Serialize Assembly for Service calls over Http

TL;DR; Explains how to transmit a .NET assembly over HTTP in a WCF service call, focusing on serialisation and deserialisation without using byte streams.

Published on 24 April 2007

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

1 minute read

https://nkdagility.com/resources/TgSz2FK5KBK

I want to send a .NET assembly as either an System.Reflection.Assembly or as a string over the wire through a Windows Communication Foundation web service. It seems that the class System.Reflection.Assembly can serialize, but is unable to deserialize at the other end. How can this be achieved without sending as a straem of Byte.

I would prefer:

<OperationContract(IsOneWay:=True)> _
Sub AddEventHandlerAssembly(ByVal Assembly As System.Reflection.Assembly)

Or:
<OperationContract(IsOneWay:=True)> _
Sub AddEventHandlerAssembly(ByVal Assembly As String)

But not:

<OperationContract(IsOneWay:=True)> _
Sub AddEventHandlerAssembly(ByVal Assembly As Byte())

I have tralled the web for a while now, trying to find a solution. I have even decompiled the Assembly class and the problem is that it implements System.Runtime.Serialization.ISerializable but does not provide the constructor for the deserialize.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

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