Question

I have a client that connects to a WCF service using a netTcpBinding.

To connect to the service I use the following in my client:

namespace Embedded_DCC_Client
{
    public class EmbeddedClient
    {
        private ChannelFactory<IEmbeddedService> channelFactory;

        //Embedded DCC TCP Addresses
        public const String LOCAL_ADDRESS = "net.tcp://localhost:9292/EmbeddedService";
        public const String REMOTE_ADDRESS = "net.tcp://192.168.10.42:9292/EmbeddedService";

        public IEmbeddedService Proxy { get; private set; }

        public EmbeddedClient()
        {
            //Configure binding
            NetTcpBinding binding = new NetTcpBinding();
            binding.OpenTimeout = TimeSpan.MaxValue;   //infinite open timeout
            binding.CloseTimeout = TimeSpan.MaxValue;   //infinite close timeout
            binding.SendTimeout = TimeSpan.MaxValue;   //infinite send timeout
            binding.ReceiveTimeout = TimeSpan.MaxValue;   //infinite recieve timeout
            binding.Security.Mode = SecurityMode.None;  //No security mode

            //Setup the channel to the service...
            //TODO debugging use a proper IP address here, and read it from a file. Allows devs to switch between simulator (localhost) and actual embedded DCC
            channelFactory = new ChannelFactory<IEmbeddedService>(binding, new EndpointAddress(REMOTE_ADDRESS));

        }

        public void Open()
        {
            Proxy = channelFactory.CreateChannel();
        }

        public void Close()
        {
            channelFactory.Close();
        }
    }
}

For debugging I constantly switch between running the service on my local machine and a remote machine. Is there a way to grab the IP from the client’s app.config so that I do not have to recompile whenever I want to change the IP?

The client app.config is generated using MEX:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
   <system.serviceModel>
       <bindings>
          <netTcpBinding>
              <binding name="TCPEndPoint" closeTimeout="00:01:00" openTimeout="00:01:00"
                       receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00" transactionFlow="false"
                       transferMode="Buffered" transactionProtocol="OleTransactions"
                       hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard" listenBacklog="10"
                       maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxBufferSize="65536" maxConnections="10"
                       maxReceivedMessageSize="65536">
                   <readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" 
                                 maxArrayLength="16384" maxBytesPerRead="4096" 
                                 maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
                   <reliableSession ordered="true" inactivityTimeout="00:10:00"
                                    enabled="false" />
                   <security mode="None">
                      <transport clientCredentialType="Windows" 
                                 protectionLevel="EncryptAndSign">
                          <extendedProtectionPolicy policyEnforcement="Never" />
                      </transport>
                      <message clientCredentialType="Windows" />
                   </security>
              </binding>
          </netTcpBinding>
      </bindings>
      <client>
          <endpoint name="TCPEndPoint" 
              address="net.tcp://localhost:9292/EmbeddedService"
              binding="netTcpBinding" 
              bindingConfiguration="TCPEndPoint"
              contract="ServiceReference1.IEmbeddedService" />
      </client>
   </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

Ideally, I would just change the IP here. How can I grab the endpoint address from here?

Answer 1

Basically, what you could do is create two client-side endpoints – one for each IP you want to connect to, and then pick which one you want in your code.

Your client’s app.config would look something like this:

 <client>
      <endpoint name="tcpLocal" 
          address="net.tcp://localhost:9292/EmbeddedService"
          binding="netTcpBinding" 
          bindingConfiguration="TCPEndPoint"
          contract="ServiceReference1.IEmbeddedService" />
      <endpoint name="tcpRemote"
          address="net.tcp://192.168.10.42:9292/EmbeddedService"
          binding="netTcpBinding" 
          bindingConfiguration="TCPEndPoint"
          contract="ServiceReference1.IEmbeddedService" />
 </client>

and then in your code, based on some criteria, you would have to use either the tcpLocal or the tcpRemote client-side endpoint definition:

// connect to the local address
channelFactoryLocal = new ChannelFactory<IEmbeddedService>("tcpLocal");

// or connect to the remote address
channelFactoryRemote = new ChannelFactory<IEmbeddedService>("tcpRemote");

Those strings at the end denote the name= for the <client>/<endpoint> definition to use in each case. You can pick the local or the remote connection – or heck, even have both available at the same time, if you like! 🙂