Advanced .NET Remoting

TechGuy949 writes ".NET Remoting is a technology that is often overlooked due to Microsoft's intense focus on promoting XML Web Services technology. In actual fact, .NET remoting is often a more appropriate solution than Web Services, and it certainly performs better and scales better when used properly. Ingo Rammer has written a technically sound, very informative book on .NET remoting technology, which is a good thing, given that there are still far too few titles available on this important technology." Read on for the rest of TechGuy949's review of Advanced .NET Remoting. Update: 10/23 17:28 GMT by T : Please note: the reviewer writes for Apress (publisher of this book); book reviewers are encouraged to read the book review guidelines linked below, and to disclose any such relationship. I regret not knowing this before the review ran. Advanced .NET Remoting author Ingo Rammer pages 404 publisher APress rating 8 reviewer TechGuy949 ISBN 1590590252 summary A two-part overview of .NET Remoting, from intro to advanced material.

My Overview and Summary Advanced .NET Remoting breaks out into a two-part book. The first four chapters are at the introductory level, while later chapters are considerably more advanced. The book begins with an informative conceptual discussion on what .NET remoting technology is, but then quickly moves on to more specifics, entirely focused on generous code examples (which actually work, barring one or two stray lines here and there, which I found easy to correct).

I picked up this title needing to get a solid introduction to .NET remoting, and the first part of this book does not disappoint. If you stop reading after the first four chapters (after spending time working on each and every code example). you will feel like you have a solid grasp of the basics of .NET remoting. However, you need to delve into the second part of the book to realize that .NET remoting is a deep and complex topic that is going to require considerable effort on your part to understand.

The second part of the book is not for the faint-hearted. The complexity level ratchets up several notches, and holds nothing back. It delves into advanced topics such as .NET remoting internals, including message sinks, channel sinks, formatters, and transport protocols, and shows you how to customize each part. Ingo's goal is for you to really understand how the .NET Framework implements remoting. The discussion here often borders on the theoretical, but it always stays grounded in relevant code examples.

Intermediate to advanced developers will greatly appreciate this book if they are looking for an in-depth, no holds barred discussion of .NET remoting.

What's in the Book Chapters 1-4 are an introduction to .NET remoting and configuration. Ingo starts with a conceptual discussion to help you understand how .NET remoting fits into the larger picture. He then presents a remoting example that provides an excellent introduction to the core aspects of remoting, including different types of remoting objects; marshalling objects by reference; serializing objects; and using interfaces to share type information. Chapter 4, on configuration, shows you how to use configuration files to simplify your remoting code, and to make it easier to port across different deployment environments.

Chapter 5 is about securing .NET remoting. This chapter was disappointingly short and did not provide enough depth. Also, some security implementation features have changed in v1.1 of the framework, so this section is not the most relevant one in the book. To his credit, Ingo has published a 1.1 update on his website that specifically addresses relevant changes to security implementation in the .NET framework.

Chapter 6 is where things start to get advanced. This chapter discusses object lifetime issues, and shows you how to control the lifetime of remotable objects, through "leasing" and "sponsorship." It also shows you how to implement asynchronous remoting calls using delegates and events. Chapter 6 is a must-read.

Chapter 7-10 is where things get really advanced. These chapters shows you how the .NET framework implements remoting, and it studies the 5 elements of remoting in great depth (Proxies, Messages, Message Sinks, Formatters and Transport Channels). This chapter is packed, and is a must-read for understanding advanced .NET remoting issues, especially when you need to heavily customize the implementation. Intermediate developers will have a harder time with these chapters, and may not find all of the material relevant to a basic .NET remoting implementation.

Chapter 11 closes out the book with an interesting look at how to implement .NET remoting techniques in a client application in order to manage the objects more effectively. Again, intermediate developers will have difficulty with this chapter, which is the most theoretical in the book. Advanced developers will appreciate it however, especially with Ingo's lead-in warning that 100% of the material in the chapter is undocumented by Microsoft!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Remoting
2. .NET Remoting Basics
3. Remoting in Action
4. Configuration and Deployment
5. Securing .NET Remoting
6. In-Depth .NET Remoting
7. Inside the Framework
8. Creation of Sinks
9. Extending .NET Remoting
10. Developing a Transport Channel
11. Context Matters

You can purchase Advanced .Net Remoting from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Re:This is a sleazy Advert

[xyzzy]

Well, he's not selling the book he's reviewing!!! I'm not sure I see the problem here. Authors of books in a particular field can't post a review of anything similar?

Re:This is a sleazy Advert

[nehril]

eh?? it's a decent review of the book in question (save for the fact that he never actually says wtf .NET Remoting is, or why anyone would be interested in knowing more about it.).

he doesn't mention the book he's selling in his user id link AT ALL. don't click on the user id links if you don't want to know what he has to say about himself (I sure as hell didn't.) by that standard your "fallenbit.com" link is a "sleazy infomercial advert"... only with no interest to anyone anywhere.

unbunch thy panties, please.