self hosted wcf service as windows service with custom authentication - codeproject

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Murugan Sivananantha Perumal, 30 Aug 2015 CPOL 2.2K 6

Self Hosted WCF Service as Windows Service with custom Authentication

Self Hosted WCF Service as Windows Service with custom User Authentication over Http.

Download source MSMSystemServices.rar

Introduction

In this article, I want to demonstrate a very simple WCF Server / Client application but this demo application is intended to demonstrate about the Self

hosted service. You may raise a question "what is self hoting ?". Let me explain in detail.

There are two ways to host a WCF Service; they are;

1. Hosting with IIS : The traditional way to host a WCF web service.

2. Self Hosting : An alternate way to host a service with no IIS.

What is self hosting ?

Hosting a service inside a managed application is known as self-hosted service. A managed application either can be a Console Application, Windows Forms

Application, WPF or Windows Service. Check out this link on MSDN for more details and check this MSDN link for sample code.

There is a detailed discussion on this asp.net forum regarding the differences between self-hosted and IIS hosted services.

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Lets move to WCF;

WCF has two zones:

Services1.

Clients2.

1. Service

The basic steps to make a Service live.

Define a service contract1.

Implement a service contract2.

Host and run a service contract 3.

2. Clients

WCF Clients is an application which can communicate with WCF Service operations as method.

The dynamic WCF Client communication to the Service has three steps:

Create a WCF Client using channel factory class ( System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory )1.

Configure a WCF Client2.

Use a WCF Client3.

In this article, I'm going to use Windows Service as managed application to host the WCF service.

The source code contains Windows Service and Self Hosted WCF Service on Http.

All examples are programmed in Visual Basic .Net,

Sample sends the requests / responses via Port 9090 over Http.

Sample uses dynamic connection string using INI file and uses simple AES Cryptography for password encryption / decryption.

Topics of hosting on Https is not covered.

After reading this article and studying the samples, you may get an idea to create self hosted web service with custom authentication on windows

service.


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Background

Recently, I had a requirement to host a service with authentication where I didn’t have IIS and the solution is to have self hosted WCF service which use

custom user authentication and the clients can consume it dynamically using channel factory method.

Server Side

So, lets start with WCF Service. Create a WCF Service Library project and then add the below references and name the Project as MSMSystemService.

1. System.ServiceModel

2. System.IdentityModel

3. System.IdentityModel.Selectors

WCF Library Project


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1. Add an Interface (IDataServices.vb) to the Project and define the Service Contract

In this example, I had used the data class from MSMSystemService.DataModels.Academics.

Imports SystemImports System.ServiceModelImports MSMSystemService.DataModels.Academics


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Namespace MSMServices

<servicecontract()> Public Interface IDataServices

' TODO: Add your service operations here <operationcontract()> Function GetPupilData(ByVal lngStudentID As Long) As StudentInfo

End Interface

End Namespace

2. Add a data class (DataServices.vb) and Implement the Service Contract

In this example, the class DataServices returns the data from MSMSystemService.DataModels.Academics.StudentInfo data class.

Imports MSMSystemService.DataModels.Academics

Namespace MSMServices Public Class DataServices Implements IDataServices

Public Function GetPupilData(ByVal lngStudentID As Long) As StudentInfo Implements IDataServices.GetPupilData

Dim oStudent As New StudentInfo

oStudent.StudentID = lngStudentID

oStudent.Fill()

Return oStudent

End Function

End Class

End Namespace

3. Custom Authentication

Add an new class (MSMServiceAuthentication.vb) and Inherit the class System.IdentityModel.Selectors.UserNamePasswordValidator and

implement Validate subroutine. There is a custom exception class (MSMSecurityException) demonstrated for managing custom security token

validation faliure.


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Add the below code to MSMServiceAuthentication.vb.

