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How to: Create a Windows Communication Foundation Client.NET Framework 4Other Versions

This is the fourth of six tasks required to create a basic Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service and a client that can call the service. For an overview of all six of the tasks, see the Getting Started Tutorial topic.

This topic describes how to retrieve metadata from a WCF service and use it to create a WCF proxy that can access the service. This task is completed by using theServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) provided by WCF. This tool obtains the metadata from the service and generates a managed source code file for a proxy in the language you have chosen. In addition to creating the client proxy, the tool also creates the configuration file for the client that enables the client application to connect to the service at one of its endpoints.

Note:You can add a service reference to your client project inside Visual Studio 2010 to create the client proxy instead of using theMetadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe).

 Caution:When calling a WCF service from a class library project in Visual Studio 2010 you can use the Add Service Reference feature to automatically generate a proxy and associated configuration file. The configuration file will not be used by the class library project. You will need to copy the configuration file to the directory that contains the executable that will call the class library.

The client application uses the generated proxy to create a WCF client object. This procedure is described in How to: Use a Windows Communication Foundation Client.

The code for the client generated by this task is provided in the example following the procedure.

To create a Windows Communication Foundation client

1. Create a new project within the current solution for the client in Visual Studio 2010 by doing the following steps:

a. In Solution Explorer (on the upper right) within the same solution that contains the service, right-click the current solution (not the project), and selectAdd, and then New Project.

b. In the Add New Project dialog, select Visual Basic or Visual C#, and choose the Console Application template, and name it Client. Use the defaultLocation.

c. Click OK.2. Add a reference to the System.ServiceModel.dll for the project:

a. Right-click the References folder under the Client project in the Solution Explorer and select Add Reference. 

b. Select the .NET tab and select System.ServiceModel.dll (version 4.0.0.0) from the list box and click OK. 

Note:When using a command-line compiler (for example, Csc.exe or Vbc.exe), you must also provide the path to the assemblies. By default, on a computer running Windows Vista for example, the path is: Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.

3. Add a using statement (Imports in Visual Basic) for the System.ServiceModel namespace in the generated Program.cs or Program.vb file.

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Imports System.ServiceModel

4. In Visual Studio, press F5 to start the service created in the previous topic. For more information, see How to: Host and Run a Basic Windows Communication Foundation Service.

5. Run the ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) with the appropriate switches to create the client code and a configuration file by doing the following steps:

a. On the Start menu click All Programs, and then click Visual Studio 2010. Click Visual Studio Tools and then click Visual Studio 2010 Command Prompt.

b. Navigate to the directory where you want to place the client code. If you created the client project using the default, the directory is C:\Users\<user name>\My Documents\Visual Studio 10\Projects\Service\Client.

c. Use the command-line tool ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) with the appropriate switches to create the client code. The following example generates a code file and a configuration file for the service.

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svcutil.exe /language:vb /out:generatedProxy.vb /config:app.config http://localhost:8000/ServiceModelSamples/service

By default, the client proxy code is generated in a file named after the service (in this case, for example, CalculatorService.cs or CalculatorService.vb where the extension is appropriate to the programming language: .vb for Visual Basic or .cs for C#). The /out switch changes the name of the client proxy file to GeneratedProxy.cs. The /config switch changes the name of the client configuration file from the default Output.config to App.config. Note that both of these files get generated in the C:\Users\<user name>\My Documents\Visual Studio 10\Projects\Service\Client directory.

6. Add the generated proxy to the client project in Visual Studio, right-click the client project in Solution Explorer and select Add and then Existing Item. Select the generatedProxy file generated in the preceding step.

Example

This example shows the client code generated by the ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe).

