Consuming Web Service In a Console Application

Background

In my previous article we learned how to create a simple Web Service and  also we consumed the Web Service in a web site as well as in a Windows application. This article explains how to consume the Web Service in a console application.
And remember, I have written this article only focusing on beginners. So let us start step-by-step so beginners can understand it very easily.

If you are a beginner and want to learn about Web Services then please refer to the following articles of mine:

1. Introduction to Web Service with Example in ASP.Net
2. Consuming Web Service In an ASP.Net Web Application
3. Consuming Web Service In Windows Application
    

Requirement

You need to keep a Web Service application in running mode so it can be accessible for use, so go to my article Introduction to Web Service with Example in ASP.Net and create a Web Service and keep it in running mode I hope you have done that.

So let us create the simple console application as:

1. "Start" - "All Programs" - "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010".
2. "File" - "New" - "Project..." then in the New Project window, console "C#" - ".
3. Give the project a name, such as "Consumingwebservice" or another as you wish and specify the location.

Adding a Web Service Reference in the  console application

1. Right-click on the  console application and click on "Add Service Reference" as in the following:

2.  Then after clicking on the preceding option, the following window will appear, then click on the "Advanced" tab.

3. Now after clicking on the Advanced tab, it will show the following window then click on the "Add Web Reference" option as in the following in a circle:

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4. After clicking on the Add Web Reference tab, it will show the following window. Now this is a very important step, when adding the web reference to the console  application. Since you see the "URL" option in the following window, on that window we need to paste or type the Web Service URL address.


 

Now in the preceding box paste the URL of the Web Service that you have seen in the browser URL while running the Web Service.

-----What After Pasting the URL in the preceding URL box

After pasting the URL in the preceding window box, click on the green right headed arrow button, it will discover the Web Services available related to that URL address and you see that in the related URL tgere is one Web Service. A message is displayed along with the Web Service name, "Web Services" in the preceding right hand side window.

The Name of the Web Service is "WebService" because I have given the class name as Web Service, that's why the name is Web Services; in your case it might be different or the class name is anything so you can use any name for the Web Service so don't be confused about it. Then click on the "Add Reference" button.
 

Then after adding the Web Service reference in the console application the Solution Explorer will look as in the following:

 

 

In the preceding window, you have clearly seen that the Web Service reference named "localhostService" is added into the console  application. I hope you understand how to add the Web Service reference into the console application.

Calling the Web Service method from the console  application

We have added the Web Service reference into our console application. Now next is, how to call the Web Service method that we created in our Web Service Application from the console application.

The following is the procedure:

1.  Open the console application class file.

2. Now write the following code to create the object of the Web Service class:

localhostservice.webservice objservice=new localhostservice.webservice ();

In the code above, I have created the object of Web Service class named "objservice" followed by the Web reference name ("localhostservice") and Web Service class ("webservice"), I hope you understand how to create the object of the Web Service class.

The entire code be as follows:

 

Code Explanation

In the code above, I first created the object of the Web Service class named "objservice" followed by Web reference name ("localhostservice") and Web Service class ("webservice").

Then I declared the three integer variables "day", "month" and "year" to store the values provided by the user as input from the console.

Now, in the next step, as you know our new Web Service method takes three parameters, so I ed the three input parameters "day", "month" and "year" to the Web Service method "converttodaysweb".

Then I declared another integer variable, "days", to store the values returned by the Web Service method "converttodaysweb".

And finally I displayed the values returned by the Web Service method "converttodaysweb" on the console line using the variable "days" because, as you know, we have stored the returned values of the method into the variable days, so the final result will be stored in the variable days.

Now, run the console  application and provide the input of day, month and year. I will enter my Date of Birth , it will show the output as in the following:

 

In the preceding screen, you see that currently, I am 8838 days old, which means that for the last 8838  days, I have been on this earth.

Note:

• For detailed code please download the zip file attached above.
• Also refer to my previous article about creating a Web Service.

Summary

I hope that beginners as well as students understand the creation and consumption of Web Services in console applications using my two articles. If you have any suggestion regarding this articles then please contact me. Student suggestions are also welcomed.