Imports SystemImports System.SecurityImports System.Security.PrincipalImports System.IdentityModelImports System.IdentityModel.Selectors

Namespace MSMServices

Public Class MSMServiceAuthentication Inherits UserNamePasswordValidator

Public Overrides Sub Validate(userName As String, password As String)

If userName = "admin" And password = "admin" Then'OK

Else Throw New MSMSecurityException() End If

End Sub

End Class

Public Class MSMSecurityException Inherits Exception

Public Sub New() MyBase.New("Invalid Security Token") End Sub

End Class

End Namespace

The WCF service part is ready and the next job is to create an Managed Application which hosts the WCF service. In this case, Windows Service is going

to act as a Managed Application.

Add an new Windows Service project (name it as MSMServiceController) to MSMServiceController project and setup the ServiceName and Service

Description properties as described below.

4. Windows Service


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Set Service Properties

Open the Properties of the Service class MSMServiceController.vb and set "ServiceName" property to "MSMDataServices".


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Add Installer Class

Right click on Service class MSMServiceController.vb and select Add Installer.

Visual Studio will create an new class ProjectInstaller.vb with two components;

1. ProcessInstaller (Rename as MSMProcessInstaller)


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2. Service Installer. (Rename as MSMServiceInstaller)

Open ProjectInstaller.vb class and set the Properties of Service Installer.

Note: The values set in ServiceName and Description properties will be displayed on the Windows Service Management console once the Windows

Service was installed.

Add the below code to windows service class. In this code, I have used a custom registry manager and custom INI file manager for reading the

connection string from INI settings file.

Note: Developers can use the WSHttpBinding class instead of BasicHttpBinding for Https hosting over SSL .


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Imports SystemImports System.ServiceProcessImports System.ComponentModelImports System.ConfigurationImports System.Configuration.InstallImports System.ServiceModelImports System.ServiceModel.DescriptionImports MSMSystemService.MSMServicesImports MSMSystemService.Utilities

Public Class MSMServiceController

Dim sBAddress As Uri Dim oSelfHost As ServiceHost 'New ServiceHost(GetType(DataServices), sBAddress)

Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)

Dim oSetting As New MSMSettingManager Dim oRegistry As New MSMRegistryManager Dim oWSHttpBind As New BasicHttpBinding Dim oSmb As ServiceMetadataBehavior Dim sFilename As String Dim sServiceURI As String

' Add code here to start your service. This method should set things' in motion so your service can do its work.

Try

oRegistry.RegistryRootKey = SystemRegistryRoot.SystemLocalComputer oRegistry.RegistryKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\MSMServices\DataService" oRegistry.KeyName = "RootFolder" oRegistry.ReadKey()

sFilename = oRegistry.keyValue oSetting.SettingsFileName = Replace(sFilename & "\MSMServices.ini", "\\", "\")

oSetting.ApplicationName = "Service" oSetting.KeyName = "URI" sServiceURI = oSetting.ReadSettings()

If Trim(sServiceURI) <> "" Then

oWSHttpBind.Security.Mode = BasicHttpSecurityMode.TransportCredentialOnly oWSHttpBind.Security.Transport.ClientCredentialType = HttpClientCredentialType.Basic

sBAddress = New Uri(sServiceURI) oSelfHost = New ServiceHost(GetType(DataServices), sBAddress)


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oSmb = oSelfHost.Description.Behaviors.Find(Of ServiceMetadataBehavior)()

If (oSmb Is Nothing) Then

oSmb = New ServiceMetadataBehavior

oSmb.HttpGetEnabled = True

oSelfHost.Description.Behaviors.Add(oSmb)

End If

oSelfHost.AddServiceEndpoint(GetType(IMetadataExchange), MetadataExchangeBindings.CreateMexHttpBinding(), "mex") oSelfHost.AddServiceEndpoint(GetType(IDataServices), oWSHttpBind, sBAddress)

oSelfHost.Credentials.UserNameAuthentication.UserNamePasswordValidationMode = ServiceModel.Security.UserNamePasswordValidationMode.Custom oSelfHost.Credentials.UserNameAuthentication.CustomUserNamePasswordValidator = New MSMServiceAuthentication()

oSelfHost.Open()

Else EventLog.WriteEntry("MSM Data Service Error: Invalid URI Specified", EventLogEntryType.Error, 10255) End If

Catch ex As Exception EventLog.WriteEntry("MSM Data Service Error: " & ex.Message.ToString(), EventLogEntryType.Error, 10255) End Try

End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub OnStop() ' Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.

