Note: All links current as of the time of this blog post

We have landed. This is tutorial part 5 of 5. In parts 1-4 (part 1 starts here) we created a web service that does some simple encryption, decryption, and hashing. Before beginning this part of the tutorial, please create a virtual directory in IIS pointing to the Web Service project that you set up in part 4 and make it a .Net application. I named the virtual directory CryptService and as such I can browse to http://localhost/CryptService/CryptService.svc and see the service.

Create a new C# Console Application. I named my application TestCryptService. Right click on your project in solution explorer and select “Add Service Reference”. Put your URL to your service in and click Go. After a few moments, you should see what was discovered about your service. Change the namespace to CryptService and click Ok.

Notice that all of the binding information has been added to your app.config. If you look at the endpoint section, you will see that /basic was added to the end of the CryptService.svc. I mentioned last time that that allows you to create multiple endpoints to the same point, and just use different bindings, etc.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <system.serviceModel>
        <bindings>
            <basicHttpBinding>
                <binding name="Crypt" closeTimeout="00:01:00" openTimeout="00:01:00"
                    receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00" allowCookies="false"
                    bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"
                    maxBufferSize="65536" maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxReceivedMessageSize="65536"
                    messageEncoding="Text" textEncoding="utf-8" transferMode="Buffered"
                    useDefaultWebProxy="true">
                    <readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" maxArrayLength="16384"
                        maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
                    <security mode="None">
                        <transport clientCredentialType="None" proxyCredentialType="None"
                            realm="" />
                        <message clientCredentialType="UserName" algorithmSuite="Default" />
                    </security>
                </binding>
            </basicHttpBinding>
        </bindings>
        <client>
            <endpoint address="http://localhost/CryptService/CryptService.svc/basic"
                binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="Crypt" contract="CryptService.CryptService"
                name="Crypt" />
        </client>
    </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

Now, within the Program.cs file that was created for you, enter in this code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using TestCryptService.CryptService;

namespace TestCryptService
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            TestDesEncryption();
            TestRijndaelEncryption();
            TestMd5Hash();
            TestSha256Hash();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// This method is the only one that is commented.  All of the other methods function 
        /// in exactly the same way.  The only reason they are included is for completeness, 
        /// so that all of our server methods are hit.
        /// </summary>
        static void TestDesEncryption()
        {
            // The CryptServiceClient is the proxy created automatically for you.
            // It would be called CryptServiceClient whether you used svcutil.exe 
            // yourself or you added a service reference.
            CryptServiceClient client = new CryptServiceClient();
            

            EncryptionObject encryptionObject = new EncryptionObject();

            encryptionObject.EncryptionAlgorithm = EncryptionAlgorithm.DES;
            encryptionObject.Text = "Testing our DES Encryption";

            // Call the EncryptString method and get back our encrypted value
            string encryptedText = client.EncryptString(encryptionObject);

            encryptionObject = new EncryptionObject();
            encryptionObject.EncryptionAlgorithm = EncryptionAlgorithm.DES;
            encryptionObject.Text = encryptedText;

            // Call the DecryptString method and get back our plain text
            string plainText = client.DecryptString(encryptionObject);

            // Output the values and see what we get.
            Console.WriteLine("-- DES --");
            Console.WriteLine("Encrypted Text: {0}", encryptedText);
            Console.WriteLine("Plain Text: {0}", plainText);
            Console.WriteLine();
        }

        static void TestRijndaelEncryption()
        {
            CryptServiceClient client = new CryptServiceClient();
            EncryptionObject encryptionObject = new EncryptionObject();

            encryptionObject.EncryptionAlgorithm = EncryptionAlgorithm.Rijndael;
            encryptionObject.Text = "Testing our Rijndael Encryption";

            string encryptedText = client.EncryptString(encryptionObject);

            encryptionObject = new EncryptionObject();
            encryptionObject.EncryptionAlgorithm = EncryptionAlgorithm.Rijndael;
            encryptionObject.Text = encryptedText;

            string plainText = client.DecryptString(encryptionObject);

