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 for WCF Service.We can host a WCF 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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