Core Service Client Sample Code

[ This post presents a .NET client for Core Service. If you are looking for a Java client for Core Service, have a look at A Core Service Java Client ]

Let me start by saying this topic is not new, but because it is pretty cool technology, I thought I would also give a sample on it.

In Tridion 2011GA, you could create a Core Service client by going to Visual Studio and Add Service Reference... in your project's References. This would generate proxy classes on the "Core Service" Web Service.

In Tridion 2011 SP1, you no longer need to generate these classes, as they are already available in a DLL (namely %TRIDION_HOME%\bin\client\Tridion.ContentManager.CoreService.Client.dll).

In a normal scenario, one would need the Core Service configuration endpoints (from %TRIDION_HOME%\bin\client\Tridion.ContentManager.CoreService.Client.dll.config) be available to the client's runtime (either in app.config or web.config or some dll.config). Alternatively though, we can instantiate the client using programmatic configuration. Thus, we no longer need the config file, making the code more portable. In many situations, I see that only the 'hostname' of Tridion CM is needed, so that we can point to the machine where the Core Service is running (e.g. localhost).

I like creating a Disposable wrapper around a Core Service client, such that it's easy to use within a 'using' block. This gives great advantage of not having to deal with opening the channel, configuring it, closing it, etc. Check out my previous blog post about using this CoreServiceSession.

using System;

using System.ServiceModel;

using System.Xml;

using Tridion.ContentManager.CoreService.Client;

namespace YATB

{

    public class CoreServiceSession : IDisposable

    {

        private readonly SessionAwareCoreServiceClient _client;

        public CoreServiceSession()

        {

            var netTcpBinding = new NetTcpBinding

            {

                MaxReceivedMessageSize = 2147483647,

                ReaderQuotas = new XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas

                    {

                        MaxStringContentLength = 2147483647,

                        MaxArrayLength = 2147483647

                    }

            };

            var remoteAddress = new EndpointAddress("net.tcp://localhost:2660/CoreService/2011/netTcp");

            _client = new SessionAwareCoreServiceClient(netTcpBinding, remoteAddress);

        }

        public void Dispose()

        {

            if (_client.State == CommunicationState.Faulted)

            {

                _client.Abort();

            }

            else

            {

                _client.Close();

            }

        }

        public UserData GetCurrentUser()

        {

            return _client.GetCurrentUser();

        }

        public void SaveApplicationData(string subjectId, ApplicationData[] applicationData)

        {

            _client.SaveApplicationData(subjectId, applicationData);

        }

        public ApplicationData ReadApplicationData(string subjectId, string applicationId)

        {

            return _client.ReadApplicationData(subjectId, applicationId);

        }

    }

}

The code-above uses netTcp endpoint and all its properties are specified programmatically, but alternatively, you could use the basicHttp end point. The sample code for creating a basicHttp client programmatically is the following:

var basicHttpBinding = new BasicHttpBinding
{
    MaxReceivedMessageSize = 10485760,

    ReaderQuotas = new XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas

    {

        MaxStringContentLength = 10485760,

        MaxArrayLength = 10485760

    },

    Security = new BasicHttpSecurity

    {

        Mode = BasicHttpSecurityMode.TransportCredentialOnly,

        Transport = new HttpTransportSecurity

        {

            ClientCredentialType = HttpClientCredentialType.Windows

        }

    }

};

var remoteAddress = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost/webservices/CoreService2011.svc/basicHttp");

_client = new CoreServiceClient(basicHttpBinding, remoteAddress);