Silverlight with Self hosted WCF with NetTcpBinding

Advantages of using NetTcpBinding

• Performance: Silverlight applications using NetTcpBinding to with WCF service in your intranet  can obtain a performance gain compared to HTTP polling duplex in duplex communication scenarios.
• Duplex Communication: Supports Duplex communication between client and service.
• Helps optimize the Silverlight application (XAP) size. Applications that utilize only

Steps

1. Create WCF enabling NetTcpBinding

Sample WCF Config,

<system.serviceModel>

    <behaviors>

      <serviceBehaviors>

        <behavior name="NetTcpWCFService.ServiceBehavior">

          <serviceMetadata />

          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />

        </behavior>

      </serviceBehaviors>

    </behaviors>

    <services>

      <service behaviorConfiguration="NetTcpWCFService "

          name=" NetTcpTest.NetTcpTest ">

        <endpoint address="" binding="netTcpBinding" bindingConfiguration="NetTcpBinding"

            contract="NetTcpTest.INetTcpTestService " />

        <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexTcpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />

        <host>

          <baseAddresses>

            <add baseAddress="net.tcp://localhost:4502/NetTcpTestService" />

          </baseAddresses>

        </host>

      </service>

    </services>

    <bindings>

      <netTcpBinding>

        <binding name="NetTcpBinding" closeTimeout="00:01:00" openTimeout="00:01:00"

                  receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00"

                  transactionFlow="false" transferMode="Buffered"

                  transactionProtocol="OleTransactions"

                  hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"

                  listenBacklog="10" maxBufferPoolSize="524288"

                  maxBufferSize="2147483647" maxConnections="10" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647">

          <readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="2147483647" maxArrayLength="2147483647" maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384"/>

          <reliableSession ordered="true" inactivityTimeout="00:10:00" enabled="false"/>

          <security mode="None"/>

        </binding>

      </netTcpBinding>

    </bindings>

  </system.serviceModel>

 2.    Create Windows Service To Host the WCF

• ·         Create New Windows Service Project & reference the created WCF dll
• ·         On Service Start add the following code

  internal static ServiceHost myServiceHost = null;

        protected override void OnStart(string[] args)

        {

         

            if (myServiceHost != null)

            {

                myServiceHost.Close();

            }

            myServiceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(NetTcpTestService));

            myServiceHost.Open();

        }

This will up the service on windows service start.

• ·         On Service Stop add the following code to close the WCF service.

  protected override void OnStop()

        {

            if (myServiceHost != null)

            {

                myServiceHost.Close();

                myServiceHost = null;

            }

        } 

3. Create an Outbound rule in machine firewall to open the port which WCF is running. In this case as we have added the base address as "net.tcp://localhost:4502/NetTcpTestService" , open the port ‘4502’

4.       4. Update the clientaccesspolicy file under as follows to C:\inetpub\wwwroot to allow Silverlight    applcations to access the ports enabled.

<access-policy>

  <cross-domain-access>

    <policy>

      <allow-from>

        <domain uri="*"/>

      </allow-from>

      <grant-to>

        <socket-resource port="4502-4534" protocol="tcp" />

      </grant-to>

    </policy>

  </cross-domain-access>

</access-policy>

5      5. Install the Windows service. Then start the windows service under services.

6      6. Then go to the Silverlight project where you want to access the service.

7      7. Right click on references select add service reference. Add the base address in the WCF config to as Address.

You are ready to use the Self hosted WCF with Silverlight.