I'd like my WP7 to be able to talk to a service on my local computer. For various reasons it would be more convenient if this service was hosted in a custom host, i.e. an app running locally. However, if I understand correctly "Silverlight-enabled WCF service" need asp.net compatibility, therefore must be hosted in IIS, is this correct?
If so, is there anyway to work round this and get a "Silverlight-enabled WCF service" running in a custom host?
The Silverlight-enabled WCF Service is just a simplified item template from a regular WCF service. It was originally added because the default binding for WCF services wasn't supported in Silverlight, and caused a lot of angst for new Silverlight developers. You should be able to use the regular WCF item in a regular project (e.g. console app) and you'll just have to adjust the bindings.
(Also of note is that the Silverlight-enabled WCF template uses a single code file instead of separating out the service interface from the class implementation.)
Related
I have now a WCF service that is hosted inside a WPF application. It's running in a WCF server-client scenario where the client can call the server as well (duplex communications).
I would like to host the WCF client in a windows service, but I'd like to keep the WPF UI because of the functionality it provides when making calls back to the server (e.g. request information). I know that windows services don't have UI, but in this case I need it.
What best way is there to communicate between the WPF application and the windows service? (something better than sockets maybe?)
A scenario where this is useful would be something like:
from the WPF application I can choose what kind of information would be required from the WCF service acting as server,
this "command" would be sent to the windows service hosting the WCF client instance, and
using the the instance making the call to the server and
displaying the information in the WPF application via the WCF client service hosted by the windows service.
Thanks,
Adrian
Since the service is already running as WCF, how about exposing some extra "admin" methods on the WCF interface and have the WPF application interact with the service through those?
You'd have to put in a security layer to make sure only the legitimate user could call those new methods, but this solution might be the least work since the WCF infrastructure is already in place.
I have a WCF service (using HTTP binding) that our WinForm and WFP apps can use with no problem. We have a Silverlight 4 developer who is saying he's not able to use the WCF service because it needs to be "reconfigured" for Silverlight use. I don't know if this is true or not, because I don't know anything about Silverlight.
So, my question is this. Should a WCF service, that uses HTTP binding, that is successfully being used by our WinForms and WPF applications, also be able to be consumed by Silverlight apps, without modifying or reconfiguring the WCF service?
Silverlight 4 supports the following bindings:
BasicHttpBinding
PollingDuplexHttpBinding
CustomBinding (with a subset of binding elements)
Silverlight and WCF Feature Comparison:
There are several ways to use the WCF
client stack to access a service.
It is used when invoking services
through automatically generated
proxies, as described in How to:
Access a Service from Silverlight. The
proxy must be generated in this
procedure by using the Add Service
Reference tool in Visual Studio 2010
for the Silverlight project.
Caution:
Proxies generated by using the WCF
Svcutil.exe tool will not work in
Silverlight 4. Use the SLsvcutil.exe
tool instead. For more information
about using this Silverlight tool, see
Using SLsvcUtil.exe to Access a
Service.
If you already have a Windows
Communication Foundation (WCF) service
contract definition, you can use the
generic ChannelFactory class without
having to generate a proxy. This might
be the case, for example, if your
client is sharing service definition
code with the project on the server.
In this case you could, for example,
define a service contract interface
IStockQuoteService and then use the
same IStockQuoteService code in both
the server and Silverlight projects.
This would involve using a
ChannelFactory.
This advanced technique is
demonstrated in How to: Call
Operations Asynchronously Using a
Channel Factory and in the Silverlight
4 context with Building and Accessing
Duplex Services. For more information
about defining and using service
contracts, see Designing Service
Contracts.
I wonder is it possible to host RIA service as a stand alone application in IIS7? I've playing around with some RIA services and a wonder whether this scenario is possible. My goal is to detach the service from the WebSite application and host it separately.
Thanks in advance!
Definitely possible, just create another ASP.Net webforms application, add the domain service, reference your model (if its in another library), and link the Silverlight project to it. Might also be best to host your XAP in the same project as the RIA service to avoid any cross domain issues. In your real website, just copy and paste the object tag and javascript it generates and make sure its pointing to the right location on the RIA service site.
Im porting an "old" silverlight 3 app that used WS* webservices to connect. These services have been changed and are now replaced by an WCF "equivalent". I cant seem to get my silverlight app to work with the WCF service, I add a reference to the: http.....svc and create my client, but the clientConfiguration is empty. The silverlight app doesnt know the datatypes given in the WCF service... all this is working well in the WPF client also using them...
All i seem to get on one of my types from the WCF service is a public variable called "data"... anyone know what this is?
Sincerely,
WCF for silverlight support a subset of bindings for normal WCF. As the time of siverlight4, we support basic http binding, nettcp binding and pollingduplex binding. For nettcp binding, it has some port restriction and requires you setup some policy server. You can find more details on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc896571(VS.95).aspx
HTH
At the moment it seems that a RIA Domain Services class can not return a sinlge custom type.
There are parts of my app that needs just that, so think the only way to get that is to call back to a simple silverlight-enabled WCF Service, which i beleive will not have a problem returning a custom type. I don't see where the Silverlight client app has any sort of reference to the Ria Services. How do I set up both a Ria services and WCF service on the silverlight client. Will the WCF service be "aware" of the authenication already in place with the RIA services?
This is one of my biggest bugbears of RIA Services :). The good thing is that they are in the process of enabling complex types to be returned from invoke methods (according to the user voice site for RIA Services). However, that won't help you now :).
The best way to implement your requirement to return complex objects is indeed to set up a standard WCF Service to return complex types when required. You do so in the normal way that you would expose a WCF in any web project. You then consume it in your Silverlight application in much the same way you would a WCF Service in any other type of project (by adding it as a service reference). The main difference when consuming it (compared to other types of projects) is that Silverlight only supports asynchronous calls. One difference to be aware of from RIA Services is that whereas RIA Services automatically determines the URI of the domain services (based upon where the XAP file originated from), you will need to handle that aspect yourself (very important when you try to deploy your application :). Do this either by setting the URI in the app.config file, or use the method I use in the code accompanying this article here: http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Building-a-Framework-for-Silverlight-Line-Of-Business-Applications.aspx.
In regards to your final question, yes, RIA Services uses standard ASP.NET authentication, so the cookie that it uses to maintain your authentication status is also used by any WCF Services in the same project. I talk a bit about security with WCF Services in this article if you want more information: http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Building-a-Silverlight-Line-Of-Business-Application-Part-3.aspx.
Hope this helps...
Chris