Question

Handling a WCF session timeout

Asked by: swilson33

I need to perform some clean-up operations at the end of my PerSession service.  These would normally be initiated by the client in a call to a service operation that is set to IsTerminating=True.

The scenario is this.  A user logs into the service and a folder is created on the filesystem of the server.  This folder is used to store input files to another application that the service interacts with via COM.  The occurence of this folder is also used by my service to determine whether the user is already currently logged on (any particular can is only allowed to be logged on once).  So if the session times out or a fault occurs it's important that this folder is removed - otherwise the user can't login to the service again.

How do I perform these clean-ups when a session timeout occurs or the communication channel is faulted?  In this cases I need the service to inititate the clean-up since the client can no longer perform these tasks.  Is there someway of adding event handlers for these scenarios?  I have tried implementing IDisposable but at the session timeout it is not used.

Many thanks

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Asked On
2009-10-02 at 05:40:12ID24779962
Tags

WCF

,

Session Timeout

Topics

Web Services and WCF

,

.NET

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: apeterPosted on 2009-10-05 at 06:24:06ID: 25494921

Either in your client or in your wcf, if you catch your exception, you can easily differentiate what type of exception is thrown. Then based on the exception type you can do your clean up job.

In the client you can get the webexception status which is explained more in this link, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.webexception.status.aspx


Catching timeout in wcf, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731758.aspx

 

by: swilson33Posted on 2009-10-05 at 07:22:50ID: 25495495

Thanks for the response.

I may have missed the point but I'm still not clear on how to catch the session timeout service side.  My service is hosted in IIS7 - the link you sent is based upon trapping it in a self-hosting application.  I would need to know the specific username prior to cleaning up - I was hoping to be able to do all of this in the service.

For client side I could use webexception status to inform the user that the session has timed out - just need the service to clean itself up without client intervention.

Thanks.

 

by: DarrenDPosted on 2009-10-05 at 10:04:44ID: 25497107

Hi,

I think that you should look into HandleError(). This is called by WCF after control returns to the client. It is used for SERVICE-SIDE use and it does not affect the client.

In order to use this you need to implement IErrorHandler
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.servicemodel.dispatcher.ierrorhandler.aspx

I've not used this myself but at least it's a start.

Cheers,

Darren

 

by: swilson33Posted on 2009-10-05 at 10:12:29ID: 25497186

Thanks Darren!

I will look into that and report back.

 

by: swilson33Posted on 2009-10-08 at 07:06:01ID: 25525522

I tried using IErrorHandler but unfortuenately a session timeout error is one of the very few errors it doesn't catch!

See here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1271887/how-to-handle-low-level-wcf-errors

So I'm stumped on how to clean up resources when this error is encountered.  Any ideas on how to overcome this?

Thank you

 

by: DarrenDPosted on 2009-10-08 at 08:48:37ID: 25526784

Hi again,

There is a way you can overcome this using the post you out up here!

Did you follow the update that was posted on the 21st Sept? It look pretty long but it will work apparently.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wcf/thread/21b77052-2b6e-439c-80b6-83607393edb2

It's a difficult problem unfortunately but the solution is in the link.

Thanks,

Darren

 

by: swilson33Posted on 2009-10-08 at 09:08:10ID: 25526996

Yeah - I had a look at it - and decided to leave it until I exhasuted all of my options!

I believe I have a solution now - turns out that a session expiration will automatically call dispose() if it has been implemented.  I tried this approach before but it didn't work - I think because I was calling a function that dealt with the clean-up instead of inserting the code direct in the dispose() function.  Seems to work now!

Thanks for the help!

 

by: swilson33Posted on 2009-10-08 at 09:09:14ID: 31638820

I stumbled upon the solution myself but the advice given was good.

 

by: DarrenDPosted on 2009-10-09 at 01:52:12ID: 25533219

Good stuff,

Sometimes the solution is the easiest and right in front of you.

I had thought that you would have tried that before alright.

At least I know now for the future as well.

Cheers,

Darren

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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