Implicit Request Contexts

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Using Implicit Request Contexts

In addition to explicit and per-proxy request contexts, you can also establish an implicit context on a communicator. This implicit context is sent with all invocations made via proxies created by that communicator, provided that you do not supply an explicit context with the call.

A proxy is always created by a communicator. For example, you may create a proxy by calling stringToProxy on a Communicator object. Other proxies are created in generated code when unmarshaling the result of a remote invocation: such proxies are created by the communicator that performed the remote invocation.

Access to this implicit context is provided by the Communicator interface:

Slice
module Ice
{
    local interface Communicator
    {
        ImplicitContext getImplicitContext();
        // ...
    }
}

getImplicitContext returns the implicit context object. If a communicator has no implicit context, the operation returns null.

You can manipulate the contents of the implicit context via the ImplicitContext interface:

Slice
local interface ImplicitContext
{
    Context getContext();
    void    setContext(Context newContext);

    string get(string key);
    string put(string key, string value);
    string remove(string key);
    bool   containsKey(string key);
}

The getContext operation returns the currently-set context dictionary. The setContext operation replaces the currently-set context in its entirety.

The remaining operations allow you to manipulate specific entries:

  • get
    This operation returns the value associated with key. If key was not previously set, the operation returns the empty string.
  • put
    This operation adds the key-value pair specified by key and value. It returns the previous value associated with key; if no value was previously associated with key, it returns the empty string. It is legal to add the empty string as a value.
  • remove
    This operation removes the key-value pair specified by key. It returns the previously-set value (or the empty string if key was not previously set).
  • containsKey
    This operation returns true if key is currently set and false, otherwise. You can use this operation to distinguish between a key-value pair that was explicitly added with an empty string as a value, and a key-value pair that was never added at all.

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Scope of the Implicit Context

You establish the implicit context on a communicator by setting a property, Ice.ImplicitContext. This property controls whether a communicator has an implicit context and, if so, at what scope the context applies. The property can be set to the following values:

  • None
    With this setting (or if Ice.ImplicitContext is not set at all), the communicator has no implicit context, and getImplicitContext returns null.
  • Shared
    The communicator has a single implicit context that is shared by all threads. Access to the context via its ImplicitContext interface is interlocked, so different threads can concurrently manipulate the context without risking data corruption or reading stale values.
  • PerThread
    The communicator maintains a separate implicit context for each thread. This allows you to propagate contexts that depend on the sending thread (for example, to send per-thread transaction IDs).

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See Also