Reflection

Question

hi, i have newly joined the forum...and am equally new to C#. considerig this if anybody has a good idea abt Reflection Technology, plz help me. u can reach me at saurabhmishra@fastmail.fm

james · Answer

Are you asking if its possible to detect new assembly versions while an app is running (i.e. hotfix style)? If so, I would say yes, but your entire app would have to be designed segmented enough that loading one assembly during execution would not interfere with anything else in process. For my application, all I need to do is look for assemblies on startup. -James

andrew · Answer

Have you figured out how to load new version of module (.dll) once it's available? I have an application that needs it, and the only way to do that now is to restart the application or load it into different app domain, but then all calls are marshaled and not as good performance. I don't know if it was technically not possible, but being able to unload assembly from app domain would be a good feature.

james · Answer

Another application for it is this scenario... I am writing an accounting application that will have seperate installable modules, I want to compile each module into a seperate assembly and when the main application launches, it will find and incorporate the seperate modules. Thats just one way I'm using reflection. -James

chrishornberger · Answer

Not to sound like a jerk, but if you have to ask why you would use it, you haven't found a need for it yet. A typical scenario for reflection would be "Plug-In" type components where you're expected to write your component following a specified interface or with specific function signatures. While Interface implementations and Activator.CreateInstanceFrom(...) are often the better way to go, you can do completely blind inspection and activation using more specific reflection. This is but one example.

Saurabh · Answer

What is the underlying concept behind the technology???? and where and how can i use it???

Mahesh Chand · Answer

You can also find various articles and source code samples on reflection on C# Corner. Use search feature on the site here: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/siteSearch.asp

james · Answer

Post a question regarding what you need to know about Reflection and we'd be happy to help out! -James