Programming .NET Components, 2nd Edition

Building a Distributed Application

Finally, after so many definitions and abstractions, it’s time to put it all to use and see how to build a server, a host app domain to host the server object, and a client application to consume the remote object. Both the host and the client application need to indicate to .NET how they intend to use remoting. The host needs to register with .NET the channels and formats on which it’s willing to accept remote calls, the remote types it’s willing to export, their activation modes, and their URIs (if applicable). The client application needs to register with .NET the types it wants to access remotely, and any channels to be used for callbacks. There are two ways to achieve all this: programmatically and administratively. If you use programmatic configuration, you gain maximum flexibility because at any time you can change the activation modes, object locations, and channels used. Both the client and the host can use programmatic configuration. If you use administrative configuration, you save your remoting settings in a configuration file. Both the client and the server can use administrative configuration. You can also mix and match (i.e., have some settings in the configuration files and programmatically configure others), although normally you use one or the other of these methods, not both at the same time. Administrative configuration lets you change the settings and affect the way your distributed application behaves, even after deployment; ...