CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#reflectionazure
mrtentje
mrtentje

Reputation: 1422

Tracking specific method calls

Currently I'm writing a program that can estimate the costs of an Azure application. For this I have the idea to intercept all the methods that will do (indirectly) a call to the (Azure) server. And for each of the methods decide to which aspect of the costs it belongs to (for example (storage-transactions, servicebus-transactions, token-requests etc.))

One of the difficulties of this is that I also want to intercept a method call when the class/method is mocked, so the program can also be used in (unit-)tests during the development of an Azure application.

So I was wondering if there is a way to 'subscribe' on a method of a class. And when this method is called an event will be fired. Or are there other (better) solutions to intercept storage-transactions, servicebus-transactions, token-request etc. also for classes that send for example a storage-transactions but are mocked?

Thanks in advance

EDIT 1: Does anyone know if there are some (helper) classes/libraries or references that contains/knows all the classes/methods that influences the Costs of an Azure application?

EDIT 2 Is this a good approach to achieve above problem? Or are there alternatives?

Upvotes: 7

Views: 1261

Answers (7)

TN888
TN888

Reputation: 7729

You can create log file. Write time and error or reaction. This is good solution. Half I ?

Upvotes: 0

atlaste
atlaste

Reputation: 31146

I did some work on what I consider Modern C# design, including proxy generation and dynamic method invocation based on interfaces. The blog explains how it works and how to use it.

I'm pretty sure that this works for your scenario.

The relevant link can be found:

Decorator proxies

and the more generic dynamic method invocation can be found:

Dynamic method invocation

Upvotes: 0

viperguynaz
viperguynaz

Reputation: 12174

We use the Trace API to track method calls - I'd recommend reading Using Trace in Windows Azure Cloud Applications. Once you have the data captured in Azure Tables, it is easy to report on the data you are tracking (similar to diagnostics reporting).

Upvotes: 0

Sandrino Di Mattia
Sandrino Di Mattia

Reputation: 24870

Create an HTTP proxy and have your application go through that proxy. That way you can really intercept each request to Windows Azure Storage / Service Bus / ...

While AOP is a good solution, it won't fit your needs. Take the CloudBlob.UploadFile method for example. From an AOP perspective this is a single call, but if you look at the number of HTTP transactions this can be a lot more than 1 call (large files are chunked and sent over multiple HTTP requests).

That's why you need to use something low level like an HTTP proxy if you want to monitor all calls to Windows Azure services.

Upvotes: 3

Jerod Venema
Jerod Venema

Reputation: 44650

You're looking for an aspect-oriented solution. Something like PostSharp should work for you. I've used it with good success. Not sure if there are other free options available.

Upvotes: 0

Jason
Jason

Reputation: 15931

You may be able to use dynamic proxy to generate classes that intercept the calls to the underlying objects, record details about the call and then forward them.

I'm not exactly sure how you'd wire it all up, but hopefully this will get you going in the right direction.

Upvotes: 0

Dave Swersky
Dave Swersky

Reputation: 34820

You're referring to Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP.) AOP deals with intercepting dispatch messages between objects and their methods and properties. Logic may be executed that depends on the content of the calls.

Here's a question on AOP frameworks in .NET:

What is the best implementation for AOP in .Net?

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions