ByRef/Ref passing in Web Services

[Sahil Malik [MVP]]

Okay so now I understand (surprised though) - that WebServices can indeed
pass ByRef/ref parameters. All I have to do is mark an integer parameter of
a WebMethod as "ref". Funnily enough, this is also supported per the SOAP
Spec, and from what I understand, .NET's implementation of WebServices,
donot follow the standard, but instead shimmy this behavior by working with
a strict request/response WSDL.

So my question is - If I mark an int as "ref" in a WebMethod, it seems to
work. But if I am exposing a dumb schema (non-intelligent business object),
then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business object example -
a class customer, with private string FirstName, encapsulated as a
property - that's it !! (Default public constructor present))

Why should this work for only Intrinsic data types? :-/ .. or is there a
trick to making it work with serialized object graphs?

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/

[Dave]

> then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business object example - a class customer, with private string FirstName,

encapsulated as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor present))
You have now defined a property, not a parameter. The difference is that you cannot define a property as "ref". If, in fact, the
property Type is of a class that inherits from MarshalByRefObject, then it will be marshalled by reference.

--
Dave Sexton
dave@www..jwaonline..com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sahil Malik [MVP]" <co*****************@nospam.com> wrote in message news:OC**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl... Okay so now I understand (surprised though) - that WebServices can indeed pass ByRef/ref parameters. All I have to do is mark an
integer parameter of a WebMethod as "ref". Funnily enough, this is also supported per the SOAP Spec, and from what I understand,
.NET's implementation of WebServices, donot follow the standard, but instead shimmy this behavior by working with a strict
request/response WSDL.

So my question is - If I mark an int as "ref" in a WebMethod, it seems to work. But if I am exposing a dumb schema
(non-intelligent business object), then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business object example - a class customer,
with private string FirstName, encapsulated as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor present))

Why should this work for only Intrinsic data types? :-/ .. or is there a trick to making it work with serialized object graphs?

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/

[Sahil Malik [MVP]]

Okay there have been two misunderstandings -

1. I am passing in the customer object as a PARAMETER to a WebMethod. A dumb
schema will have properties - XmlSerialization does not worry about type
info/methods.
2. Okay if I did Customer:MarshalByRefObject - that effectively should not
and will not have any difference. This is XmlSerialization/WebService, not
Remoting. And yes I know WebService is a specialized case of remoting, but
there is a big difference - XmlSerialization vs. Binary/SoapFormatter.
XmlSerialization will try and extract MarshalByRef like any other business
object - no behavior, just soapsuds like dumb metadata - anyway write up a
quick sample to find out what I'm tryin' to say.

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/

"Dave" <NO*********@dotcomdatasolutions.com> wrote in message
news:eE**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business object
example - a class customer, with private string FirstName, encapsulated
as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor present))

You have now defined a property, not a parameter. The difference is that
you cannot define a property as "ref". If, in fact, the property Type is
of a class that inherits from MarshalByRefObject, then it will be
marshalled by reference.

--
Dave Sexton
dave@www..jwaonline..com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sahil Malik [MVP]" <co*****************@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:OC**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Okay so now I understand (surprised though) - that WebServices can indeed
pass ByRef/ref parameters. All I have to do is mark an integer parameter
of a WebMethod as "ref". Funnily enough, this is also supported per the
SOAP Spec, and from what I understand, .NET's implementation of
WebServices, donot follow the standard, but instead shimmy this behavior
by working with a strict request/response WSDL.

So my question is - If I mark an int as "ref" in a WebMethod, it seems to
work. But if I am exposing a dumb schema (non-intelligent business
object), then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business
object example - a class customer, with private string FirstName,
encapsulated as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor
present))

Why should this work for only Intrinsic data types? :-/ .. or is there a
trick to making it work with serialized object graphs?

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/

[Dave]

Yes, there must be some misunderstandings.

I tested it using MarshalByRefObject just to verify that I was correct.

Create a web serivce with a web method and a custom class:

public void MyClass : MarshalByRefObject
{
public string Field = "Initial Value";
}

[WebMethod]
public void ChangeValueByRef(MyClass cls)
{
cls.Field = "New Value";
}

Consume the method:

Service1 service = new Service1();
MyClass cls = new MyClass();
service.ChangeValueByRef(cls);

// outputs "New Value"
Console.WriteLine(cls.Field);

--
Dave Sexton
dave@www..jwaonline..com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sahil Malik [MVP]" <co*****************@nospam.com> wrote in message news:Od**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Okay there have been two misunderstandings -

1. I am passing in the customer object as a PARAMETER to a WebMethod. A dumb schema will have properties - XmlSerialization does
not worry about type info/methods.
2. Okay if I did Customer:MarshalByRefObject - that effectively should not and will not have any difference. This is
XmlSerialization/WebService, not Remoting. And yes I know WebService is a specialized case of remoting, but there is a big
difference - XmlSerialization vs. Binary/SoapFormatter. XmlSerialization will try and extract MarshalByRef like any other business
object - no behavior, just soapsuds like dumb metadata - anyway write up a quick sample to find out what I'm tryin' to say.

