How to access WCF service without creating Proxy

Introduction

Each time when we want to consume a WCF service, we need to create proxy at client side. To create proxy, service must expose metadata endpoint.

Normally

1.    We create a WCF service
2.    Expose metadata endpoint
3.    Add service reference at client side to create the proxy.
4.    Using the proxy calls the service operation contracts.

Normally we call the service as 

Let us assume we want to call the service using channel without creating proxy or adding the service reference.  We need to follow the below steps

Step 1

Put all the DataContract or ServiceContract in a separate DLL or class library. Add the reference of System.ServiceModel in class library.  And create the service contract as below,

MyServiceContract.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.ServiceModel;

namespace ContractDll
{
  [ServiceContract]publicinterface MyServiceContract
    {

      [OperationContract]string GetData(int value);

    }
}

Assume we have created a service library called ContractDLL

Step 2

Create a WCF Service application and implement the service contract created in step 1. For that add the reference of project created in step 1 in WCF service application.

Service1.svc.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.Text;
using ContractDll;

namespace WcfService1
{public class Service1 : MyServiceContract 
    {public string GetData(int value)
        {return string.Format("You entered: {0}", value);
        }

        
    }
}

Add the EndPoint in config file.

In above config file,

1.    ContractDLL.MyServiceContract  is name of the service contract exposed.
2.    There is no metadata exchange endpoint in the config file.

Full Web.Config is as below,

Web.Config

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>

  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" />
  </system.web>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <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>
    <services>
      <service name ="WcfService1.Service1" >
        <endpoint address ="" binding ="basicHttpBinding" contract ="ContractDll.MyServiceContract"/>       
        <host>
          <baseAddresses>
            <add baseAddress ="http://localhost:8181/Service1.svc"/>
          </baseAddresses>
        </host>
      </service>      
    </services>
    <serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
  </system.serviceModel>
 <system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
  </system.webServer>
  
</configuration>

Step 3

Create the client.  We are creating a console client to consume the service with channel or without creating proxy.  So follow the below steps

1.    Do not add the service reference.
2.    Add the reference of System.ServiceModel.
3.    Add the reference of class library created in step1.

Now we need to

1.    Create a ChannelFactory

2.    Create a binding of the type exposed by service 

3.    Create  EndPoint address

4.    Pass Binding and EndPoint address to ChannelFactory

5.    Now create the channel as below ,

6.    Call the service method on this channel as below 

,So full code of client will be like below  

Program.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.ServiceModel;
using ContractDll;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{class Program
    {static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            ChannelFactory<MyServiceContract> factory = null;try{               

                BasicHttpBinding binding = new BasicHttpBinding();
                EndpointAddress address = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:4684/Service1.svc");
                factory = new ChannelFactory<MyServiceContract>(binding, address);
                MyServiceContract channel = factory.CreateChannel();string resturnmessage = channel.GetData(9);
                Console.WriteLine(resturnmessage);
                Console.ReadKey(true);
            }catch (CommunicationException)
            {if (factory != null)
                    factory.Abort();

            }catch (TimeoutException)
            {if (factory != null)
                    factory.Abort();
            }catch (Exception ex)
            {if (factory != null)
                    factory.Abort();
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }
            Console.WriteLine("Proxy closed");
            Console.ReadKey(true);
        }
    }
}

And we will get output as 

That's all. happy coding.