A question on WCF
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I'm not sure WCF is the way I should go here but I'm keen to get to learn a new technology so I thought I should investigate it at least. We are developing a system in which we need a server-side application (with GUI, so not a Windows service) and several client side applications that communicate with this server side application. All of this happens on the internal network so I figured that TCP binding might be suitable. The one approach would be to write some TCP/IP server routines on the server-side application and have the clients communicate with it over TCP sockets for which we'd have to implement certain messaging. What I dislike about this approach is the fact that all comms will be request-response type. In other words, the server can only send messages to the client if the client sent a message to the server. So the possibility of full-duplex comms of WCF seems like a perfect solution. The thing I'm unsure of is whether WCF would allow for a server-side application that has a GUI and allows for user interaction. I thought I might try getting to know WCF first by writing a small mini system, the sandwich lady notification system, consisting of a "server" side application which runs on the receptionist's computer. A number of other computers in the office then has a client application. The client application can send a message to the server application to subscribe itself to the notifications. When the sandwich lady arrives the receptionist can then open the GUI of the application on her machine and click a button which triggers the app to send a message to all the clients that has subscribed which in turn pops up a notification on the client machine. I realise there might be better ways to achieve this particular solution but it is a reasonable analogy of what we ultimately want to achieve with out bigger system so I figure I might gain the skills I need if I can figure out how to write this little system. My question is, could someone tell me please whether WCF is indeed the technology that should be used for this? I have only just started reading up on it but I am getting the impression that with WCF, the server side application will have to take the form of a service, not a desktop application. Could anyone give me some clarity on this please and possibly point me in the right direction for what I'm trying to achieve? TIA
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I'm not sure WCF is the way I should go here but I'm keen to get to learn a new technology so I thought I should investigate it at least. We are developing a system in which we need a server-side application (with GUI, so not a Windows service) and several client side applications that communicate with this server side application. All of this happens on the internal network so I figured that TCP binding might be suitable. The one approach would be to write some TCP/IP server routines on the server-side application and have the clients communicate with it over TCP sockets for which we'd have to implement certain messaging. What I dislike about this approach is the fact that all comms will be request-response type. In other words, the server can only send messages to the client if the client sent a message to the server. So the possibility of full-duplex comms of WCF seems like a perfect solution. The thing I'm unsure of is whether WCF would allow for a server-side application that has a GUI and allows for user interaction. I thought I might try getting to know WCF first by writing a small mini system, the sandwich lady notification system, consisting of a "server" side application which runs on the receptionist's computer. A number of other computers in the office then has a client application. The client application can send a message to the server application to subscribe itself to the notifications. When the sandwich lady arrives the receptionist can then open the GUI of the application on her machine and click a button which triggers the app to send a message to all the clients that has subscribed which in turn pops up a notification on the client machine. I realise there might be better ways to achieve this particular solution but it is a reasonable analogy of what we ultimately want to achieve with out bigger system so I figure I might gain the skills I need if I can figure out how to write this little system. My question is, could someone tell me please whether WCF is indeed the technology that should be used for this? I have only just started reading up on it but I am getting the impression that with WCF, the server side application will have to take the form of a service, not a desktop application. Could anyone give me some clarity on this please and possibly point me in the right direction for what I'm trying to achieve? TIA
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