Use WebService between Server and Client (1 Viewer)

[gljubojevic]

Hi!

I'm not big fan of technologies that are just released, anyway Framework IMHO has good reputation when it comes to stability.
WCF migh be good way to go, especially because it is suposed to resolve some remoting and web services security problems. My only concern is speed but who knows it migh be fast enough ...

Another big issue could be porting MP to FW3.0 or at least parts of ti ...

Goran

 

[drfonz]

Hi !

Instead of web services why not use remoting ?
No need for IIS, all commads can be implemented as server interface ...

Goran

The reason for using Web Services instead of Remoting is that it is an open standard that is not dependent on .Net Framework. The whole point of this exercise is to be able to implement a client on ANY type of device, and that includes those not necessarily running a Microsoft (or .Net-enabled) OS!

AL

 

[richbayliss]

Problem with remoting is that it isn't cross-platform compatible (I don't think)

A WS can be used on multiple platforms, so we can see some interesting client apps.

Maybe a simple IP based comms protocol would do it - just a simple HTTP type job???

 

[drfonz]

Remoting could be cross-platform, but you would have to write the client-side library implementing Microsoft's protocols, which is why WS are the way to go as these exist already on most platforms.

Having said that, Remoting can make use of Active Directory features, and as such it becomes tangled with all sorts of Microsoft-only infrastructure issues, including serious difficulties in going across domains.

Naaahhh, Web Services all the way. Cross-platform, cross-domain goodness, at a small performance price, although tweaks can be made to use binary mode thereby reducing latency

AL

 

[drfonz]

Maybe a simple IP based comms protocol would do it - just a simple HTTP type job???

Web Services are a not-so-simple HTTP type job, but I do agree that a basic IP protocol would probably suffice, although this would mean coming up with one and getting people to agree on what it was and how it would package data.

I did think about this for a while and then I remembered that MP is an Open project and even if we created a new open protocol, people would wonder why not WS? Besides the performance reasons, I couldn't give myself any other explanation of why not

But hey, I love re-inventing the wheel, so count me in for a re-write!

AL

 

[richbayliss]

Main reason AGAINST webservice use is that you have 2 options to host the WS:

1) Embeded engine
2) Via IIS

2) is a no-no since it excludes XP Home edition - doesn't have IIS

Leaving only 1) as an option. I have never done this and info is sparse last time I looked. I would like to keep it .NET 2.0 standard so that maybe I could hook into it using Mono on Linux/OS X quite easily.

 

[drfonz]

Option (1) is what Visual Studio 2005 does when developing anything web related. To be honest I have never looked into this myself either, so it would be a matter of researching it.

Having said that, if the intention is to have many network connections being served from the Server machine, by definition Windows XP Home is a big no-no as this edition limits the number of concurrent UDP/TCP connections it can handle (purely a marketing limitation for people to upgrade to Professional I'm afraid).

AL

 

[richbayliss]

I know there is a limit in Home - but it would be a shame to remove it as an option altogether.

If an embedded engine is used - I dont see it as an issue. It just needs to be done.

I will get the latest source and have a tinker this weekend. I will post back any progress I make.

 

[chrispi]

Hello guys,

Let me clarify some points:

1) VS 2005 uses his own web server to debug web applications or a web service. This has nothing to do with hosting a web service inside a EXE. The XP-Version (Home, Profesional) is not an issue here because you can host a web service even on XP home without having any kind of Web Server installed.

2) Media Portal does not need to be ported to the .NET Framework 3.0 because the new Framework is based on the CLR 2.0. The .NET Framwork 3.0 is the .NET Framework 2.0 plus WCF and some other "Libraries". So It's not really a new version and Media Portal will run fine on V3.0 without any changes or recompilation.

3) With WCF you can switch with a config parameter between Web Services for compatibility or Binary Format (comparable with remoting) for best speed. Code changes are not requred so the user can decide what to use. Using WCF you get the best of both worlds.

Microsoft does strongly recommand not to use remoting anymore because it is outdated. This statement is more than 1 year old. My concern is, that remoting will be removed from future versions of the .NET Framework.

Also the advantages of the binary format compared to Web Services are not so big so WCF with SOAP protocol (= Web Service) would be the best solution for the TV Engine V0.3.

Regards,
Christoph

 

[richbayliss]

Solid reply there

I am going to look into using a plain WS then - purely for platform compatability. WCF is Windows only atm (I think) so I want to create a purely open solution.