Reading and Updating WCF Configuration file

It had been very long since I had blogged. I had a peculiar requirement where I needed to parse the configuration of a WCF Service. that is the <System.ServiceModel> tag in the configuration file.
I finally came to know that there was a dedicated  namespace System.ServiceModel.Configuration,
Following is code that helps read and update the configuration file

 using system.ServiceModel;
 using system.ServiceModel.Configuration;

Configuration c = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);

//Read the Service Model Tag
ServiceModelSectionGroup SvCGroup =      System.ServiceModel.Configuration.ServiceModelSectionGroup.GetSectionGroup(c);

//get the count of the number of Services and the service Model
Console.WriteLine("Number of Services: " + SvCGroup.Services.Services.Count);
Console.WriteLine("Number of ServiceBehaviours: " + SvCGroup.Behaviors.ServiceBehaviors.Count);
//iterate through the services in the config file
foreach (ServiceElement ele in SvCGroup.Services.Services)
{
       //Name of the Service
    Console.WriteLine("Service Name -" + ele.Name);
               
     //The Host Tag
     HostElement hele = ele.Host;
        
        //iterate through the list of base addresses
     foreach (BaseAddressElement belement in hele.BaseAddresses)
     {
       Console.WriteLine(" Base Address -" + belement.BaseAddress);
     }
   
       //get the endpoint details
  foreach (ServiceEndpointElement sep in ele.Endpoints)
    {
     Console.WriteLine("------Endpoint -----------");
     Console.WriteLine("Address -" + sep.Address.ToString());
     Console.WriteLine("Binding -" + sep.Binding.ToString());
     Console.WriteLine("Contract -" + sep.Contract);
     Console.WriteLine("Changing Contract to IService2");
     sep.Contract = "IService2";
     Console.WriteLine("DNS -: " + sep.Identity.Dns.Value);
     Console.WriteLine();

     }
}
      // get the list of ServiceBehaviour elements
foreach (ServiceBehaviorElement behavelement in SvCGroup.Behaviors.ServiceBehaviors)
{

       Console.WriteLine("-------------ServiceBehaviour--------------");         
       foreach (BehaviorExtensionElement extele in behavelement)
          {
              
                 //get the service metadata element
        if (extele is ServiceMetadataPublishingElement)
          {

     Console.WriteLine("---------------------------MetaData Behaviour------------------");
    ServiceMetadataPublishingElement behaviour1 = extele as ServiceMetadataPublishingElement;
    Console.WriteLine("Behaviour Name: " + behaviour1.ConfigurationElementName);
    Console.WriteLine("Property HttpGetEnabled: " + behaviour1.HttpGetEnabled);

     }
}

you can also set back the properties and call the configuration.Save(); to change the config file
 c.SaveAs("ConsoleApplication1.exe.config", ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
 this saves on the modified parts of the configuration class. how ever 2 other overloads are    provided.



          

Extending ClientBase to Create a WCF Service Proxy

I was trying to explore different ways of creating a proxy to use the service. I knew 3 ways to doing it

1.using SVCUtil.exe

2.using Add Service Reference

3.using ChannelFactory<T> and DuplexChannelFactory<T> classes
As and when I explored that we could also create a proxy by using a wonderful class ClientBase<T>

Here are the steps I followed to create a Proxy using ClientBase<T>

1.Created a Sample service and Hosted in IIS

2.Copy the Service Interface to Client Code

3.Extend the ClientBase<T>

4. Create the proxy in the client and use

1.The Service Interface is as follows

[ServiceContract]

    public interface IService1

    {

        [OperationContract]

        string GetData(int value);

        // TODO: Add your service operations here

    }

The Implementation is as follows

  public class Service1 : IService1

    {

        public string GetData(int value)

        {

            return string.Format("You entered: {0}", value);

        }

    

    }

2. I copied the Service interface  to the Client Code

3. Extended the ClientBase<T> as Follow

    

    class ServiceClient:ClientBase<IService1>,IService1

    {

        public ServiceClient(BasicHttpBinding binding, EndpointAddress address

            ):base(binding,address)

        {

        }

        protected override IService1  CreateChannel()

{

        return base.CreateChannel();

}

   

public string  GetData(int value)

{

       return base.Channel.GetData(value); 

}

}

}

4.We can Invoke the custom handcoded proxy as follows

class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            ServiceClient client = new ServiceClient(new BasicHttpBinding(BasicHttpSecurityMode.None), new EndpointAddress("http://mycomputer:61468/Service1.svc"));

            Console.WriteLine(client.GetData(10));

            Console.ReadLine();

        }

    }

Use of MSMQ Binding provided by WCF.For Centralized Reliable logging Mechanism.

Msmq Binding is used to communicate to the Service using Microsoft Message Queuing. I have used this binding for transferring log messages. This way we can build a centralised logging system.
For this I followed the steps mentioned below

   1.   Installed Microsoft Message Queuing
   2.   Create a message Queue with Transaction Enabled
   3.   Create a Service


    [ServiceContract]
    public interface ILogService
    {


        [OperationContract(IsOneWay =true )]
        void Log(string Message);


    } 


  Note:if we use NetMsmqBinding we have to mark all operations with in the service contract as OneWay.


  4.Define the implementation


public class MathService:ILogService
    {


        public void Log(string message)
        {


            File.AppendAllText(@"C:\logFolder\AppMessages.txt", message +      Environment.NewLine);


           
        }


    }
  5.Host the Service I have used Self Hosting.




            //Address of the message Queue in the machine -
            // use public with active directory installation
            // in case of Active directory integration . other machines can also access
            // the Queue
            Uri uri = new Uri(@"net.msmq:\\mycomputer\private\testQueue");
         
            //Create Msmq binding with impersonate
            // you may need need to do some thing more if you desire security
            NetMsmqBinding messageQueueBinding = new NetMsmqBinding(NetMsmqSecurityMode .None);


            ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(ILogService), uri);
            host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(ILogService), messageQueueBinding,uri .AbsoluteUri  );


            //host the WCF Service
            host.Open();




6.Design a Logging Client Application I have used Simple Console Application to demonstrate the same.


class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {


            Uri uri = new Uri ("net.msmq:\\mycomputer\private\testQueue");
            EndpointAddress  address = new EndpointAddress (uri.AbsoluteUri );
            NetMsmqBinding binding =new NetMsmqBinding (NetMsmqSecurityMode.None );
            ChannelFactory <ILogService> SerChannel = new ChannelFactory<ILogService> (binding ,address );
           
            ILogService client = SerChannel.CreateChannel ();
            client.Log (" This is a log message");
            Console.ReadLine ();
        }
    }