How to communicate between WCF service and host application?

Question

I created an WCF service through this tutorial. This works great, no problems here. Now I am hosting the service in an Managed Application. But at the same time I would like

Answer 1

There is a framework and tutorial available that seems to handle this problem quite nicely WPF Service Host on Codeplex.

EDIT: Updated to illustrate technique created by the WPF Service Host template.

The WPF Service Host is a template for Visual Studio that creates a skeleton application and test client. I'll describe the relevant pieces here.

Here's what the skeleton project looks like:

ClientServiceHost.cs

using System;
using System.ServiceModel;

namespace WPFServiceHost1.Service
{
    public class ClientServiceHost : IDisposable
    {
        private bool _Initalized;

        private ServiceHost _InnerServiceHost;
        private MainWindow _MainWindow;

        public ClientServiceHost(MainWindow mainWindow)
        {
            _MainWindow = mainWindow;
            InitializeServiceHost();
        }

        private void InitializeServiceHost()
        {
            try
            {
                ClientService clientService = new ClientService(_MainWindow);
                _InnerServiceHost = new ServiceHost(clientService);

                _InnerServiceHost.Opened += new EventHandler(_InnerServiceHost_Opened);
                _InnerServiceHost.Faulted += new EventHandler(_InnerServiceHost_Faulted);
                _InnerServiceHost.Open();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw new Exception("Unable to initialize ClientServiceHost", ex);
            }
        }

        void _InnerServiceHost_Opened(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            _Initalized = true;
        }

        void _InnerServiceHost_Faulted(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            this._InnerServiceHost.Abort();

            if (_Initalized)
            {
                _Initalized = false;
                InitializeServiceHost();
            }
        }

        #region IDisposable Members

        public void Dispose()
        {
            try
            {
                _InnerServiceHost.Opened -= _InnerServiceHost_Opened;
                _InnerServiceHost.Faulted -= _InnerServiceHost_Faulted;
                _InnerServiceHost.Close();
            }
            catch
            {
                try { _InnerServiceHost.Abort(); }
                catch { }
            }
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

MainWindow.xaml

    
        Messages received:
        
    

MainWindow.xaml.cs

using System.Threading;
using WPFServiceHost1.Service;

namespace WPFServiceHost1
{
    /// 

    /// Interaction logic for Window1.xaml
    /// 
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public SynchronizationContext _SyncContext = SynchronizationContext.Current;
        private ClientServiceHost _ClientServiceHost;

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            _ClientServiceHost = new ClientServiceHost(this);
        }

        private void Window_Closing(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
        {
            _ClientServiceHost.Dispose();
        }
    }
}

IClientService.cs

using System.ServiceModel;

namespace WPFServiceHost1.Service
{
    [ServiceContract(Namespace = "urn:WPFServiceHost")]
    public interface IClientService
    {
        [OperationContract]
        void ClientNotification(string message);
    }
}

ClientService.cs

using System;
using System.ServiceModel;

namespace WPFServiceHost1.Service
{
    [ServiceBehavior(ConcurrencyMode = ConcurrencyMode.Single, InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.Single, UseSynchronizationContext = false)]
    public class ClientService : IClientService
    {
        private MainWindow _MainWindow;

        public ClientService(MainWindow window)
        {
            _MainWindow = window;
        }

        #region IClientService Members
        public void ClientNotification(string message)
        {
            try
            {
                _MainWindow._SyncContext.Send(state =>
                {
                    _MainWindow.listBox1.Items.Add(message);
                }, null);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw new FaultException(ex.Message);
            }
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

App.config

And the TestClient, Program.cs:

using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.Threading;

namespace TestClient
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            IClientService proxy = null;

            try
            {
                proxy = ChannelFactory.CreateChannel(new BasicHttpBinding(), new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:8010/ClientService"));
                Console.WriteLine("Press  when ClientService is running.");
                Console.ReadLine();
                Console.WriteLine();

                Console.WriteLine("Sending a single message to ClientService");
                proxy.ClientNotification("Hello from TestClient");

                Console.WriteLine();

                Console.Write("Enter a valid number to load test ClientService: ");
                string result = Console.ReadLine();
                int testCount = Convert.ToInt32(result);
                int counter = 0;
                object counterLock = new object();

                while (true)
                {
                    lock (counterLock)
                    {
                        Thread t = new Thread(() => proxy.ClientNotification(string.Format("Load test from TestClient: {0}", ++counter)));
                        t.Start();
                    }

                    if (counter == testCount)
                        break;
                }

                Console.ReadLine();
            }
            finally
            {
                ICommunicationObject co = proxy as ICommunicationObject;
                try
                {
                    co.Close();
                }
                catch { co.Abort(); }
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}