WCF, Accessing a windows forms controls from a service

Question

I have a WCF service that is hosted inside a Windows Form.

How can I access the controls of the form from the methods in my service?

for example I have

Answer 1

First of all, the ServiceContract attribute should be on the interface, not the PrintMessage() method.

Using a corrected version of your example, you can do it this way.

[ServiceContract]
public interface IService
{
    [OperationContract]
    string PrintMessage(string message);
}
public class Service : IService
{
    public string PrintMessage(string message)
    {
        // Invoke the delegate here.
        try {
            UpdateTextDelegate handler = TextUpdater;
            if (handler != null)
            {
                handler(this, new UpdateTextEventArgs(message));
            }
        } catch {
        }
    }
    public static UpdateTextDelegate TextUpdater { get; set; }
}

public delegate void UpdateTextDelegate(object sender, UpdateTextEventArgs e);

public class UpdateTextEventArgs
{
    public string Text { get; set; }
    public UpdateTextEventArgs(string text)
    {
        Text = text;
    }
}

public class MainForm : Form
{
    public MainForm()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        // Update the delegate of your service here.
        Service.TextUpdater = ShowMessageBox;

        // Create your WCF service here
        ServiceHost myService = new ServiceHost(typeof(IService), uri);
    }
    // The ShowMessageBox() method has to match the signature of
    // the UpdateTextDelegate delegate.
    public void ShowMessageBox(object sender, UpdateTextEventArgs e)
    {
        // Use Invoke() to make sure the UI interaction happens
        // on the UI thread...just in case this delegate is
        // invoked on another thread.
        Invoke((MethodInvoker) delegate {
            MessageBox.Show(e.Text);
        } );
    }
}

This is essentially the solution suggested by @Simon Fox, i.e., use a delegate. This hopefully just puts some flesh on the bones, so to speak.