WCF Server Chat Update:

I just left this reply to a comment on my last post on this project:

Hi there,

No, I Haven’t been able to make in any changes sine my last comit.

However, I have been taking a look at it over the past week, since there are issues with it. As you say authentication and authorisation are one of them.

I’ve been looking at the possibility of using Forms authentication. This brings ASP.Net Membership, Profiles and Roles to the table and these can be used.

This of course requires a SQL server as a back end. And requires the use of SSL.

This requires significant changes to the code base, to move from the current storage model (XML in the case of the Windows service, and Azure Tables in the case of the Windows Azure role). And since authorisation and authentication are now handled separately, those WCF method calls that currently handle this aren’t required.

Also, since the codebase is effectively two separate projects, these changes need to be made twice.

The client will also need to be changed.

These changes do make a lot of sense and I’m well along in implementing them. So look out for a post soon on them.

I thought I’d let everyone know that this is the direction I’m taking things in.

Life is busy, which why I haven’t been able to update things as much as I’d like.

There is one other particular problem with the WCF Server chat that I would have liked to have solved in my last comitt.

The issue involves the server pinging other clients across NAT. Of course, this could be solved by moving to a pull model rather than a push notification model. While that would be easy, I want to take a good long look at getting push to work properly before trying any other models.

Push notification is where its at. So if anyone has any pointers to implementing it, please send it my way.