How to Create and Consume WCF Services

Mukesh Kumar

7y125.7k10100Article

10 Comments

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farid bayram4y ago
Wcf client creation is missing in this article)
mayank mittal14y ago
Hi I coded exactly the way described in post but not getting CopyToDataTable in intellisense and have added system.data.DatasetExtensions into reference but still not working. Please suggest
- Mukesh Kumar14y ago
  WCFService folder in sample code contains DataSetLinqOperators.cs class which contains extension method CopyToDataTable add this class in your service project. You don't need to add any reference for this method.
- mayank mittal14y ago
  contd to last post .....also I checked by writing system.data.datatableExtension.CaopyToDataTable() but in this case its saying that table i am using can not be taken as type and there is no implicit reference conversion from WCFService.table to datarow. Thanks Mayank
Lali15y ago
The article is helpful, but I am having problem. When I right click on UserService.svc and select "View in Browser" it shows "There are errors building." The errors show: The type or namespace name 'UsersEntities' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) What I need to do to fix the error? Advance thanks for the help
Ramavatar Sonee15y agoedited
I came to know that we need to host the application to consume it, but here we did not host it, may i know the reason pls
shahid khan15y ago
hi mukesh your article is very nice but a i am not understanding where is the UsersEntities() class and what it contains.pls reply me with the answer. Thanks
- Mukesh Kumar15y ago
  When you use Entity Framework with database first approach it will automatically generate an entity class.
Reeta Singh Lodhi15y ago
Very nicely explained in simple steps.
sarath P V15y ago
Hi, Explanation about WCF is very helpful and i will successfully create a wcf service and deploy it. Regards, Sarath P V

What is WCF?

WCF is a unification technology, which unites .Net Remoting, MSMQ, Web Services and COM+ technologies.

WCF provides a runtime environment for your services, enabling you to expose CLR types as services and to consume other services as CLR types.

Creating WCF Service

Open Visual Studio 2008/2010. Click on File menu -> New -> Project ->WCF Service Application. Change the name as "WCFService" then click Ok button.

Delete auto generated files IService1.cs and Service1.svc and create new (right click on WCFService project and select Add -> New Item -> WCF Service). Rename service as "UserService".

Now add an Entity Data Model in your project to communicate with database.

Service Code

Replace interface IUserService with the code given below :

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.Text;
namespace WCFService
{
[ServiceContract]
public interface IUserService
{
[OperationContract]
string Authenticate(string UserName, string A_CryptKey);
[OperationContract]
DataTable GetApprovedUser();
}
}

Replace UserService class code with the code given below :

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.Text;
namespace WCFService
{
public class UserService : IUserService
{
public string Authenticate(string UserName, string A_CryptKey)
{
using (var Context = new UsersEntities())
{
var user = Context.Users.Where(c => c.UserName == UserName && c.A_CryptKey == A_CryptKey).FirstOrDefault();
if (user != null)
return Convert.ToString(user.UserID) + "," + Convert.ToString(user.B_CryptKey);
else
return string.Empty;
}
}
public DataTable GetApprovedUser()
{
using (var Context = new UsersEntities())
{
DataTable objdt = new DataTable();
objdt = Context.Users.Where(c => c.IsApproved == true).ToList().CopyToDataTable();
return objdt;
}
}
}
}

Service configuration

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.web>
<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0">
<assemblies>
<add assembly="System.Data.Entity, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
</assemblies>
</compilation>
</system.web>
<system.serviceModel>
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior>
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
</system.serviceModel>
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />
</system.webServer>
<connectionStrings>
<add name="UsersEntities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/Model1.csdl|res://*/Model1.ssdl|res://*/Model1.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string="Data Source=ServerName;Initial Catalog=Favourites;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=UserName;Password=Password;MultipleActiveResultSets=True"" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
</connectionStrings>
</configuration>

Consuming WCF Service

Now right click on UserService.svc and select "View in Browser". it will show a browser with service URL. Copy that URL

Now right click on WCFClient project select "Add Service Reference" and paste copied URL in Address section of "Add Service Reference" dialog box and click on Go button and rename Namespace as "UserService" and click ok button.

WCF Client code

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using UserService;
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
UserServiceClient proxy = new UserServiceClient();
string User = proxy.Authenticate("Mukesh", "X%AY#$tZ");
DataTable objdt = new DataTable();
objdt = proxy.GetApprovedUser();
proxy.Close();
}
}

Client side configuration

<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="BasicHttpBinding_IUserService" closeTimeout="00:01:00"
openTimeout="00:01:00" receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00"
allowCookies="false" bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"
maxBufferSize="65536" maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxReceivedMessageSize="65536"
messageEncoding="Text" textEncoding="utf-8" transferMode="Buffered"
useDefaultWebProxy="true">
<readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" maxArrayLength="16384"
maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
<security mode="None">
<transport clientCredentialType="None" proxyCredentialType="None"
realm="" />
<message clientCredentialType="UserName" algorithmSuite="Default" />
</security>
</binding>
</basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<client>
<endpoint address="http://localhost:57728/UserService.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IUserService" contract="UserService.IUserService"
name="BasicHttpBinding_IUserService" />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>