How do I intercept a method call in C#?

Question

C# is not an AOP oriented language. It has some AOP features and you can emulate some others but making AOP with C# is painful.

I looked up for ways to do exactly what you wanted to do and I found no easy way to do it.

As I understand it, this is what you want to do:

[Log()]
public void Method1(String name, Int32 value);

and in order to do that you have two main options

1. Inherit your class from MarshalByRefObject or ContextBoundObject and define an attribute which inherits from IMessageSink. This article has a good example. You have to consider nontheless that using a MarshalByRefObject the performance will go down like hell, and I mean it, I'm talking about a 10x performance lost so think carefully before trying that.

2. The other option is to inject code directly. In runtime, meaning you'll have to use reflection to "read" every class, get its attributes and inject the appropiate call (and for that matter I think you couldn't use the Reflection.Emit method as I think Reflection.Emit wouldn't allow you to insert new code inside an already existing method). At design time this will mean creating an extension to the CLR compiler which I have honestly no idea on how it's done.

The final option is using an IoC framework. Maybe it's not the perfect solution as most IoC frameworks works by defining entry points which allow methods to be hooked but, depending on what you want to achive, that might be a fair aproximation.

The simplest way to achieve that is probably to use PostSharp. It injects code inside your methods based on the attributes that you apply to it. It allows you to do exactly what you want.

Another option is to use the profiling API to inject code inside the method, but that is really hardcore.

You could achieve it with Interception feature of a DI container such as Castle Windsor. Indeed, it is possible to configure the container in such way that every classes that have a method decorated by a specific attribute would be intercepted.

Regarding point #3, OP asked for a solution without AOP framework. I assumed in the following answer that what should be avoided were Aspect, JointPoint, PointCut, etc. According to Interception documentation from CastleWindsor, none of those are required to accomplish what is asked.

Configure generic registration of an Interceptor, based on the presence of an attribute:

public class RequireInterception : IContributeComponentModelConstruction
{
    public void ProcessModel(IKernel kernel, ComponentModel model)
    {
        if (HasAMethodDecoratedByLoggingAttribute(model.Implementation))
        {
            model.Interceptors.Add(new InterceptorReference(typeof(ConsoleLoggingInterceptor)));
            model.Interceptors.Add(new InterceptorReference(typeof(NLogInterceptor)));
        }
    }

    private bool HasAMethodDecoratedByLoggingAttribute(Type implementation)
    {
        foreach (var memberInfo in implementation.GetMembers())
        {
            var attribute = memberInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(LogAttribute)).FirstOrDefault() as LogAttribute;
            if (attribute != null)
            {
                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
    }
}

Add the created IContributeComponentModelConstruction to container

container.Kernel.ComponentModelBuilder.AddContributor(new RequireInterception());

And you can do whatever you want in the interceptor itself

public class ConsoleLoggingInterceptor : IInterceptor
{
    public void Intercept(IInvocation invocation)
    {
        Console.Writeline("Log before executing");
        invocation.Proceed();
        Console.Writeline("Log after executing");
    }
}

Add the logging attribute to your method to log

 public class Traced 
 {
     [Log]
     public void Method1(String name, Int32 value) { }

     [Log]
     public void Method2(Object object) { }
 }

Note that some handling of the attribute will be required if only some method of a class needs to be intercepted. By default, all public methods will be intercepted.

If you write a class - call it Tracing - that implements the IDisposable interface, you could wrap all method bodies in a

Using( Tracing tracing = new Tracing() ){ ... method body ...}

In the Tracing class you could the handle the logic of the traces in the constructor/Dispose method, respectively, in the Tracing class to keep track of the entering and exiting of the methods. Such that:

    public class Traced 
    {
        public void Method1(String name, Int32 value) {
            using(Tracing tracer = new Tracing()) 
            {
                [... method body ...]
            }
        }

        public void Method2(Object object) { 
            using(Tracing tracer = new Tracing())
            {
                [... method body ...]
            }
        }
    }

If you want to trace after your methods without limitation (no code adaptation, no AOP Framework, no duplicate code), let me tell you, you need some magic...

Seriously, I resolved it to implement an AOP Framework working at runtime.

You can find here : NConcern .NET AOP Framework

I decided to create this AOP Framework to give a respond to this kind of needs. it is a simple library very lightweight. You can see an example of logger in home page.

If you don't want to use a 3rd party assembly, you can browse the code source (open source) and copy both files Aspect.Directory.cs and Aspect.Directory.Entry.cs to adapted as your wishes. Theses classes allow to replace your methods at runtime. I would just ask you to respect the license.

I hope you will find what you need or to convince you to finally use an AOP Framework.

Take a look at this - Pretty heavy stuff.. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc164165.aspx

Essential .net - don box had a chapter on what you need called Interception. I scraped some of it here (Sorry about the font colors - I had a dark theme back then...) http://madcoderspeak.blogspot.com/2005/09/essential-interception-using-contexts.html

I have found a different way which may be easier...

Declare a Method InvokeMethod

[WebMethod]
    public object InvokeMethod(string methodName, Dictionary<string, object> methodArguments)
    {
        try
        {
            string lowerMethodName = '_' + methodName.ToLowerInvariant();
            List<object> tempParams = new List<object>();
            foreach (MethodInfo methodInfo in serviceMethods.Where(methodInfo => methodInfo.Name.ToLowerInvariant() == lowerMethodName))
            {
                ParameterInfo[] parameters = methodInfo.GetParameters();
                if (parameters.Length != methodArguments.Count()) continue;
                else foreach (ParameterInfo parameter in parameters)
                    {
                        object argument = null;
                        if (methodArguments.TryGetValue(parameter.Name, out argument))
                        {
                            if (parameter.ParameterType.IsValueType)
                            {
                                System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter tc = System.ComponentModel.TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(parameter.ParameterType);
                                argument = tc.ConvertFrom(argument);

                            }
                            tempParams.Insert(parameter.Position, argument);

                        }
                        else goto ContinueLoop;
                    }

                foreach (object attribute in methodInfo.GetCustomAttributes(true))
                {
                    if (attribute is YourAttributeClass)
                    {
                        RequiresPermissionAttribute attrib = attribute as YourAttributeClass;
                        YourAttributeClass.YourMethod();//Mine throws an ex
                    }
                }

                return methodInfo.Invoke(this, tempParams.ToArray());
            ContinueLoop:
                continue;
            }
            return null;
        }
        catch
        {
            throw;
        }
    }

I then define my methods like so

[WebMethod]
    public void BroadcastMessage(string Message)
    {
        //MessageBus.GetInstance().SendAll("<span class='system'>Web Service Broadcast: <b>" + Message + "</b></span>");
        //return;
        InvokeMethod("BroadcastMessage", new Dictionary<string, object>() { {"Message", Message} });
    }

    [RequiresPermission("editUser")]
    void _BroadcastMessage(string Message)
    {
        MessageBus.GetInstance().SendAll("<span class='system'>Web Service Broadcast: <b>" + Message + "</b></span>");
        return;
    }

Now I can have the check at run time without the dependency injection...

No gotchas in site :)

Hopefully you will agree that this is less weight then a AOP Framework or deriving from MarshalByRefObject or using remoting or proxy classes.