C# 4 and .NET 4

1302 ❘ ChaPTer 43 windOws cOmmunicAtiOn fOundAtiOn
hosTing
WCF is very flexible when you are choosing a host to run the service. The host can be a Windows service,
a COM+ application, WAS (Windows Activation Services) or IIS, a Windows application, or just a simple
console application. When creating a custom host with Windows Forms or WPF, you can easily create a
peer-to-peer solution.
Custom hosting
Let’s start with a custom host. The sample code shows hosting of a service within a console application;
however, in other custom host types, such as Windows services or Windows applications, you can program
the service in the same way.
In the Main() method, a ServiceHost instance is created. After the ServiceHost instance is created,
the application configuration file is read to define the bindings. You can also define the bindings
programmatically, as shown earlier. Next, the Open() method of the ServiceHost class is invoked, so the
service accepts client calls. With a console application, you need to be careful not to close the main thread
until the service should be closed. Here, the user is asked to “press return” to exit the service. When the user
does this, the Close() method is called to actually end the service:
using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
using (var serviceHost = new ServiceHost())
{
serviceHost.Open();
Console.WriteLine("The service started. Press return to exit");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
serviceHost.Close();
www.it-ebooks.info