            Console.WriteLine("-- Rijndael --");
            Console.WriteLine("Encrypted Text: {0}", encryptedText);
            Console.WriteLine("Plain Text: {0}", plainText);
            Console.WriteLine();
        }

        static void TestMd5Hash()
        {
            CryptServiceClient client = new CryptServiceClient();
            HashObject hashObject = new HashObject();

            hashObject.HashType = HashType.MD5;
            hashObject.StringToHash = "Some string to hash";

            string md5Hash = client.HashString(hashObject);

            Console.WriteLine("-- MD5 Hash --");
            Console.WriteLine("Original String: {0}", hashObject.StringToHash);
            Console.WriteLine("Hashed Value: {0}", md5Hash);
            Console.WriteLine();
        }

        static void TestSha256Hash()
        {
            CryptServiceClient client = new CryptServiceClient();
            HashObject hashObject = new HashObject();

            hashObject.HashType = HashType.SHA256;
            hashObject.StringToHash = "Some string to hash";

            string shaHash = client.HashString(hashObject);

            Console.WriteLine("-- Sha256 Hash --");
            Console.WriteLine("Original String: {0}", hashObject.StringToHash);
            Console.WriteLine("Hashed Value: {0}", shaHash);
            Console.WriteLine();
        }
    }
}

When I run this code, I see this output:

That is IT! If you’ve made it this far and see that output, you are done. You are now ready to use the Web Services Software Factory to make web services yourself. As always, if you didn’t get these results, double check your steps and if you are still having problems, leave me a comment and I will try to help you.

All code was written as throwaway code, so I realize that it could use some refactoring and some optimization. The point of this tutorial was to expose you to using the WSSF in more than a “Hello World” kind of way and to at least mimic the real world with something a little bit fun.

Note: All links current as of the time of this blog post

We are in the home stretch. If you haven’t already, you may want to take a look at tutorial parts 1, 2, and 3 before beginning this one.

At this point, we’ve defined our service, created Data Contracts and Service Contracts, implemented the serivce, and programmed the code behind the endpoints. All we have left to do before this service is fully functional is to create the Host Contracts, which will set up the actual endpoints for us.

In your Solution Explorer, right click on the MyCryptographyService.model and choose Add –> New Model. In the dialog, select Host Model and complete the the form and click finish.

This brings up a new designer surface for the Host Designer.

The very first thing we need to do is to right click on the Host Model in the Host Explorer and select “Add New Host Application”.

This will create HostApplication1. Right click on it and view properties. Change the name to “CryptographyServiceWS” and the Implementation Technology to “WCF Extensions”. For Implementation Project you need to pick the project that is going to be the one the people will actually connect to. You can create your own Web Services project if you’d like, but there is one already included for us, so I will use that one for the purposes of this experience. Expand the dropdown as shown below and choose MyCrytographyService.Host.

Return to the Host Explorer, right click on CryptographyServiceWS and choose “Add New Service Reference”. This creates ServiceReference1.

Right click on ServiceReference1, choose properties and set its name to CryptService. Select to Enable Metadata Publishing to true. For Service Implementation Type, click the ellipses to bring up this dialog and choose CryptService.

Go back to the Host Explorer. Right click on CryptService and choose “Add New Endpoint”. Endpont1 will appear. Right click on Endpoint1, select properties and change its name to Crypt, leave Binding Type at basicHttpBinding, and enter “Basic” in the Address field. As the tooltip says, the Address field allows you to append something to the name of the endpoint so that you can create many different endpoints, each to the same code. The point being to allow users to connect with many different bindings, but to do that you must create an endpoint for each. Rather than have many different endpoint names, you can just add a suffix. Additionally, this can also be used to version the endpoints on your service.

That’s it. When you click again on CryptService in the Host Explorer, you see this screen on the left. Click “Generate Service” and if you’ve done everything correctly, you should be set to go. If you do not see this screen, that means you have left out a step. Please review the tutorial up to this point and if you are still stuck, leave me a comment and I will try to help.

Now, if you go back to your Solution Explorer and navigate to the Tests folder and look inside the MyCryptographyService.Hosts project, you will see the CryptService.svc file.

This is the “page” that people will connect to. In fact, if you right click on it and choose “View in Browser” you should see the page below.

If you click the link that is provided on that page, you can see the WSDL from the service itself.

That’s it. Your WCF service is now fully functional. In the final piece of the tutorial, we’ll make a C# Console Application that calls our service and gives us back some results.