WCF WinService with Plugins

Question

I have a win32 application that uses client side plugins and uses a Win32 Service via TCP/IP. I would like to also dynamically load assemblies on the WCF service based on the addition of new plugins. Currently I have to add the the ServiceContract and OperationContract to the Services class and IService interface and then re-compile. Is there a way to dynamically load the WCF assemblies and not have to generate the class and interface references? Can these be moved out of the WCF Win32 service into external classes?

Answer 1

I was wondering about this as well, but came to the conclusion that this was not a question of whether or not its possible, but should you do it? Even if you could generate the contract definitions dynamically, you still need to notify the client of the change, they in turn would need to regenerate the proxy in order to interact with the new service definition, and then provide an implementation dynamically. A better approach is to redesign your service so it implements a particular strategy (read Strategy pattern). The contract remains static, but the implementation changes based on client input. That way your service can dynamically load modules without your client being aware of it.

HTH.

Steve