Creating WCF Service For Beginners

Introduction

This article will explain how to create and consume basic WCF service using Visual Studio 2012. At the end of the article you will able to create your first WCF Service.

What is WCF Service?

Windows Communication Foundation is a SDK for developing, configuring and deploying the services in windows.

WCF service is based on SOAP and returns data in XML form. It is the evolution of the web service(ASMX) and supports various protocols like TCP, HTTP, HTTPS, Named Pipes, MSMQ. It is not open source but can be consumed by any client that understands xml. It can be hosted within the application or on IIS or using window service.

What is ABC?

ABC is the three building blocks of WCF and they are known as,

• A - Address (Where): Address tells us where to find the services, like url.
• B - Bindings (How): Bindings tells us how to find the services or using which protocols finds the services (SOAP, HTTP, TCT etc.),
  
• C - Contacts (What): Contracts are an agreement between the consumer and the service providers that explains what parameters the service expects and what return values it gives.

Steps to create WCF Service

In this example I am going to create sample WCF service called RKFirstWCFService, this service has a function called FindCaller to find the caller name for given phone number.

Add another Windows application to consume this WCF Service.

Step: 1

Open Visual Studio as an Administrator.



Step: 2

Create WCF Service Application,



Stop: 3

Remove the existing Service contracts and Data contracts and add below ones.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.Text;

namespace RKFirstWCFService
{
    [ServiceContract]
    publicinterfaceIService1
    {
        [OperationContract]
        string FindCaller(myDataContract myDataCont);
    }

    [DataContract]
    publicclassmyDataContract
    {
        double phNo;

        [DataMember]
        publicdouble PhoneNumber
        {
            get {
                return phNo;
            }
            set {
                phNo = value;
            }
        }
    }
}

Step: 4

Implement IService1 methods in Service. Write your own code to display caller name based on the phone number.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.Text;

namespace RKFirstWCFService
{
    publicclassService1: IService1
    {
        publicstring FindCaller(myDataContract myDataCont)
        {
            // You can write your own logic here to find the caller
            if (myDataCont.PhoneNumber == 9848098480) {
                return "Ramakrishna Basagalla";
            } else {
                return "Record Not Found";
            }
        }
    }
}

Step: 5

Edit the Web.Config and add Service and serviceBehaviors(copy and paste the below code)



Configuration code:

<?xmlversion="1.0"?>
    <configuration>
        <appSettings>
            <addkey="aspnet:UseTaskFriendlySynchronizationContext" value="true" />
        </appSettings>
        <system.web>
            <compilationdebug="true" targetFramework="4.5" />
            <httpRuntimetargetFramework="4.5" />
        </system.web>
        <system.serviceModel>
            <services>
                <servicebehaviorConfiguration="NewBehavior0" name="RKFirstWCFService.Service1">
                    <endpointaddress="RKEndpoint" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="" contract="RKFirstWCFService.IService1" />
                    </service>
            </services>
            <behaviors>
                <serviceBehaviors>
                    <behaviorname="">
                        <serviceMetadatahttpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="true" />
                        <serviceDebugincludeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
                        </behavior>
                        <behaviorname="NewBehavior0">
                            <serviceMetadatahttpGetEnabled="true" />
                            </behavior>
                </serviceBehaviors>
            </behaviors>
            <protocolMapping>
                <addbinding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https" />
            </protocolMapping>
            <serviceHostingEnvironmentaspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
        </system.serviceModel>
        <system.webServer>
            <modulesrunAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />
            <!--
To browse web app root directory during debugging, set the value below to true.
Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing web app folder information.
-->
            <directoryBrowseenabled="true" />
        </system.webServer>
    </configuration>

Step: 6

Add Windows application to consume the WCF Service.



Step: 7

Add service reference and select WCF by discovering the WCF Service.

Note: To add the WCF service, the service must be in running.





Step: 8

Design the page (Add controls to page)



Code to access the WCF Service:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace RKWebServiceClient
{
    publicpartialclassForm1: Form
    {
        public Form1() {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        privatevoid button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // Create Proxy to consume the WCF Service
            RKWcfServiceReference.Service1Client rKProxy = new RKWcfServiceReference.Service1Client();

            // Create object for Data Contract to access the data members
            RKWcfServiceReference.myDataContract dcObj = new RKWcfServiceReference.myDataContract();
            dcObj.PhoneNumber = Convert.ToDouble(textBox1.Text);

            // Call the Wcf service
            MessageBox.Show(rKProxy.FindCaller(dcObj));
        }
    }
}

Step: 9

Run and test the WCF Service.

Output:

 

Read more articles on WCF:

• Different Ways To Create Instance Of The WCF Service
• WCF Service Injection In Controller Using Castle Windsor