Get calling assembly name inside WCF service

Question

Hi all. I'm trying to achieve the following: whenever a call to service is performed I want to be able to identify the client. I thought about getting the calling assembly name by iterating over stack trace but I failed to get the client assembly name. Sample code:

private List<System.Reflection.Assembly> GetCallingAssemblies()
        {

            List<System.Reflection.Assembly> assemblies = new List<System.Reflection.Assembly>();

            StackTrace stackTrace = new StackTrace(0, true);

            for (int i = 0; i < stackTrace.FrameCount; i++)
            {

                StackFrame stackFrame = stackTrace.GetFrame(i);

                System.Reflection.MethodBase methodBase = stackFrame.GetMethod();

                Type type = methodBase.ReflectedType;
                System.Reflection.Assembly assembly;
                if (type != null)
                {
                    assembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetAssembly(type);
                    if (assemblies.Contains(assembly) == false)
                    {
                        assemblies.Add(assembly);
                    }   
                }                 
            }
            return assemblies;
        }

Answer 1

I must be missing something: you're trying to identify the client through assemblies? Why not use authentication?

Besides, who says the client even has assemblies? It may be a Java client, or some other platform.

HTH,
Kent

Answer 2

When your client calls a WCF service, all that goes between the two is the serialized message - the method to call and all the parameters to pass in.

There is no other connection at runtime between server and client. The server cannot "reach back" and look at the client - there is no connection.

All your service can look at is the serialized message, and any message headers. So if you really really need this (what do you need it for??) then you need to make sure the client puts a marker / identification of some sort as a message header into the call.