Introduction

The Microsoft .Net Framework is a platform for building, deploying, and running Web Services and applications. It provides a standards-based environment for integrating existing investments with next-generation applications and services as well as the ability to solve the challenges of deployment and operation of Internet-scale applications. The .Net Framework consists of three main parts:

.Net Assemblies

An assembly is the primary building block of a .Net Framework application. It is a collection of one or more files built, versioned, and deployed as a single implementation unit (as one or more files). All managed types and resources are marked either as accessible only within their implementation unit or as accessible by code outside that unit. Assemblies also play a key role in security. The code access security system uses information about the assembly to determine the set of permissions that code in the assembly is granted.

Assemblies are self-describing by means of their manifest, which is an integral part of every assembly. The manifest:

Establishes the assembly identity (in the form of a text name), version, culture, and digital signature (if the assembly is to be shared across applications).
Defines what files (by name and file hash) make up the assembly implementation.
Specifies the types and resources that make up the assembly, including which are exported from the assembly.
Itemizes the compile-time dependencies on other assemblies.
Specifies the set of permissions required for the assembly to run properly.

This information is used at run time to resolve references, enforce version binding policy, and validate the integrity of loaded assemblies. The runtime can determine and locate the assembly for any running object, since every type is loaded in the context of an assembly. Assemblies are also the unit at which code access security permissions are applied. The identity evidence for each assembly is considered separately when determining what permissions to grant the code it contains.

In the .Net context, an executable takes the form of a portable executable (PE) file. The PE can be loaded into memory and executed by the operating system loader. It can be either an .exe or a .dll file. A PE file must be translated by the common language runtime into native code before it can be executed by the operating system.

Custom Attributes

The common language runtime allows you to add keyword-like descriptive declarations, called attributes, to annotate programming elements such as types, fields, methods, and properties. Attributes are saved with the metadata of a Microsoft .Net Framework file and can be used to describe your code to the runtime or to affect application behavior at run time.

The iWay Technology Adapter for .Net uses custom attributes to act as markers to expose methods and classes in your target .Net application and provide the invocation specifications for each exposed method. The iWay Explorer generates metadata from the exposed classes and methods to construct service (inbound) schemas.