Do you know a good cache technology which can be used in .net to share data between a server and many client ?

Question

I'm trying to adress the following issue:

1. I have a server side .net application holding a Dictionary of PONO: the cache.

2. I have many client side .net User interfaces which can query some of these PONO, either by using the key or by asking the server to filter only PONO with a specific attribute value: the clients

Edit: Clients are C# thick client, not web app. So it's ok to use any channel type between the client and the server.

1. And of course, some of the client can update a PONO and send it back to the server. Then I'd like the server to be smart enough to notify all the client already holding this PONO with the new value, and even send the PONO to all the client which have a filter matching the new PONO value.

2. I don't really care about transactional aspect. In my case, the last one to speak is always right.

I think such a functionality looks quite generic so it must already exist somewhere. Any advice ?

Thanks

Answer 1

You are looking for push technology. I would look into the use of Comet. Try for example, the Dojo implementation of Comet.

Answer 2

You are definately looking for a push model. Unfortunately ASP.net is a request/response mechanism. The client must make a request for the server to respond. It is quite difficult to handle this sort of transaction from a web-based tier. OrbMan is correct that what you are looking for is a Comet style implementation.

I'm just saying that this is not as simple as it sounds without an active client such as silverlight.

Answer 3

Have you checked out "Project Code Name Velocity" by Microsoft? Really scalable and easy to work with.

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/cc655792.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/velocity/
• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B24C3708-EEFF-4055-A867-19B5851E7CD2&displaylang=en

Answer 4

Have you looked at Microsoft's WCF Technology? We are building a system that performs similar function to your project and it is working well.

Here are 2 examples of WCF I used as roadmaps and might be helpful to you:

• http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WCF/WCFWPFChat.aspx
• http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WCF/WCF_Duplex_UI_Threads.aspx