WCF ChannelFactory and channels - caching, reusing, closing and recovery

Question

I have the following planned architecture for my WCF client library:

• using ChannelFactory instead of svcutil generated proxies because I need more control and also I want to keep the client in a separate assembly and avoid regenerating when my WCF service changes
• need to apply a behavior with a message inspector to my WCF endpoint, so each channel is able to send its own authentication token
• my client library will be used from a MVC front-end, so I'll have to think about possible threading issues
• I'm using .NET 4.5 (maybe it has some helpers or new approaches to implement WCF clients in some better way?)

I have read many articles about various separate bits but I'm still confused about how to put it all together the right way. I have the following questions:

1. as I understand, it is recommended to cache ChannelFactory in a static variable and then get channels out of it, right?
2. is endpoint behavior specific to the entire ChannelFactory or I can apply my authentication behavior for each channel separately? If the behavior is specific to the entire factory, this means that I cannot keep any state information in my endpoint behavior objects because the same auth token will get reused for every channel, but obviously I want each channel to have its own auth token for the current user. This means, that I'll have to calculate the token inside of my endpoint behavior (I can keep it in HttpContext, and my message inspector behavior will just add it to the outgoing messages).
3. my client class is disposable (implements IDispose). How do I dispose the channel correctly, knowing that it might be in any possible state (not opened, opened, failed ...)? Do I just dispose it? Do I abort it and then dispose? Do I close it (but it might be not opened yet at all) and then dispose?
4. what do I do if I get some fault when working with the channel? Is only the channel broken or entire ChannelFactory is broken?

I guess, a line of code speaks more than a thousand words, so here is my idea in code form. I have marked all my questions above with "???" in the code.

public class MyServiceClient : IDisposable
{
    // channel factory cache
    private static ChannelFactory<IMyService> _factory;
    private static object _lock = new object();

    private IMyService _client = null;
    private bool _isDisposed = false;

     /// <summary>
    /// Creates a channel for the service
    /// </summary>
    public MyServiceClient()
    {
        lock (_lock)
        {
            if (_factory == null)
            {
                // ... set up custom bindings here and get some config values

                var endpoint = new EndpointAddress(myServiceUrl);
                _factory = new ChannelFactory<IMyService>(binding, endpoint);

                // ???? do I add my auth behavior for entire ChannelFactory 
                // or I can apply it for individual channels when I create them?
            }
        }

        _client = _factory.CreateChannel();
    }

    public string MyMethod()
    {
        RequireClientInWorkingState();
        try
        {
            return _client.MyMethod();
        }
        catch
        {
            RecoverFromChannelFailure();
            throw;
        }
    }

    private void RequireClientInWorkingState()
    {
        if (_isDisposed)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("This client was disposed. Create a new one.");

        // ??? is it enough to check for CommunicationState.Opened && Created?
        if (state != CommunicationState.Created && state != CommunicationState.Opened)
            throw new InvalidOperationException("The client channel is not ready to work. Create a new one.");
    }

    private void RecoverFromChannelFailure()
    {
        // ??? is it the best way to check if there was a problem with the channel?
        if (((IChannel)_client).State != CommunicationState.Opened)
        {
            // ??? is it safe to call Abort? won't it throw?
            ((IChannel)_client).Abort();
        }

        // ??? and what about ChannelFactory? 
        // will it still be able to create channels or it also might be broken and must be thrown away? 
        // In that case, how do I clean up ChannelFactory correctly before creating a new one?
    }

    #region IDisposable

    public void Dispose()
    {    
        // ??? is it how to free the channel correctly?
        // I've heard, broken channels might throw when closing 
        // ??? what if it is not opened yet?
        // ??? what if it is in fault state?
        try
        {
            ((IChannel)_client).Close();
        }
        catch
        {
           ((IChannel)_client).Abort();              
        }

        ((IDisposable)_client).Dispose();

        _client = null;
        _isDisposed = true;
    }

    #endregion
}

Answer 1

I guess better late then never... and looks like author has it working, this might help future WCF users.

1) ChannelFactory arranges the channel which includes all behaviors for the channel. Creating the channel via CreateChannel method "activates" the channel. Channel factories can be cached.

2) You shape the channel factory with bindings and behaviors. This shape is shared with everyone who creates this channel. As you noted in your comment you can attach message inspectors but more common case is to use Header to send custom state information to the service. You can attach headers via OperationContext.Current

using (var op = new OperationContextScope((IContextChannel)proxy))
{
    var header = new MessageHeader<string>("Some State");
    var hout = header.GetUntypedHeader("message", "urn:someNamespace");
    OperationContext.Current.OutgoingMessageHeaders.Add(hout);
}

3) This is my general way of disposing the client channel and factory (this method is part of my ProxyBase class)

public virtual void Dispose()
{
    CloseChannel();
    CloseFactory();
}

protected void CloseChannel()
{
    if (((IChannel)_client).State == CommunicationState.Opened)
    {
        try
        {
            ((IChannel)_client).Close();
        }
        catch (TimeoutException /* timeout */)
        {
            // Handle the timeout exception
            ((IChannel)innerChannel).Abort();
        }
        catch (CommunicationException /* communicationException */)
        {
            // Handle the communication exception
            ((IChannel)_client).Abort();
        }
    }
}

protected void CloseFactory()
{
    if (Factory.State == CommunicationState.Opened)
    {
        try
        {
            Factory.Close();
        }
        catch (TimeoutException /* timeout */)
        {
            // Handle the timeout exception
            Factory.Abort();
        }
        catch (CommunicationException /* communicationException */)
        {
            // Handle the communication exception
            Factory.Abort();
        }
    }
}

4) WCF will fault the channel not the factory. You can implement a re-connect logic but that would require that you create and derive your clients from some custom ProxyBase e.g.

protected I Channel
{
    get
    {
        lock (_channelLock)
        {
            if (! object.Equals(innerChannel, default(I)))
            {
                ICommunicationObject channelObject = innerChannel as ICommunicationObject;
                if ((channelObject.State == CommunicationState.Faulted) || (channelObject.State == CommunicationState.Closed))
                {
                    // Channel is faulted or closing for some reason, attempt to recreate channel
                    innerChannel = default(I);
                }
            }

            if (object.Equals(innerChannel, default(I)))
            {
                Debug.Assert(Factory != null);
                innerChannel = Factory.CreateChannel();
                ((ICommunicationObject)innerChannel).Faulted += new EventHandler(Channel_Faulted);
            }
        }

        return innerChannel;
    }
}

5) Do not re-use channels. Open, do something, close is the normal usage pattern.

6) Create common proxy base class and derive all your clients from it. This can be helpful, like re-connecting, using pre-invoke/post invoke logic, consuming events from factory (e.g. Faulted, Opening)

7) Create your own CustomChannelFactory this gives you further control how factory behaves e.g. Set default timeouts, enforce various binding settings (MaxMessageSizes) etc.

public static void SetTimeouts(Binding binding, TimeSpan? timeout = null, TimeSpan? debugTimeout = null)
        {
            if (timeout == null)
            {
                timeout = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 1, 0);
            }
            if (debugTimeout == null)
            {
                debugTimeout = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 10, 0);
            }
            if (Debugger.IsAttached)
            {
                binding.ReceiveTimeout = debugTimeout.Value;
                binding.SendTimeout = debugTimeout.Value;
            }
            else
            {
                binding.ReceiveTimeout = timeout.Value;
                binding.SendTimeout = timeout.Value;
            }
        }