Managing multiple WCF endpoints for the same service

Question

I am building an single application that uses WCF to call out to multiple external endpoints. All of the remote endpoints are identical except for the URI. I would like to treat them as a pool: add and remove endpoints through configuration and have the application understand what to do.

My original plan was to define one endoint in the app.config, then iterate over my list of endpoints and update client.Endpoint.Address on the fly to point to the right place. Unfortunately, that property is read-only, rendering that plan unworkable.

I'm a little bit stumped here. Any suggestions on how I might accomplish this?

Answer 1

How to: Create a Service Endpoint in Code shows you how to manage service endpoints in code rather than configuration.

Answer 2

Have you tried a separate name that is passed in to the client constructor?

          <endpoint address="http://localhost:18000/MyService.svc"
                binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IMyService"
                contract="MyServiceReference.IMyService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IMyService" />
          <endpoint address="http://localhost:18001/MyService.svc"
                binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IMyService"
                contract="MyServiceReference.IMyService" name="MyService_Secondary" />
          <endpoint address="http://localhost:18002/MyService.svc"
                binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IMyService"
                contract="MyServiceReference.IMyService" name="MyService_Tertiary" />

Answer 3

Store the end point addresses in a DB table and use Jason's suggestion for creating end points in code. When a new endpoint shows up you just add another row to the table and force the service to re-query the endpoint table.

How to: Create a Service Endpoint in Code http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731080.aspx