Add reference to service within same project

Question

I'm wondering if it is okay to add a reference to a web service within the same project (web application), i.e. I'm adding a reference in the same project where the service is defined.

The reason for doing so is because

• Hosting the service becomes easier (gets automatically hosted when hosting the web app).
• Invoking the service is done dynamically, i.e. the service url is fetched (from db) at run time and methods on that particular service are invoked. (this is a web app which is hosted on many domains. each app knows the service url of other apps (urls stored in db). since I have a reference to the service, I can change the url at runtime by updating the Url of the proxy and invoke it.)

Also, I'm not sure if this is the way to go about it. I have seen a lot of people suggest using WCF instead of a web service, but I don't see how I could accomplish the same thing with WCF.

There is already a question regarding this on SO - Add Service Reference to WCF Service within Same Project, but i don't think it is valid for my situation.

Answer 1

If the service is already in your project, you can use it directly without requiring a web service proxy.

After all, Web services are for exposing your application functionality to the outside world and not to other parts of your system.