If you are not familiar with Microsoft .Net Services, do read my earlier post
So, are you ready to start programming .Net Services ? Not so fast, there are still certain things that you need to know before you start coding ;)
Microsoft .Net Services Account
First you need a Microsoft .Net Services account to actually host and create services that interact with the Service Bus. You can go to Microsoft Connect and apply for the ‘Azure Services Invitations’. Once you register, you will be put in the application pool and if you are lucky, you might get a token immediately for Microsoft .Net Services.
Once you have the token, proceed here to enter the invitation code. Activate the .Net Services and create a solution. Your solution name/password will be used for authentication when you host your services with Microsoft .Net Services. You can also associate Windows Cardspace or a X.509 Certificate for your solution.
Finally, download the .Net Services SDK here
Connection Modes
Service Bus supports three types of connection modes:
Relayed
1) Uses relay between server and client.
2) This is the default connection mode
Direct
1) Direct connection between server and client, though a relayed connection is used for initialization
2) If Direct connection is not possible, then relay will be used
Hybrid
1) Combination of Relay and Direct
2) Establishes a relayed connection, but uses direct connection whenever possible
Service Bus Bindings
The Service Bus is entirely built on Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) . If you are not familiar with WCF, then you could start here. To build a simple ‘Hello World’ service, all you need to do is to create a WCF Service and WCF Client with a ‘specific’ service bus binding. The bindings currently available are:
- WebHttpRelayBinding
- BasicHttpRelayBinding
- BasicHttpRelayContextBinding
- WSHttpRelayBinding
- WS2007HttpRelayBinding
- WS2007FederationHttpBinding
- NetTcpRelayBinding
- NetOnewayRelayBinding
- NetEventRelayBinding
‘Hello World’
Basic steps to write a ‘Hello World’ sample are:
1) Create a WCF Service (Service Contract)
2) Create a Service Bus binding
3) Host in the Service Bus (by authenticating yourself)
4) Write a basic client
5) The client also needs to authenticate with the Service Bus to interact with your service
Building the ‘Hello World’ Service
1) Create your Service Contract
[ServiceContract]public interface IHelloWorldService{ [OperationContract] string HelloWorld();}
2) Implement your Service
[ServiceBehavior(Name = "HelloWorldService", Namespace = "http://Chaks.Samples.MyService/HelloWorld/")]public class HelloWorldService : IHelloWorldService{ #region IMyService Members public string HelloWorld() { return "[Service returns] Hello World"; } #endregion}
3) Edit your app.config to hold the WCF endpoints
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?><configuration> <system.serviceModel> <services> <service name="Chaks.Samples.MyService.HelloWorldService"> <endpoint name="HelloWorldRelayEndpoint" contract="Chaks.Samples.MyService.IHelloWorldService" binding="netTcpRelayBinding"/> </service> </services> </system.serviceModel></configuration>
The binding we are using here netTcpRelayBinding and the connection mode is the default, which is Relay.
4) You can now host your service. To do so,
a. Enter your solution name and password
Console.WriteLine("Enter your solution name : ");string solutionName = Console.ReadLine();Console.WriteLine("Enter your solution password : ");string solutionPassword = ReadPassword();
b. Create the Service Bus URI
string serviceUri = String.Format("sb://{0}/services/{1}/HelloWorldService/", ServiceBusEnvironment.DefaultRelayHostName, solutionName);
c. Specify the Transport Credentials
TransportClientEndpointBehavior endpointBehavior = new TransportClientEndpointBehavior();endpointBehavior.CredentialType = TransportClientCredentialType.UserNamePassword;endpointBehavior.Credentials.UserName.UserName = solutionName;endpointBehavior.Credentials.UserName.Password = solutionPassword;
d. Create your Service Host
ServiceHost serviceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(HelloWorldService), new Uri(serviceUri));
e. Apply the credentials to the endpoints
foreach (ServiceEndpoint endpoint in serviceHost.Description.Endpoints){ endpoint.Behaviors.Add(endpointBehavior);}
f. Open the Service
serviceHost.Open();
If you have entered the proper credentials, your service will now be hosted at the Service Bus - in the Cloud!
Building the ‘Hello World’ Client
1) Enter your solution name and password
Console.WriteLine("Enter your solution name : ");string solutionName = Console.ReadLine();Console.WriteLine("Enter your solution password : ");string solutionPassword = ReadPassword();
2) Create the Service Bus URI
string serviceUri = String.Format("sb://{0}/services/{1}/HelloWorldService/", ServiceBusEnvironment.DefaultRelayHostName, solutionName);
3) Specify the Transport Credentials
TransportClientEndpointBehavior endpointBehavior = new TransportClientEndpointBehavior();endpointBehavior.CredentialType = TransportClientCredentialType.UserNamePassword;endpointBehavior.Credentials.UserName.UserName = solutionName;endpointBehavior.Credentials.UserName.Password = solutionPassword;
4) Create our HelloWorld channel
public interface IHelloWorldChannel : IHelloWorldService, IClientChannel { }
5) Create the ChannelFactory
ChannelFactory<IHelloWorldChannel> channelFactory = new ChannelFactory<IHelloWorldChannel>("HelloWorldRelayEndpoint", new EndpointAddress(new Uri(serviceUri)));
6) Apply the credentials to the endpoint and create the service channel
channelFactory.Endpoint.Behaviors.Add(endpointBehavior);IHelloWorldChannel channel = channelFactory.CreateChannel();
7) Open the channel and invoke the HelloWorld() method
channel.Open();Console.WriteLine(channel.HelloWorld());channel.Close();
If everything worked fine, you should get a reply from the Service.
Below is the screenshot of the output from our ‘Hello World’ Service and Client
You can download the sample below