Question

Basically as the question states, if I make my services asynchronous does that mean they aren’t interoperable anymore?

Answer 1

As far as the client is concerned, a sync or an async version of the service are identical (see example below). So the sync/async decision does not affect interoperability.

public class StackOverflow_6231864_751090
{
    [ServiceContract(Name = "ITest")]
    public interface ITest
    {
        [OperationContract]
        string Echo(string text);
        [OperationContract]
        int Add(int x, int y);
    }
    [ServiceContract(Name = "ITest")]
    public interface ITestAsync
    {
        [OperationContract(AsyncPattern = true)]
        IAsyncResult BeginEcho(string text, AsyncCallback callback, object state);
        string EndEcho(IAsyncResult ar);
        [OperationContract(AsyncPattern = true)]
        IAsyncResult BeginAdd(int x, int y, AsyncCallback callback, object state);
        int EndAdd(IAsyncResult ar);
    }
    public class Service : ITest
    {
        public string Echo(string text) { return text; }
        public int Add(int x, int y) { return x + y; }
    }
    public class ServiceAsync : ITestAsync
    {
        string Echo(string text) { return text; }
        int Add(int x, int y) { return x + y; }
        public IAsyncResult BeginEcho(string text, AsyncCallback callback, object state)
        {
            Func<string, string> func = Echo;
            return func.BeginInvoke(text, callback, state);
        }

        public string EndEcho(IAsyncResult ar)
        {
            Func<string, string> func = (Func<string, string>)((System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.AsyncResult)ar).AsyncDelegate;
            return func.EndInvoke(ar);
        }

        public IAsyncResult BeginAdd(int x, int y, AsyncCallback callback, object state)
        {
            Func<int, int, int> func = Add;
            return func.BeginInvoke(x, y, callback, state);
        }

        public int EndAdd(IAsyncResult ar)
        {
            Func<int, int, int> func = (Func<int, int, int>)((System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.AsyncResult)ar).AsyncDelegate;
            return func.EndInvoke(ar);
        }
    }
    public static void Test()
    {
        foreach (bool useAsync in new bool[] { false, true })
        {
            Type contractType = useAsync ? typeof(ITestAsync) : typeof(ITest);
            Type serviceType = useAsync ? typeof(ServiceAsync) : typeof(Service);
            Console.WriteLine("Using {0} service implementation", useAsync ? "Asynchronous" : "Synchronous");
            string baseAddress = "http://" + Environment.MachineName + ":8000/Service";
            ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(serviceType, new Uri(baseAddress));
            host.AddServiceEndpoint(contractType, new BasicHttpBinding(), "");
            host.Open();
            Console.WriteLine("Host opened");

            Console.WriteLine("Using the same client for both services...");
            ChannelFactory<ITest> factory = new ChannelFactory<ITest>(new BasicHttpBinding(), new EndpointAddress(baseAddress));
            ITest proxy = factory.CreateChannel();
            Console.WriteLine(proxy.Echo("Hello"));
            Console.WriteLine(proxy.Add(3, 4));

            ((IClientChannel)proxy).Close();
            factory.Close();

            host.Close();

            Console.WriteLine("Done");
            Console.WriteLine();
        }
    }
}