Windows Communication Foundation:

Windows Communication Foundation(WCF) takes many existing communication technologies, such as Web Services, Windows Remoting, Microsoft Message Queuing, and abstracts them into a single technology. In most cases, this simplifies the way you communicate with other applications. It also allows you to communicate with other applications without being coupled to a specific technology. In this we are going to create a simple WCF service and we are going to host that service inside SharePoint 2010 .

Steps Involved:

Create a WCF Service:

The following steps should be followed to create a WCF service using Visual Studio 2010.

I. Open Visual Studio 2010.

ii. Go to File => New => Project.

iii. Select WCF Service Application under installed template category WCF and name it as Wcf.

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iv. Target the .Net Framework 3.5.

v. Click OK.

vi. In the Solution Explorer delete Service.svc and IService.cs files.

vii. Right click the Solution Explorer and add a New Item.

viii. Select WCF Service and name it as CustomService.svc.

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ix. Replace ICustomerService.cs with the following code.

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

namespace Wcf

{
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface ICustomService
    {
        [OperationContract]
       string GetTime();
    }
}


x. Replace CustomerService.svc.cs with the following code.
using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Runtime.Serialization;

using System.ServiceModel;

using System.Text;

 

namespace Wcf

{

    public class CustomService : ICustomService

    {

        public string GetTime()

        {

            return DateTime.Now.ToString();

        }

    }

}

xi. In the Web.config file remove the below code.

<service behaviorConfiguration="Wcf.Service1Behavior" name="Wcf.Service1">

        <endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="Wcf.IService1">

          <identity>

            <dns value="localhost" />

          </identity>

        </endpoint>

        <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />

      </service>

<behavior name="Wcf.Service1Behavior">

          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />

          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />

        </behavior>
xii. Now Save the project and Build the application.

Add a new Web Site:

I. Start Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Click Start => All Programs => Administrative Tools => Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

ii. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right-click on Sites, and select Add Web Site.
 

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iii. In the Add Web Site dialog box, in the Site name field, enter WCF. In the Physical path field, enter C:\Users\kfcb554pa.tst\Desktop\Project\Wcf\Wcf. In the Port field, enter 6000 and click OK.

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iv. Validate that the web service is running. Start Internet Explorer, and browse to http://ukcbemtsekikm01:6000/CustomService.svc. (Note: ukcbemtsekikm01 is the server name). If the web service is running, you will see the following:

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v. Another approach to test the Web service is to use the WCF test client. Start a Visual Studio command prompt. Enter wcftestclient to run the WCF test client.
 

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vi. Click File => Add Service.

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vii. Enter http://ukcbemtsekikm01:6000/CustomService.svc as the endpoint address, and click OK.
 

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viii. If the service was added successfully, you will see the methods that the service exposes as shown below.

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ix. Double-click on GetTime. This opens a window that allows you to configure the request and invoke the request.

x. Thus the WCF has been created and hosted inside SharePoint 2010.

 

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