CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netwcf
Wilz
Wilz

Reputation: 239

WCF with Windows service hosting for Host and Client

I have a WCF with Windows service hosting for a background DB operation. I have included the client part also in the same windows service with a timer instead of creating a seperate windows service for the client part. I would like to know is there any drawback with this approach.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 111

Answers (2)

Kek
Kek

Reputation: 3195

I agree with @Tommy Grovnes in most cases: no drawback if things are done correctly. I'd like to point out something though:

If service and client are in the same process, certainly the later depends on the former... and you may be tempted to call service methods directly (without using WCF actually)... Try not to do that.

If you do, your data is not serialized : so it is faster, but it may not behave the exact same way compared to a client in another process.

This is particulary true if you use mechanisms such as EF Self tracking entities. These entities change their state when they are deserialized. Avoiding the serialization may lead to unexpected errors when you actually call your service from another process.

Upvotes: 1

Tommy Grovnes
Tommy Grovnes

Reputation: 4156

Have to agree with @Kek why have a WCF service at all if there are no outside callers :) Other than that there is no real drawback compared to using 2 windows services, your approach uses less memory and there is only one service to manage (start, stop etc).

Upvotes: 2

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