C# Discussion Boards - CodeProject

17-Apr-07 4:16

Hi.

I'm new to .NET, and I'm writing a logging service that uses .NET remoting. The idea is that the service publishes an EventProcessor object that clients can access via .NET Remoting, passing it DiagnosticEvent objects for processing.

I've altered the main program for the service slightly so that I can run it more easily as a "regular" application during debugging. I have an assembly that contains the "diagnostics" classes that do the work, the service app itself, and a test client app that lets you create a DiagnosticEvent and "dispatch" it.

The problem is that I'm getting errors telling me that the DiagnosticEvent object which I'm passing to the remote object is "not marked for serialization" -- even though it is. When I try adding a function that takes a TestObject, expecting the same error, I then get an exception about "unable to load for deserialization."

I'm clearly missing something basic.

One more little hitch is that I've been wrestling with static initialization of the remote object. It's a singleton class, and it seems that I get messed up if the server application instantiates the class before remote applications get a chance to. But perhaps that's for another post.

Can someone help me clear up my serialization issues? Here's some of the code:

The object I'm passing to the remote object is declared as:
[Serializable]
public class DiagnosticEvent : ISimObject
{ . . . }

...and so is my TestObject:
[Serializable]
public class TestObject
{
public int m_Int;
public string m_String;
}

Here's the code where the remote object is served up:

private static TcpChannel Publish()
{
TcpChannel channel = null;

if (channel == null)
{
// Create an instance of a channel
channel = new TcpChannel(8080);
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(channel, false);
}

// Register as an available service with the name GEDiag
RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType(
typeof(GESim.Diagnostics.EventProcessor),
"GEDiag",
WellKnownObjectMode.Singleton);

return channel;
}

Here's the code where the client connects to the remote object:

private void ConnectToEventProcessor()
{
// Create a channel for communicating w/ a remote object
// Notice no port is specified -- because we're the client.
if (null == s_Channel)
{
s_Channel = new TcpChannel();
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(s_Channel, false);
}

if (null == m_RemoteEventProcessor)
{
// Create an instance of the remote object
m_RemoteEventProcessor =
(EventProcessor)Activator.GetObject(
typeof(EventProcessor),
"tcp://T00472343:8080/GEDiag");
}
}

...and finally, the code where the remote object is exercised -- both with a TestObject and with the actual DiagnosticEvent object. Neither work, for different reasons:

TestObject testObject = new TestObject();
testObject.m_Int = 45;
testObject.m_String = "Testing 123...";

int i = m_RemoteEventProcessor.Test(testObject);

m_RemoteEventProcessor.EnqueueEvent(theEvent);

I'd be happy to send the solution (I've scultped it down to something minimal).

Thanks, in advance.

Just Mike

Pete O'Hanlon17-Apr-07 4:52

Pete O'Hanlon

17-Apr-07 4:52

Your problem could be that one of the properties/fields in your DiagnosticEvent class isn't marked as serializable.

Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

mmfranke17-Apr-07 5:12

17-Apr-07 5:12

Hmmm. Well, I've used serialization before, and I've always only declared the class itself. Also, I just tried tagging member variables, and even accessors, with [Serializable] and it won't compile. Am I understanding you correctly?

Pete O'Hanlon17-Apr-07 5:20

Pete O'Hanlon

17-Apr-07 5:20

Not quite - but you are on the right lines. If one of the fields/properties is not inherently serializable then you can't serialize that class (without explicitly marking the field as not serializable).

Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

mmfranke17-Apr-07 5:50

17-Apr-07 5:50

OK, now I'm quite confused. I understand that one can mark certain members as "nonserialized." But I didn't think I had to mark members at all if I do want them serialized. In fact, when I try to, I get: " Attribute 'System.Serializable' is not valid on this declaration type. It is valid on 'class, struct, enum, delegate' declarations only."

What do you mean by "inherently serializable," then?

