WCF duplex connection (Server <-> Client communication without 2nd Client)

Question

I am trying to implement a Server/Client communication with WCF and have stumbled accross duplex communication, but as I see it you would need a Server and 2 clients and only the 2 clients can communicate over the server with each other?!?

Is there a way to only get a 2 machines/process communication with WCF? So that the client communicates directly with the Server?

What I have done so far:

Create Project with contains the Interfaces, Classes, OperationContract/ServiceContract/ServiceBehaviour

Create Project which is the "Server" its basically just this code:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    using (var serviceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(ServiceInbound)))
    {
        // Open the host and start listening for incoming messages.
        serviceHost.Open();
        // Keep the service running until the Enter key is pressed.
        Console.WriteLine("The service is ready.");
        Console.WriteLine("Press the Enter key to terminate service.");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

<system.serviceModel>
  <services>
    <service name="WCFLibary.ServiceInbound" behaviorConfiguration="WCFLibaryMEXBehavior">
      <endpoint address="service" binding="wsDualHttpBinding" contract="WCFLibary.IServiceInbound"/>
      <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange"/>
      <host>
        <baseAddresses>
          <add baseAddress="http://localhost:8080/WCFServer_Service"/>
        </baseAddresses>
      </host>
    </service>
  </services>
  <behaviors>
    <serviceBehaviors>
      <behavior name="WCFLibaryMEXBehavior">
        <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
      </behavior>
    </serviceBehaviors>
  </behaviors>
</system.serviceModel>

Create a client Project and in there Add a ServiceReference to the server localhost:8080/WCFServer_Service

I actually dont need a 2nd second client, I just want to push data between the server/client.

the duplex connection is to allow the server to callback to the client machine that opened the connection. You are way off track with the second client thing, WCF duplex does not allows clients to communicate with each other, at least not directly. — PatFromCanada

Jon Lindeheim Jon Lindeheim · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-09T06:59:08

What your looking for is client callbacks. The client provides a callback function with the service call.

See this page on MSDN

WCF duplex connection (Server <-> Client communication without 2nd Client)

1 Answers