Knowledge Base Article

I cannot find Activator.GetObject() at the device side, how can I make a call to my remoting object residing on desktop/server without it?
Article ID: 1012; Product Group: Friquently Asked Questions; Modified On: 6/8/2009 8:17:38 AM

Description:
I cannot find Activator.GetObject() at the device side, how can I make a call to my remoting object residing on desktop/server without it?

Solution / Answer:

The .NET Compact Framework is a slimmed down version of the .NET Full Framework made to run on embedded devices such as PDAs and smart phones. To take into account the resource limitations of these devices, a dedicated execution environment was crafted and some classes and methods of the standard .NET class library were removed. .NET Remoting was among those removed namespaces.

CF.Remoting product fills that gap by providing missing remoting classes and includes remoting proxy generator tool called rpgen.exe which can be found in \bin directory after you installed our product. Rpgen.exe generates client proxies that run against the full .NET framework exposed remoting objects. Rpgen.exe takes an existing interface assembly, extracts interfaces and generates client proxy source code (in C# and/or VB .NET) that implements those shared interfaces and allows you to make remote calls as if you have Activator.GetObject() on the full .NET framework.

Here is an example of generated proxy for an interface (full source code for shared interface assembly, client and server can be found in \Remoting\Examples\CS(VB)\CallContext\ directory):

#pragma warning disable 1591
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//     Runtime Version:2.0.50727.3053
//
//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
//     the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/// <summary>
/// 
/// .NET Compact Framework Remoting Proxy Generator, rpgen
/// [ AsGoodAsItGets.Remoting: 4.2.9.0605 ]
/// Copyright (c) 2003-2009 As Good As It Gets, LLC.  All rights reserved.
///
/// generated on: 6/8/2009 07:56:50 AM
/// assembly: SharedTypes, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null
/// options:
///     ..\bin\SharedTypes.dll
///     /d:C:\Projects\AsGoodAsItGets\Remoting\Examples\CS\CallContext\Client
/// 
/// </summary>
namespace SharedTypes {
    using AsGoodAsItGets.System.Runtime.Remoting;
    using AsGoodAsItGets.System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging;
    using AsGoodAsItGets.System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp;
    using AsGoodAsItGets.System.ServiceModel;
    
    
    [global::System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
    [global::System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("AsGoodAsItGets::rpgen", "4.2.9.0605")]
    public partial class EchoServiceWithLogicalCallContextClient : ClientBase<SharedTypes.IEchoServiceWithLogicalCallContext>, SharedTypes.IEchoServiceWithLogicalCallContext {
        
        public EchoServiceWithLogicalCallContextClient(string uri) : 
                base(uri, "SharedTypes.IEchoServiceWithLogicalCallContext") {
        }
        
        public string Echo(string value) {
            object[] results = this.Invoke("Echo", value);
            return ((string)(results[0]));
        }
        
        public global::System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<int, string> GetGenericDictionary() {
            object[] results = this.Invoke("GetGenericDictionary");
            return ((global::System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<int, string>)(results[0]));
        }
    }
}
#pragma warning restore 1591

Instead of making calls to Activator.GetObject() you create an instance of generated client to make calls to/obtain properties of remote object.

// use tcp with BinaryFormatter to communicate to a server; 
// http://192.168.0.3/server.rem server uri can be used to communicate via http if needs to
EchoServiceWithLogicalCallContextClient client = new EchoServiceWithLogicalCallContextClient("tcp://192.168.0.3:8080/server.rem");

try {
    lbxLog.Items.Add("Calling the server Echo method...");

// make a call to EchoService, the data you supplied in logical call context
    // are being carried out to the server side (see Server src.)
    string result = client.Echo(txtEchoValue.Text);
    lbxLog.Items.Add(string.Format("result: {0}", result));

// try to obtain server context data supplied at the server side
    object serverContextData = client.LogicalCallContext.GetData("serverContextData");
    if (serverContextData != null) {
        lbxLog.Items.Add(string.Format("server ctx data: {0}", serverContextData));
    }

lbxLog.Items.Add("Calling the server GetGenericDictionary method...");

// please pay attention to the call to FormatterServices.ChainRemotingSurrogateSelector at the top of the file!
    Dictionary<int, string> entries = client.GetGenericDictionary();
    foreach(KeyValuePair<int, string> pair in entries) {
        lbxLog.Items.Add(string.Format("{0} : {1}", pair.Key, pair.Value));
    }

} catch (Exception ex) {
    lbxLog.Items.Add(string.Format("Error: {0}", ex.Message));
}