WCF Service in Visual Studio 2019: A Guide

If you are looking to develop and deploy services that can communicate with other applications, then WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) framework is what you need. Here is a guide on how to run a WCF service in Visual Studio 2019.

Creating A WCF Service in Visual Studio 2019

The first step is to create a new WCF service in Visual Studio 2019:

1. Launch Visual Studio 2019 on your computer
2. Click on File → New → Project
3. Select “WCF Service Application”
4. Enter your preferred name for the service in the “Name” field
5. Select a location to save the project and click on “Create”

Configuring the WCF Service

After creating your WCF service, you need to configure it before running it:

1. Open the “App.config” file in your Visual Studio project
2. Modify the configuration settings based on your requirements such as binding, contract, and endpoint for your service in the “system.serviceModel” section of the configuration file
3. Save the changes made to the configuration

Running the WCF Service in Visual Studio 2019

You are now ready to run your WCF service:

1. Open the WCF service project in Visual Studio 2019
2. Compile the project by clicking on “Build → Build Solution”
3. Click on “Debug → Start Without Debugging” or press “Ctrl + F5”
4. This will launch the service and open the WCF Test Client tool which allows you to test your service

Testing the WCF Service

To test your WCF service in the WCF Test Client tool, follow these steps:

1. Click on “File → Add Service” in the WCF Test Client tool
2. Enter the URL of the service endpoint in the form “http://localhost:50988/Service1.svc”
3. Click on “OK” to add the service to the WCF Test Client tool
4. Invoke the service methods by clicking on the method names and providing the required input parameters
5. The response from the service will be displayed in the “Response” panel

Conclusion

With this guide, you can effectively run a WCF service in Visual Studio 2019. Remember to properly configure your WCF service and test it thoroughly before deploying it to a production environment. By adhering to these best practices, you can guarantee that your WCF service runs smoothly and reliably communicates between applications.