WCF: Step-by-Step Tutorial

This is a getting started tutorial to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Services. I have discussed a simple service to calculate the area of a rectangle;

1. First you need to download and install Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation). Oops, looks like it needs a windows validation (bit of a problem if you have a pirate copy) 2. Once the installation is complete, start Visual Studio to create the project. Goto File->New->Web Site, and youll see a new template called WFC Service.

Click OK to create an empty WCF Service. 3. Time to get started with the coding Service.svc
<% @ServiceHost Language=C# Debug="true" Service="GeometryService" CodeBehind="~/App_Code/Service.cs" %>

Only a small change here the name of the service Web.config

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0"> <system.serviceModel> <services> <!-- Before deployment, you should remove the returnFaults behavior configuration to avoid disclosing information in exception messages --> <service name="GeometryService" behaviorConfiguration="GeometryServiceBehavior"> <endpoint contract="IGeometryService" binding="wsHttpBinding"/> </service> </services> <behaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="GeometryServiceBehavior" > <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" /> <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" /> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> </system.serviceModel> <system.web> <compilation debug="true"/> </system.web> </configuration>

Enable metadata publishing and change the name of the service. Service.cs
using System; using System.ServiceModel; using System.Runtime.Serialization; // A WCF service consists of a contract (defined below as IMyService, DataContract1), // a class which implements that interface (see MyService), // and configuration entries that specify behaviors associated with // that implementation (see <system.serviceModel> in web.config) [ServiceContract()] public interface IGeometryService { [OperationContract] int GetArea(Rectangle rect); [OperationContract] int GetPerimeter(int width, int height); } public class GeometryService : IGeometryService { public int GetArea(Rectangle rect) { return rect.Area(); }

public int GetPerimeter(int width, int height) { Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(width, height); return rect.Perimeter(); } } [DataContract] public class Rectangle { int width; int height; public Rectangle(int width, int height) { Width = width; Height = height; } [DataMember] public int Width { get { return width; } set { width = value < 0 ? 0 : value; } } [DataMember] public int Height { get { return height; } set { height = value < 0 ? 0 : value; } } public int Area() { return Height * Width; } public int Perimeter() { return 2 * (Height + Width); }

This is the code for the service. 4. Run the service click F5

This is what you get on the browser. So, lets do what they want. 5. Run the following on you command on Visual Studio Command Prompt
svcutil.exe http://localhost:1479/GeoWFCService/Service.svc?wsdl

Watch out, the path might be different And if you dont know what Visual Studio command prompt is Studio command prompt is

6. Lets create the client Create (or rather add) a new project; this could even be a website

7. Then run the service Ctrl + F5 8. Add a web reference to the service

8. Copy the GeometryService.cs created by svcutil in step 5 to the clients working (main) folder and add them to the project

You should also copy the configurations of output.config created by svcutil to app.config 9. Again time for coding Form1.cs
using using using using using using using System; System.Collections.Generic; System.ComponentModel; System.Data; System.Drawing; System.Text; System.Windows.Forms;

namespace GeoWFCClient

public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private void calculateButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { GeometryServiceClient gsclient = new GeometryServiceClient(); /* The overloaded constructor of Rectangle is not present here */ Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(); rect.Width = Int32.Parse(widthTextBox.Text); rect.Height = Int32.Parse(heightTextBox.Text);

areaTextBox.Text = gsclient.GetArea(rect).ToString(); perimeterTextBox.Text = gsclient.GetPerimeter(rect.Width, rect.Height).ToString(); } } }

Set the textboxes and labels with appropriate names. 10. When you compile youll get a set of error because some assemblies are not referenced. Add references to them

11. Now see how it works Start the service if havent done so already, and run the client

Wow! It works