Question

I’m looking for minimal example of WCF Named Pipes (I expect two minimal applications, server and client, which can communicate via a named pipe.)

Microsoft has the briliant article Getting Started Tutorial that describes WCF via HTTP, and I’m looking for something similar about WCF and named pipes.

I’ve found several posts in the Internet, but they are a little bit “advanced”. I need something minimal, only mandatory functionality, so I can add my code and get the application working.

How do I replace that to use a named pipe?

<endpoint address="http://localhost:8000/ServiceModelSamples/Service/CalculatorService"
    binding="wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WSHttpBinding_ICalculator"
    contract="ICalculator" name="WSHttpBinding_ICalculator">
    <identity>
        <userPrincipalName value="OlegPc\Oleg" />
    </identity>
</endpoint>

How do I replace that to use a named pipe?

// Step 1 of the address configuration procedure: Create a URI to serve as the base address.
Uri baseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:8000/ServiceModelSamples/Service");

// Step 2 of the hosting procedure: Create ServiceHost
ServiceHost selfHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(CalculatorService), baseAddress);

try
{
    // Step 3 of the hosting procedure: Add a service endpoint.
    selfHost.AddServiceEndpoint(
        typeof(ICalculator),
        new WSHttpBinding(),
        "CalculatorService");

    // Step 4 of the hosting procedure: Enable metadata exchange.
    ServiceMetadataBehavior smb = new ServiceMetadataBehavior();
    smb.HttpGetEnabled = true;
    selfHost.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb);

    // Step 5 of the hosting procedure: Start (and then stop) the service.
    selfHost.Open();
    Console.WriteLine("The service is ready.");
    Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to terminate service.");
    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.ReadLine();

    // Close the ServiceHostBase to shutdown the service.
    selfHost.Close();
}
catch (CommunicationException ce)
{
    Console.WriteLine("An exception occurred: {0}", ce.Message);
    selfHost.Abort();
}

How do I generate a client to use a named pipe?

Answer 1

I just found this excellent little tutorial. broken link (Cached version)

I also followed Microsoft’s tutorial which is nice, but I only needed pipes as well.

As you can see, you don’t need configuration files and all that messy stuff.

By the way, he uses both HTTP and pipes. Just remove all code lines related to HTTP, and you’ll get a pure pipe example.