Creating WCF Data Service from scratch and Hosting in Console Application

Objective 

In this article, I will show how 

1. WCF Service can be created from the scratch 
2. WCF  Service can be hosted in Console Application 

You can see video of this article here.

Let us say, we have a table called Student of below structure below in our database 

 

In Student table RollNumber is a primary key. 

Let us create WCF Data Service which will expose the above table as REST service 

Step 1

Create a new project. Select the project template Console Application from Windows tab. 

 

Step 2: Create a Data Model 

We can create a Data Model, which can be exposed as WCF Data Service in three ways 

1. Using ADO.Net Entity model.
2. Using LINQ to SQL class. 
3. Custom Data Model. 

For our purpose, I am going to use ADO.Net Entity model to create the data model.  So to create an entity model 

1. Right click on Console application and add a new item 
2. Select ADO.Net Entity model from Data tab. 
   
   
   
3. Since we have table in data base. So we are going to choose option, select from database. 
   
   
   
4. Either choose the data base from drop down or create a new data connection. 
   
   
   
   In above connection string StudentDBEntities is name of the connection string. If we want, we can change this connection string as per our requirement. 
   
   If your required data base is not listed in drop down then, you can create a new data connection. To create new data connection click on New Connection 
   
   
   
   You can give the data base server name and press refresh.  After pressing Refresh, you can choose the data base from the drop down.  After selecting the data base click on Test Connection to test connection established successfully or not? 
5. Select tables, views and stored procedure from data base you want to make as the part of your data model. Since we are having only one table so we are selecting one table. 
   
   
   
   If you want you can change name of the data model. By default it is name of the data base appended by the term model.  Click on Finish button to complete and create the data model. 
6. Now we can see that StudentDataModel.edmx has been created in the designer. 
   
   
   
   Since there is only one table, so there is only one table model at design surface. 
   
   Now we have created the data model which can be exposed as WCF Data Service.  Now you can see in solution explorer, you have  StudentModel.edmx and StdentModel.Designer.cs  files. 
   
   
   

Step 3

Add reference of 

System.ServiceModel;

System.ServiceModel.Web;

System.Data.Services;

System.Data.Services.Client

Step 4

Right click and add a class in console application. I am giving name here MyDataService to the class. 

 

Step 5

Add the below namespaces in the class MyDataService 

 

Step 6 

In this step we will create WCF Data Service class.  

1. Make the class as public. 
2. Inherit DataService class. 
3. Create a public method InitializeService 
4. Pass the input parameter of the type DataServiceConfiguration 
5. Set the protocol version to DataServiceProtocol version 2.0 

MyDataService.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.ServiceModel;

using System.ServiceModel.Web;

using System.Data.Services;

using System.Data.Services.Common;

namespace SelfHosted

{

   public class MyDataService :DataService<StudentDBEntities>

    {

       public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)

       {

           config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.All);

           config.DataServiceBehavior.MaxProtocolVersion = DataServiceProtocolVersion.V2;

       }

    }

}

Step 7

Host the WCF Data Service in Console application. So to do that , write the below code in Program.cs 

1. Create instance of WebServiceHost. 
2. Create instance of WebHttpBinding.
3. Add service end point with Contract IRequestHandler
4. Open the host

Full source code for hosting program is as below, 

Programs.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.ServiceModel;

using System.ServiceModel.Web;

using System.Data.Services;

using System.Data.Services.Common;

namespace SelfHosted

{

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            WebServiceHost host = new WebServiceHost(typeof(DataService),

                                  new Uri("http://localhost:9999/DataService"));

            WebHttpBinding binding = new WebHttpBinding();

            host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(IRequestHandler),

                                    binding, "WebServiceHost");

            host.Open();

            Console.WriteLine("Service at http://localhost:9999/DataService ");

            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to stop the Service ");

            Console.Read();

            host.Close();

        }

    }

}

Step 8

Just press F5 to run the WCF Data Service. Data Service will be hosted in the console application.

On running you can see, one table is listed. That table is Student 

 

So, we are able to run the WCF Data Service and this service Is hosted in console application.  We can consume the service in any client in the same way; we consume WCF Data service hosted in any other web server. 

I hope this post was useful, thanks for reading. Happy coding.