Consume a Custom WCF Service in a Console Application

In this article, you will see how to consume the custom WCF service in a Console Application.

SQL database details

Employee_Details table has the following data:

I have created a custom WCF service and hosted it in IIS http://localhost:9002/EmployeesService/EmployeesService.svc which is used to fetch the data from the above SQL database table for the specified id.

Syntax

public Employee_Detail getEmployeebyId(int empId)

Return Value

Type: EmployeesWCFService.Employee_Detail

You will get the following result for the specified id 102:

Create a Console application

Steps Involved

Open Visual Studio 2010 by going to Start | All Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 | Right click on Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and click on Run as Administrator.
Go to File tab, click on New and then click on Project.
In the New Project dialog box, expand the Visual C# node, and then select the Windows node.
In the Templates pane, select Console Application.
Enter the Name and then click OK.
In the Solution Explorer, right click on the solution and then click on Properties.
Select the Application tab, check whether ".Net Framework 3.5" is selected for Target Framework.
Select the Build tab; check whether "Any CPU" is selected for Platform Target.
In the Solution Explorer, right click on the References folder and click on Add Service Reference.
The Add Service Reference wizard will pop up.
In the Address section, enter the WCF service URL and then click on Go button.
Enter the proper name for the Namespace.
Click on Ok.
Service Reference will be added successfully.
Replace Program.cs with the following code.
1. using System;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using System.Linq;
4. using System.Text;
5. using ConsumeCustomWCF.EmployeesServiceReference;
6. using System.Net;
7. namespace ConsumeCustomWCF
8. {
9. class Program
10. {
11. static void Main(string[] args)
12. {
13. EmployeesServiceClient serviceClient = new EmployeesServiceClient();
14. EmployeesServiceReference.Employee_Detail emp = serviceClient.getEmployeebyId(102);
15. Console.WriteLine(emp.EmpId);
16. Console.WriteLine(emp.EmployeeName);
17. Console.WriteLine(emp.EmployeeDesignation);
18. Console.WriteLine(emp.Dept);
19. Console.WriteLine(emp.WorkLocation);
20. Console.ReadLine();
21. }
22. }
23. }
Build the solution.
Hit F5.
Output:

Summary

Thus in this article, you have seen how to consume a custom WCF service in a Console application.