Here's my entire DiagnosticEvent class (stripped of comments and such):

<br />
using System;<br />
using System.Collections.Generic;<br />
using System.Text;<br />
using System.Runtime.Remoting;<br />
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;<br />
using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;<br />
using GESim.Core;<br />
<br />
namespace GESim.Diagnostics<br />
{<br />
    [Serializable]<br />
    public class TestObject<br />
    {<br />
        public int m_Int;<br />
        public string m_String;<br />
    }<br />
<br />
    public enum Severity { <br />
        UNDEFINED       = 0,<br />
        INFORMATIONAL   = 1,<br />
        WARNING         = 2,<br />
        NONFATAL_ERROR  = 3,<br />
        FATAL_ERROR     = 4 }; <br />
<br />
    [Serializable]<br />
    public class DiagnosticEvent : ISimObject<br />
    {<br />
        private bool m_IsDebug = false;<br />
        private Severity m_Severity = Severity.UNDEFINED;<br />
        private DateTime m_CreationTime = DateTime.Now;<br />
        private string m_Message = string.Empty;<br />
<br />
        public DiagnosticEvent(Severity severity)<br />
        {<br />
            m_Severity = severity;<br />
        }<br />
<br />
        public DiagnosticEvent(string message, Severity severity)<br />
        {<br />
            m_Message = message;<br />
            m_Severity = severity;<br />
        }<br />
<br />
        public DiagnosticEvent(string message, Severity severity, bool isDebug)<br />
        {<br />
            m_Message = message;<br />
            m_Severity = severity;<br />
            m_IsDebug = isDebug;<br />
        }<br />
<br />
        public bool IsDebug<br />
        {<br />
            get { return m_IsDebug; }<br />
            set { m_IsDebug = value; }<br />
        }<br />
<br />
        public Severity Severity<br />
        {<br />
            get { return m_Severity; }<br />
            set { m_Severity = value; }<br />
        }<br />
<br />
        public DateTime CreationTime<br />
        {<br />
            get { return m_CreationTime; }<br />
            set { m_CreationTime = value; }<br />
        }<br />
<br />
        public string Message<br />
        {<br />
            get { return m_Message; }<br />
            set { m_Message = value; }<br />
        }<br />
<br />
        public string GetSqlInsertCommand()<br />
        {<br />
            string theCommand =<br />
                string.Format(<br />
                Resource.SQL_INSERTVALUES_DIAGEVENT,<br />
                    m_CreationTime.ToString(Resource.SQL_DATETIME_FORMAT),<br />
                    m_IsDebug ? 1 : 0,<br />
                    (int)m_Severity,<br />
                    m_Message);<br />
<br />
            return theCommand;<br />
        }<br />
    }<br />
}<br />

Pete O'Hanlon17-Apr-07 9:52

Pete O'Hanlon

17-Apr-07 9:52

I think you may have slightly missed my point. Suppose that you use a third party library in your application and the developers didn't mark their classes as Serializable. Now, you include a reference to one of these classes through a property. This cannot be serialized because the third party class isn't serializable. To get round this, you would mark the member variable as NonSerializable.

Now, to the matter in had. I loaded this class in and successfully serialized it (granted only to XML). I guess that your problem must be elsewhere.

Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

mmfranke17-Apr-07 9:55

C# Dynamically Named Array (Or arraylists)

17-Apr-07 9:55

Oh, OK. Yes, I understand that part.

Thanks for trying my class. As for whether your news is good or bad... I'm not sure. I'm starting from scratch with a brand new solution...

bugg_tb17-Apr-07 3:59

bugg_tb

17-Apr-07 3:59

Hi Guys is it possible to do something along the lines of

<br />
for (i=0; i < (namearray.length); i++) { string[] namearray[i] }<br />

I'm wanting to create a number of arrays dynamically depending on how many variables get loaded into my namearray, I would also like the arrays to be called whatever the variable in the array is called.

so for example:

<br />
namearray[1] = Tom namearray[2] = Dick namearray[3] = harry<br />

I would like my arrays then to be called

Tom, Dick and Harry

The namearray variables are loaded from a csv and are therefore dynamic, so thats what the for loops is for and the variables are taken from CSV headers and to make my coding a lot easier I'd like them to be called the same as the CSV headers in the file.

Hope this makes some sense

Anyhelp appreciated,

cheers

Tom

Martin#17-Apr-07 4:39

Martin#

17-Apr-07 4:39

Hello,

I would dynamicaly create a 'System.Collections.Hashtable' and add a 'System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection' instance.
As Key you can use the Names you got from the file.

All the best,

Martin

bugg_tb17-Apr-07 5:28

bugg_tb

17-Apr-07 5:28

Just for future reference a guy on another forum came up with the answer,

string[] arrayNames = new string[fieldCount]; // arraySize = headers.Length?
for(int i = 0; i < headers.Length; i++) {
arrayNames[i] = headers[i];
}

This appears to create arrays named with whats in my headers array, and the length of the data in my data arrays.

Cheers

Tom

Martin#17-Apr-07 5:32

Martin#

17-Apr-07 5:32