If (oSelfHost IsNot Nothing) Then

If oSelfHost.State = CommunicationState.Opened Then oSelfHost.Close() End If

End If

End Sub

End Class

Windows Service part is complete, next step is to compile and test the code.


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Follow the below step to install and run the sample windows service.

1. Build the Solution and copy the compiled EXEs & Assemblies to a folder.

2. Run MSMServiceUtilities.exe to configure the dynamic URI and Database.

Note: Verify the port's availability before setting up the URI.

3. Click "Register Root" first and then click "Register Service".

Step 4: Use the below command from the folder to Install / uninstall the Windows Service;


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Step 5: Start the installed Windows Service and verify the status in the Event Viewer

Service Status in Event Viewer


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Client Side Create an new Windows Forms Application project and design a form with the required fields;

Add the below references to the project;

Imports System.Net.Security

Imports System.ServiceModel


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Add the service reference with user authentication;


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This service reference will create WSDL references to our DataServices web service.

This sample client appilcation deploys BasicHttpBinding class for creating Http traffic over custom authentication using ChannelFactory method.

Note: Developers can make this client application more dynamic by reading URI from INI file.

Code of the Click event of Get button.

Private Sub cmdGetStudent_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles cmdGetStudent.Click

Dim oWSHttp As New WSHttpBinding 'For Https access Dim oBSHttp As New BasicHttpBinding 'For Http access


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Dim oDSClient As IDataServices Dim oURI As New Uri("http://192.168.1.92:9090/DataServices") Dim oDSStudent As New StudentInfo Dim oEndpoint As New EndpointAddress(oURI)

If Trim(txtStudentID.Text) <> "" Then

oBSHttp.Security.Mode = BasicHttpSecurityMode.TransportCredentialOnly oBSHttp.Security.Transport.ClientCredentialType = HttpClientCredentialType.Basic

Dim oChFactory As New ChannelFactory(Of IDataServices)(oBSHttp, oEndpoint)

oChFactory.Credentials.UserName.UserName = "admin" oChFactory.Credentials.UserName.Password = "admin"

oDSClient = oChFactory.CreateChannel()

oDSStudent = oDSClient.GetPupilData(Val(txtStudentID.Text))

txtFirstname.Text = oDSStudent.FirstName txtMiddleName.Text = oDSStudent.MiddleName txtLastname.Text = oDSStudent.LastName txtGrnnumber.Text = oDSStudent.GRNNumber txtGender.Text = ""

CType(oDSClient, IClientChannel).Close()

End If

End Sub

Client side coding part is complete, you can test the application now.

Points of Interest

Implementting WCF webservice over HTTPS (SSL) greatly improves the security, maintainability, scalability, and stability of the application.

Your feedback is always welcome.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


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About the Author

You may also be interested in...

WCF Hosting with Windows Service AvePoint & Amazon Web Services: SharePoint in AWS

Murugan Sivananantha PerumalSoftware Developer (Senior) Wellcare Infotech LLC

United Arab Emirates

Murugan Shivananantha Perumal is from Chennai, India, He is Currently Working with Wellcare Infotech LLc, UAE., as

a Senior Software Architect

Murugan has 11+ yrs of experience in the IT industry working on Microsoft Technologies. He is involved in various

project activities like designing the system and technical architecture, leading technical front and doing core

development. He also has strong knowledge of ERP Domain.

Technical experience : Visual Basic 6, Classic ASP, Visual Basic .Net, C#, ASP.NET MVC 5 @Razor, Bootstrap, JQuery,

WCF and RESTFul Webservices, SSRS, SSIS Automation, Crystal Reports.


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self hosted wcf service as windows service with custom authentication - codeproject

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