel = _factory.GetChannel();
return channel.EndMethodFoo( ar );
}
}
Which can then be used in a method:
ServiceFooCoordinator _coordinator;
var asyncResult = _coordinator.BeginMethodFoo();
try
{
var result = _coordinator.EndMethodFoo( asyncResult );
}
catch ( Exception )
{ }
Which gets you your asynchronous call in a sychronous manner.