How to Build a WCF Service for Unmanaged C Clients?

Creating a WCF Service for Unmanaged C Clients

Developing WCF services that can communicate with unmanaged C clients requires a multi-step approach. Here are the steps to create and bridge the gap between C and WCF:

Hosting the WCF Service

1. Create a WCF Service and a Windows NT Service to host it using Visual Studio 2008.
2. Define the WCF Service with the necessary methods and contracts.
3. Modify the Service1 class to start and stop the WCF Service as part of the Windows NT Service.
4. Install the Windows NT Service on the local machine and start it.

Creating the Managed C Bridge DLL

5. Create a managed C DLL that will act as a bridge between the unmanaged C code and the managed WCF code.
6. Add references to necessary assemblies in the project properties.
7. Define an interface (IHelloServiceClientBridge) for the bridge DLL with a method to invoke the WCF method.
8. Create a managed C class (HelloServiceClientBridge) that implements the interface.
9. In the managed C implementation, use managed C features to connect to the WCF Service and call the desired method.

Integrating with Unmanaged C Code

10. In the unmanaged C client code, include the IHelloServiceClientBridge.h header and implement the method of the interface to invoke the WCF method.
11. Update the unmanaged C code to use the bridge DLL to communicate with the WCF Service.

Demonstration

12. Build and run the C application. Test the WCF method by clicking a button that triggers the method invocation through the bridge DLL.

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