WCF Self Hosting in a Console Application Simplified

In order to host a Windows Communication Foundation Service, we normally need a managed process, a ServiceHost instance and an endpoint configured forWCF Service.We can host aWCF Service in following different possible ways:

Hosting in a Managed Application/ Self Hosting
- Console Application
- Windows/WPF Application
- Windows Service
Hosting on Web Server
- IIS 6.0 (ASP.NET Application supports only HTTP)
- Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) i.e. IIS 7.0 supports HTTP, TCP, NamedPipes, MSMQ.

In this WCF Tutorial, focus is to Self Host our WCF Service in a Console Application using step by step approach. Self Hosting a WCF Service in a console application is comparatively easy as well as flexible because we can achieve the purpose by writing few lines of code.
Let’s first Create a Simple WCF Service i.e. a StudentService and then host in a Console application. StudentService having service operation GetStudentInfo that takes StudentId as parameter and returns student name.
1. Create StudentService Class Library:
Open Visual Studio and Create a new Class Library Project, name it as “StudentService” and press “OK” button.

Then, right click on project and Add a new “WCF Service” to this Class Library Project.

It will add Service Contract (IStudentService) and it’s implementation class (StudentService) to class library project. Also, it will add a reference to System.ServiceModel.

Code for IStudentService interface will be as follows:

[ServiceContract] public interface IStudentService
{
[OperationContract]
string GetStudentInfo(int studentId);
}

And following is the code for StudentService implementation class:

public class StudentService : IStudentService
   {
   public string GetStudentInfo(int studentId)
   {
string studentName = string.Empty;
   switch (studentId)
   {
   case 1:
   {
   studentName = “Muhammad Ahmad”;
   break;
   }
   case 2:
   {
   studentName = “Muhammad Hamza”;
   break;
   }
default:
   {
   studentName = “No student found”;
   break;
   }
   }
   return studentName;
   }
   }

2. Add a Console Application:

In order to host this service in Console application, let’s add a new console application project “StudentHost” to this solution.

Our console application will have reference to:

StudentService class library
System.ServiceModel.

At the start of this WCF Tutorial, we discuss that hosting a WCF service requires a Managed Process (i.e. console application), Service Host (an instance of ServiceHost class) and one or more Service Endpoints. Detailed implementation of Student host application is as follows:

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

ServiceHost studentServiceHost = null;

try

{

//Base Address for StudentService

Uri httpBaseAddress = new Uri(“http://localhost:4321/StudentService”);

//Instantiate ServiceHost

studentServiceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(StudentService.StudentService),
httpBaseAddress);

//Add Endpoint to Host

studentServiceHost.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(StudentService.IStudentService),

new WSHttpBinding(), “”);

//Metadata Exchange

ServiceMetadataBehavior serviceBehavior = new ServiceMetadataBehavior();

serviceBehavior.HttpGetEnabled = true;

studentServiceHost.Description.Behaviors.Add(serviceBehavior);

//Open

studentServiceHost.Open();

Console.WriteLine(“Service is live now at : {0}”, httpBaseAddress);

Console.ReadKey();

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

studentServiceHost = null;

Console.WriteLine(“There is an issue with StudentService” + ex.Message);

}

Now, simply build the console application and run it after setting as startup project. You will see the following screen that shows our self-hosted WCF Service is running.

In this WCF Service Tutorial, we have created a Windows Communication Foundation Service and hosted in a Console Application. In following post on this WCF blog, we will call this self hosted WCF service from a client application.

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