The service file is copied into an ASP.NET application root in Internet Information Services (IIS), and the assembly is copied into the \bin subdirectory of that application root. The application is then accessible by using the uniform resource locator (URL) of the service file in the application root.
WCF services can readily be hosted within IIS 5.1 or 6.0, the Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) that is provided as part of IIS 7.0, and within any .NET application. To host a service in IIS 5.1 or 6.0, the service must use HTTP as the communications transport protocol.
To host a service within IIS 5.1, 6.0 or within WAS, use the follows steps:
Compile the service type into a class library assembly.
Create a service file with a .svc extension with an @ ServiceHost directive to identify the service type:
Copy the service file into a virtual directory, and the assembly into the \bin subdirectory of that virtual directory.
Copy the configuration file into the virtual directory, and name it Web.config.
The application is then accessible by using the URL of the service file in the application root.
To host a WCF service within a .NET application, compile the service type into a class library assembly referenced by the application, and program the application to host the service using the ServiceHost class. The following is an example of the basic programming required:
string httpBaseAddress = "http://www.contoso.com:8000/";
string tcpBaseAddress = "net.tcp://www.contoso.com:8080/";
Uri httpBaseAddressUri = new Uri(httpBaseAddress);
Uri tcpBaseAddressUri = new Uri(tcpBaseAddress);
Uri[] baseAdresses = new Uri[] {
httpBaseAddressUri,
tcpBaseAddressUri};
using(ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(
typeof(Service), //”Service” is the name of the service type baseAdresses))
{
host.Open();
[…] //Wait to receive messages
host.Close();
}
This example shows how addresses for one or more transport protocols are specified in the construction of a ServiceHost. These addresses are referred to as base addresses.
The address provided for any endpoint of a WCF service is an address relative to a base address of the endpoint’s host. The host can have one base address for each communication transport protocol. The base address of an endpoint is relative to whichever of the base addresses of the host is the base address for the communication transport protocol of the endpoint. In the sample configuration in the preceding configuration file, the BasicHttpBinding selected for the endpoint uses HTTP as the transport protocol, so the address of the endpoint, EchoService, is relative to the host’s HTTP base address. In the case of the host in the preceding example, the HTTP base address is http://www.contoso.com:8000/. For a service hosted within IIS or WAS, the base address is the URL of the service’s service file.
Only services hosted in IIS or WAS, and which are configured with HTTP as the transport protocol exclusively, can be made to use WCF ASP.NET compatibility mode option. Turning that option on requires the following steps.
The programmer must add the AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsAttribute attribute to the service type and specify that ASP.NET compatibility mode is either allowed or required.
[System.ServiceModel.Activation.AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(
RequirementsMode=AspNetCompatbilityRequirementsMode.Require)]
public class DerivativesCalculatorServiceType: IDerivativesCalculator
The administrator must configure the application to use the ASP.NET compatibility mode.
[…]
That option can save you from having to modify clients that are configured to use the URLs of .asmx service files when modifying a service to use WCF.
