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Hosting WCF Using Console Application

In this tutorial I will explain how we can use console application for hosting WCF service.

Software Requirement

Before you start reading this tutorial you should make sure that visual studio 2008(or above versions) is installed on your machine.

Prerequisite Knowledge

Before you go ahead, it is required that you should know

What is WCF service?
What is a service contract?
What is an operation contract?
How to create projects using visual studio?

Steps Of Execution

In this tutorial I will execute certain steps for the demonstration of hosting WCF service using console application. These steps are

Create a WCF service
Create a console application for hosting service
Create a console client application

Let us execute each step

Create A WCF Service

Create a new project of type ‘Class library’. Inside the project add an interface ‘IHello’. See the screen shot below for project structure after adding interface.

Picture showing the sample wcf service project

Click to Enlarge

Add a reference of System.ServiceModel in the project. After that add the following code for the interface ‘IHello’.

using System.ServiceModel;

namespace WCFService { 
  [ServiceContract(Name = "MyService", Namespace = "MyNamespace")]
	public interface IHello { 
    [OperationContract(Name = "HelloMethod")]
		string SayHello(string name);
	}
}

In the code above Name and Namespace properties inside ServiceContract attribute are the alias names for the service and method to hide the service and method name from the client when proxy class is created.

After that add a new class in the project (There is already a class called Class1 as shown in screen shot above. Either you can rename that file and class or delete that file and add the existing one). This class will implement IHello interface. See the code below for the implementation of IHello interface

namespace WCFService {
	public class Hello: IHello {
		public string SayHello(string name) {
			return string.Format("Hello {0}", name);
		}
	}
}

Compile the project. Once your project is compiled successfully your service is ready for hosting.

Create A Console Application For Hosting Service

Now add another project of type Console application which will act as a server for hosting WCF service.

First of all add 2 references in the project first of System.ServiceModel and second the reference of WCFService project. See the screen shot below for project structure.

Picture showing adding the reference of WCF service and System.ServiceModel assembly in the console application

Click to Enlarge

Once you have added the reference add following code in program.cs

using System;
using System.ServiceModel;

namespace HostingServer {
	class Program {
		static void Main(string[] args) {
			ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(WCFService.Hello));
			host.Open();
			Console.ReadLine();
			host.Close();
		}
	}
}

In the code above I am creating the instance of ServiceHost class and calling Open() method.Last step is to add an application configuration file(app.config) and add following code.

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?><configuration><system.serviceModel><services><service name="WCFService.Hello" behaviorConfiguration="MyBehavior"><host><baseAddresses><add baseAddress="http://localhost:9876/serviceURL"/></baseAddresses></host><endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="WCFService.IHello"></endpoint><endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange"></endpoint></service></services><behaviors><serviceBehaviors><behavior name="MyBehavior"><serviceMetadata/></behavior></serviceBehaviors></behaviors></system.serviceModel></configuration>

We will discuss above the configuration file in the subsequent tutorials. Now your console application is ready for hosting the WCF service.

Create A Console Client Application

As of now we have created a WCF service and the hosting environment. Now we need a client application which consumes WCF service.

Create a new console application (you can use windows as well as web application which can act as a client for consuming service).

First of all add a reference of System.ServiceModel in the project. Now add a service reference in the project. To add a service reference

Right click of the console application HostingServer and set the project as start up project
Press Ctrl + F5 to run the application. See the screen shot below

Picture showing running the console client application

Click to Enlarge

Now right click on the client console application and click on Add Service Reference…
A pop up appears. Inside the Address textbox add the base address which we have added in app.config file of hostingServer console application i.e. http://localhost:9876/serviceURL..
Click on Go. See the screen shot below

Picture showing adding the reference of service to the console client application

Click to Enlarge

Once you find the service click on Ok. A service reference is added in the project.

Once the service reference is added add the following code in program.cs

using System;

namespace ClientApp {
	class Program {
		static void Main(string[] args) {
			ServiceReference1.MyServiceClient proxy = new ServiceReference1.MyServiceClient();
			Console.WriteLine(proxy.HelloMethod("Karan"));
			Console.ReadLine();
		}
	}
}

Now our work for all the three projects is done. Now we can run the client application

Output

Now run the client application.

Click to Enlarge

It is important to check the proxy class created. To see the proxy class

Click on the service reference in the client console application
Click on Show all files.
Expand the service reference
Expand the file Reference.svcmap and click on reference.cs. See the screen shot below for proxy class.

Picture showing the Reference.svcmap file from reference.cs

Click to Enlarge

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Thursday, July 18, 2013

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