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/

"Dave" <NO*********@dotcomdatasolutions.com> wrote in message news:eE**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business object example - a class customer, with private string FirstName,
encapsulated as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor present))

You have now defined a property, not a parameter. The difference is that you cannot define a property as "ref". If, in fact,
the property Type is of a class that inherits from MarshalByRefObject, then it will be marshalled by reference.

--
Dave Sexton
dave@www..jwaonline..com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sahil Malik [MVP]" <co*****************@nospam.com> wrote in message news:OC**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Okay so now I understand (surprised though) - that WebServices can indeed pass ByRef/ref parameters. All I have to do is mark an
integer parameter of a WebMethod as "ref". Funnily enough, this is also supported per the SOAP Spec, and from what I understand,
.NET's implementation of WebServices, donot follow the standard, but instead shimmy this behavior by working with a strict
request/response WSDL.

So my question is - If I mark an int as "ref" in a WebMethod, it seems to work. But if I am exposing a dumb schema
(non-intelligent business object), then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business object example - a class
customer, with private string FirstName, encapsulated as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor present))

Why should this work for only Intrinsic data types? :-/ .. or is there a trick to making it work with serialized object graphs?

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/

[Sahil Malik [MVP]]

Okay if you put only ByRef - it still works. :-)

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/
"Dave" <NO*********@dotcomdatasolutions.com> wrote in message
news:ec**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Yes, there must be some misunderstandings.

I tested it using MarshalByRefObject just to verify that I was correct.

Create a web serivce with a web method and a custom class:

public void MyClass : MarshalByRefObject
{
public string Field = "Initial Value";
}

[WebMethod]
public void ChangeValueByRef(MyClass cls)
{
cls.Field = "New Value";
}

Consume the method:

Service1 service = new Service1();
MyClass cls = new MyClass();
service.ChangeValueByRef(cls);

// outputs "New Value"
Console.WriteLine(cls.Field);

--
Dave Sexton
dave@www..jwaonline..com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sahil Malik [MVP]" <co*****************@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:Od**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Okay there have been two misunderstandings -

1. I am passing in the customer object as a PARAMETER to a WebMethod. A
dumb schema will have properties - XmlSerialization does not worry about
type info/methods.
2. Okay if I did Customer:MarshalByRefObject - that effectively should
not and will not have any difference. This is
XmlSerialization/WebService, not Remoting. And yes I know WebService is a
specialized case of remoting, but there is a big difference -
XmlSerialization vs. Binary/SoapFormatter. XmlSerialization will try and
extract MarshalByRef like any other business object - no behavior, just
soapsuds like dumb metadata - anyway write up a quick sample to find out
what I'm tryin' to say.

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/

"Dave" <NO*********@dotcomdatasolutions.com> wrote in message
news:eE**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business object
example - a class customer, with private string FirstName, encapsulated
as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor present))

You have now defined a property, not a parameter. The difference is
that you cannot define a property as "ref". If, in fact, the property
Type is of a class that inherits from MarshalByRefObject, then it will
be marshalled by reference.

--
Dave Sexton
dave@www..jwaonline..com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sahil Malik [MVP]" <co*****************@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:OC**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
Okay so now I understand (surprised though) - that WebServices can
indeed pass ByRef/ref parameters. All I have to do is mark an integer
parameter of a WebMethod as "ref". Funnily enough, this is also
supported per the SOAP Spec, and from what I understand, .NET's
implementation of WebServices, donot follow the standard, but instead
shimmy this behavior by working with a strict request/response WSDL.

So my question is - If I mark an int as "ref" in a WebMethod, it seems
to work. But if I am exposing a dumb schema (non-intelligent business
object), then it doesn't work. (Dumb Schema Non Intelligent Business
object example - a class customer, with private string FirstName,
encapsulated as a property - that's it !! (Default public constructor
present))

Why should this work for only Intrinsic data types? :-/ .. or is there
a trick to making it work with serialized object graphs?

- Sahil Malik [MVP]
http://codebetter.com/blogs/sahil.malik/