Firing Event in WCF Host

Question

I'm running a WCF service hosted in a WPF app, and am trying to raise an event in the host when a message is sent to the service, but am having great difficulty.

My code is as follows:

Service -

namespace BatService
{
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface IBatServ
    {
        [OperationContract]
        void UseGadget(string name);
    }

    [ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode=InstanceContextMode.Single)]
    public class BatServ : IBatServ
    {
        public void UseGadget(string name)
        {
            OnUsedGadget(name);
        }

        public static event EventHandler<BatArgs> UsedGadget;
        public static void OnUsedGadget(string name)
        {
            if (UsedGadget != null)
                UsedGadget(null, new BatArgs() { BatGadget = name });
        }
    }

    public class BatArgs : EventArgs
    {
        public string BatGadget;
    }
}

Host -

namespace BatHostWPF
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(BatServ));
            BatServ.UsedGadget += new EventHandler<BatArgs>(BatServ_UsedGadget);
            host.Open();
        }

        void BatServ_UsedGadget(object sender, BatArgs e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(e.BatGadget + " was used!");
        }
    }
}

Service App.config -

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>

  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" />
  </system.web>
  <!-- When deploying the service library project, the content of the config file must be added to the host's 
  app.config file. System.Configuration does not support config files for libraries. -->
  <system.serviceModel>
    <services>
      <service name="BatService.BatServ">
        <endpoint address="" binding="wsHttpBinding" contract="BatService.IBatServ">
          <identity>
            <dns value="localhost" />
          </identity>
        </endpoint>
        <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
        <host>
          <baseAddresses>
            <add baseAddress="http://localhost:8732/Design_Time_Addresses/BatService/Service1/" />
          </baseAddresses>
        </host>
      </service>
    </services>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior>
          <!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information, 
          set the value below to false and remove the metadata endpoint above before deployment -->
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="True"/>
          <!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, 
          set the value below to true.  Set to false before deployment 
          to avoid disclosing exception information -->
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="False" />
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
  </system.serviceModel>

</configuration>

Host's App.config -

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <system.serviceModel>
        <behaviors>
            <serviceBehaviors>
                <behavior name="NewBehavior0">
                    <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
                </behavior>
            </serviceBehaviors>
        </behaviors>
        <services>
            <service behaviorConfiguration="NewBehavior0" name="BatService.BatServ">
                <clear />
                <endpoint address="net.pipe://localhost/battserv" binding="netNamedPipeBinding"
                    bindingConfiguration="" contract="BatService.IBatServ" />
                <host>
                    <baseAddresses>
                        <add baseAddress="http://localhost:8888/batserv" />
                    </baseAddresses>
                </host>
            </service>
        </services>
    </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

As you can probably guess, I'm expecting to see a MessageBox when I call UseGadget() from a client. Whenever I try to test it out with VS's WcfTestClient.exe, nothing seems to happen at all. Where am I going wrong?

this doesn't seem to work with wcf 4.5 – O.O May 09 '13 at 22:16 — O.O, May 09 '13 at 22:16

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 04 '12 at 23:34

1

It turns out my endpoints weren't configured correctly. This page helped me solve my problems - http://www.switchonthecode.com/tutorials/wcf-tutorial-basic-interprocess-communication

answered Jul 04 '12 at 23:34

Paul McLean

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 03 '12 at 01:28

I'm not sure if you can "raise events" in wcf, but you can create duplex communication architectures. The netTCPBinding, netNamedPipBinding and wsDualHttpBinding support this functionality.

Here is a video demonstration how to do callbacks with the wsDualHttpBinding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO2JsLrP75E

I've never done this with netNamedPipeBinding, but i assume the procedure is similar.

Remember to update your app.config files and service references when you're done with your implementation.

Hope that helps!

Not helpful I'm afraid. The OP is not asking about events between services and consumers but internally within a service, from the service implementation and service host container (in this case a winforms app) — tom redfern, Jul 03 '12 at 06:55

Firing Event in WCF Host

2 Answers2