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'------------------------------------------------------------------------------' <auto-generated>' This code was generated by a tool.' Runtime Version:2.0.50727.1366'' Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if' the code is regenerated.' </auto-generated>'------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Option Strict OffOption Explicit On

<System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("System.ServiceModel", "3.0.0.0"), _ System.ServiceModel.ServiceContractAttribute([Namespace]:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples", ConfigurationName:="ICalculator")> _Public Interface ICalculator <System.ServiceModel.OperationContractAttribute(Action:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/Add", ReplyAction:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/AddResponse")> _ Function Add(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double <System.ServiceModel.OperationContractAttribute(Action:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/Subtract", ReplyAction:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/SubtractResponse")> _ Function Subtract(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double <System.ServiceModel.OperationContractAttribute(Action:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/Multiply", ReplyAction:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/MultiplyResponse")> _ Function Multiply(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double <System.ServiceModel.OperationContractAttribute(Action:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/Divide", ReplyAction:="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples/ICalculator/DivideResponse")> _ Function Divide(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As DoubleEnd Interface

<System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("System.ServiceModel", "3.0.0.0")> _Public Interface ICalculatorChannel Inherits ICalculator, System.ServiceModel.IClientChannelEnd Interface

<System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute(), _ System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("System.ServiceModel", "3.0.0.0")> _Partial Public Class CalculatorClient

Inherits System.ServiceModel.ClientBase(Of ICalculator) Implements ICalculator Public Sub New() MyBase.New End Sub Public Sub New(ByVal endpointConfigurationName As String) MyBase.New(endpointConfigurationName) End Sub Public Sub New(ByVal endpointConfigurationName As String, ByVal remoteAddress As String) MyBase.New(endpointConfigurationName, remoteAddress) End Sub Public Sub New(ByVal endpointConfigurationName As String, ByVal remoteAddress As System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress) MyBase.New(endpointConfigurationName, remoteAddress) End Sub Public Sub New(ByVal binding As System.ServiceModel.Channels.Binding, ByVal remoteAddress As System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress) MyBase.New(binding, remoteAddress) End Sub Public Function Add(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double Implements ICalculator.Add Return MyBase.Channel.Add(n1, n2) End Function Public Function Subtract(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double Implements ICalculator.Subtract Return MyBase.Channel.Subtract(n1, n2) End Function Public Function Multiply(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double Implements ICalculator.Multiply Return MyBase.Channel.Multiply(n1, n2) End Function Public Function Divide(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double Implements ICalculator.Divide Return MyBase.Channel.Divide(n1, n2) End FunctionEnd Class

Now you have created a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) client. Proceed to How to: Configure a Basic Windows Communication Foundation Client to configure the client. For troubleshooting information, see Troubleshooting the Getting Started Tutorial.

How to: Use a Windows Communication Foundation Client.NET Framework 4Other Versions

This is the last of six tasks required to create a basic Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service and a client that can call the service. For an overview of all six of the tasks, see the Getting Started Tutorial topic.

Once a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) proxy has been created and configured, a client instance can be created and the client application can be compiled and used to communicate with the WCF service. This topic describes procedures for creating and using a WCF client. This procedure does three things:

1. Creates a WCF client.

2. Calls the service operations from the generated proxy.3. Closes the client once the operation call is completed.

The code discussed in the procedure is also provided in the example following the procedure. The code in this task should be placed in the Main() method of the generated Program class in the client project.

To use a Windows Communication Foundation client

1. Create an EndpointAddress instance for the base address of the service you are going to call and then create an WCF Client object.

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' Step 1: Create an endpoint address and an instance of the WCF Client.

Dim epAddress As New EndpointAddress("http://localhost:8000/ServiceModelSamples/Service/CalculatorService")Dim Client As New CalculatorClient(New WSHttpBinding(), epAddress)

2. Call the client operations from within the Client.

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'Step 2: Call the service operations.'Call the Add service operation.Dim value1 As Double = 100DDim value2 As Double = 15.99DDim result As Double = Client.Add(value1, value2)Console.WriteLine("Add({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result)

'Call the Subtract service operation.value1 = 145Dvalue2 = 76.54Dresult = Client.Subtract(value1, value2)Console.WriteLine("Subtract({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result)

'Call the Multiply service operation.value1 = 9Dvalue2 = 81.25Dresult = Client.Multiply(value1, value2)Console.WriteLine("Multiply({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result)

'Call the Divide service operation.value1 = 22Dvalue2 = 7Dresult = Client.Divide(value1, value2)Console.WriteLine("Divide({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result)

3. Call Close on the WCF client and wait until the user presses ENTER to terminate the application.

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' Step 3: Closing the client gracefully closes the connection and cleans up resources.Client.Close()

Console.WriteLine()Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to terminate client.")Console.ReadLine()

Example