Comments by kalkwarf (Top 6 by date)

Thanks for the Channel article.

So, there is no way to indicate that I want separate service instances within a single session?

I had contemplated creating separate endpoints for each piece of hardware, but that seemed to be a waste since I would have to create separate ServiceHost instances for each. However, I may have to do this.

Yes, I read that article. I understand the basics. However, none of the three options fits my needs.

On the server, I have multiple pieces of hardware each with the same interface. Some of the pieces are identical or ultimately use the same class for communication. Therefore, I need to indicate for which I need a separate instance of that class. The logical method seems to be a channel.

No, not using Entity Framework. I am just creating my entity classes and database by hand, then mostly using LINQ.

Perhaps, I should begin using EF. I have already defined my database, so that step is complete. I wonder how much of my current code would have to be re-worked... I'll start looking at retrofitting my code for EF.

Once again, thanks for the help, Christian.

I've been doing some reading, but haven't concluded much. If I could impose once more for some advice...

Note, I am writing my web site using ASP.NET MVC.

Web Services seems reasonably easy to create. It appears that the latest technology is WCF (?).

My biggest question is what would the service interface look like? What I need is something like this:

UploadImageInfo(string caption, string description, string timestamp, byte[] image)

In particular, what should be the type of the last arg (image)? The examples I found seem to either use byte[] or an encoding (Base64...). The flip side is that I will likely be writing an Android app to send the data to my service. Is there a preferred method for sending binary files? Is one way or another simpler for an Android app?

I am beginning to think that a web service might be overkill. It seems like it may just be as simple to create an admin page and provide the means to do an old-style upload.

I understand that these are newbie questions and greatly appreciate any help you can offer.