How Can Library Code "know" it's hosting application type?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Smithers
  • Start date Start date
S

Smithers

I'm writing a code library that needs to be reused between a Windows Forms
application and and an ASP.NET Web application.

The library needs to do a couple of things differently depending on the type
of application the library has been loaded for.

What is a reliable and non-hacking way for the code to make that
determination (hosting application type)?

Using .NET 3.5

Thanks
 
Well, ASP.NET often has an HttpContext.Current, but note that
personally I find this a bit hacky. It also doesn't work for things
like WCF hosted in IIS. I generally prefer to use a provider model,
where-by those bits that depend on the architecture are abstracted
through an interface (with some mechanism to register and obtain the
provider); in the web app I register one provider (perhaps using an
HttpModule to configure via web.config), and in the client I register
another.

But I guess it depends on how big the change is...

Marc
 
Smithers,

One way I know of is to set a reference to System.Web.dll and then check
the static Current poperty of the HttpContext class. If this returns null,
then there is no HttpContext, and no ASP.NET. Of course, this is only
applicable if you are actually processing a page. Calling this outside of a
request pipeline in ASP.NET will still return null, so if you need this for
one-time initialization, you might have to look for another option.
 
Smithers said:
I'm writing a code library that needs to be reused between a Windows Forms
application and and an ASP.NET Web application.

The library needs to do a couple of things differently depending on the type
of application the library has been loaded for.
Click to expand...

You need to revisit your design. Those "couple of things" likely either
don't belong in the library or need to be "passed" by the client at the time
of use.

-ralph
 
In the past I had always checked the current process image name. If it was
"w3wp.exe" then I knew it was running under IIS. I suggest you also check
against "WebDev.WebServer.Exe" since this is what VS 2005 uses during
development. If I find either of these 2 I assume I'm running in a web
application - otherwise assume WinForms.

- Brian
 
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