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Tutorial: Create a Windows Communication Foundation client

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This tutorial describes the fourth of five tasks required to create a basic Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) application. For an overview of the tutorials, see Tutorial: Get started with Windows Communication Foundation applications.

The next task for creating a WCF application is to create a client by retrieving metadata from a WCF service. You use Visual Studio to add a service reference, which gets the metadata from the service’s MEX endpoint. Visual Studio then generates a managed source code file for a client proxy in the language you've chosen. It also creates a client configuration file (App.config). This file enables the client application to connect to the service at an endpoint.

Note

If you call a WCF service from a class library project in Visual Studio, use the Add Service Reference feature to automatically generate a proxy and associated configuration file. However, because class library projects don't use this configuration file, you need to add the settings in the generated configuration file to the App.config file for the executable that calls the class library.

Note

As an alternative, use the ServiceModel Metadata Utility tool instead of Visual Studio to generate the proxy class and configuration file.

The client application uses the generated proxy class to communicate with the service. This procedure is described in Tutorial: Use a client.

In this tutorial, you learn how to:

  • Create and configure a console app project for the WCF client.
  • Add a service reference to the WCF service to generate the proxy class and configuration files.

Create a Windows Communication Foundation client

  1. Create a console app project in Visual Studio:

    1. From the File menu, select Open > Project/Solution and browse to the GettingStarted solution you previously created (GettingStarted.sln). Select Open.

    2. From the View menu, select Solution Explorer.

    3. In the Solution Explorer window, select the GettingStarted solution (top node), and then select Add > New Project from the shortcut menu.

    4. In the Add New Project window, on the left side, select the Windows Desktop category under Visual C# or Visual Basic.

    5. Select the Console App (.NET Framework) template, and enter GettingStartedClient for the Name. Select OK.

  2. Add a reference in the GettingStartedClient project to the System.ServiceModel assembly:

    1. In the Solution Explorer window, select the References folder under the GettingStartedClient project, and then select Add Reference from the shortcut menu.

    2. In the Add Reference window, under Assemblies on the left side of the window, select Framework.

    3. Find and select System.ServiceModel, and then choose OK.

    4. Save the solution by selecting File > Save All.

  3. Add a service reference to the calculator service:

    1. In the Solution Explorer window, select the References folder under the GettingStartedClient project, and then select Add Service Reference from the shortcut menu.

    2. In the Add Service Reference window, select Discover.

      The CalculatorService service starts and Visual Studio displays it in the Services box.

    3. Select CalculatorService to expand it and display the service contracts implemented by the service. Leave the default Namespace and choose OK.

      Visual Studio adds a new item under the Connected Services folder in the GettingStartedClient project.

ServiceModel Metadata Utility tool

The following examples show how to optionally use the ServiceModel Metadata Utility tool (Svcutil.exe) to generate the proxy class file. This tool generates the proxy class file and the App.config file. The following examples show how to generate the proxy in C# and Visual Basic, respectively:

svcutil.exe /language:cs /out:generatedProxy.cs /config:app.config http://localhost:8000/GettingStarted/CalculatorService

svcutil.exe /language:vb /out:generatedProxy.vb /config:app.config http://localhost:8000/GettingStarted/CalculatorService

Client configuration file

After you've created the client, Visual Studio creates the App.config configuration file in the GettingStartedClient project, which should be similar to the following example:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
    <configuration>
        <startup>
            <!-- specifies the version of WCF to use-->
            <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1" />
        </startup>
        <system.serviceModel>
            <bindings>
                <!-- Uses wsHttpBinding-->
                <wsHttpBinding>
                    <binding name="WSHttpBinding_ICalculator" />
                </wsHttpBinding>
            </bindings>
            <client>
                <!-- specifies the endpoint to use when calling the service -->
                <endpoint address="http://localhost:8000/GettingStarted/CalculatorService"
                    binding="wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WSHttpBinding_ICalculator"
                    contract="ServiceReference1.ICalculator" name="WSHttpBinding_ICalculator">
                    <identity>
                        <dns value="localhost" />
                    </identity>
                </endpoint>
            </client>
        </system.serviceModel>
    </configuration>

Under the <system.serviceModel> section, notice the <endpoint> element. The <endpoint> element defines the endpoint that the client uses to access the service as follows:

  • Address: http://localhost:8000/GettingStarted/CalculatorService. The address of the endpoint.
  • Service contract: ServiceReference1.ICalculator. The service contract handles communication between the WCF client and the service. Visual Studio generated this contract when you used its Add Service Reference function. It's essentially a copy of the contract that you defined in the GettingStartedLib project.
  • Binding: WSHttpBinding. The binding specifies HTTP as the transport, interoperable security, and other configuration details.

Next steps

In this tutorial, you learned how to:

  • Create and configure a console app project for the WCF client.
  • Add a service reference to the WCF service to generate the proxy class and configuration files for the client application.

Advance to the next tutorial to learn how to use the generated client.

Tutorial: Use a WCF client