Question

I want to create a web-service that run a specific method on startup.
this is the service’s interface:

namespace MyClass
{
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface IService
    {
        [OperationContract]
        string getData();

    }
}

and on the service itself i want a specific method (not one of those) to run when the service loads (or deployed to IIS). is there a way to do so?

Answer 1

You need to be clear what really happens when a WCF service is hosting in IIS.

• IIS provides a service host that loads on demand
• when a request comes in, IIS instantiates the service host, which in turns instantiates an instance of your service class, passes it the parameters from the request, and then executes the appropriate method on the service class

As such, there is no point in time when the “service loads” and then just lingers around in memory. The “service” isn’t just loaded when IIS starts up and then would be “present and ready” at all times…

So where do you want to plug in??

• when the service host loads in IIS? In that case, you’d have to create your own custom service host and register it with IIS so that IIS would use your custom host instead of the WCF default service host

• when the actual service class is instantiated to handle the request? THen put your logic into the constructor of your service class – it will be executed each time a service class is instantiated to handle a request