Can WCF self hosted applications create ServiceHosts automatically using the app.config?

Question

When I create a self hosted wcf application, I create ServiceHost objects for each service I want to expose. It then looks in the app.config (matching up the server name), and then pulls the associated endpoint address and contract.

Is there a way to automatically create ServiceHosts for every service that is listed in the app.config. I would like to add new services to the app.config and have them loaded automatically without recompilng my program and using my manually coded process to create ServiceHost objects.

Is there a factory or a tutorial someone could link me that shows me how to do this? Thanks

Answer 1

I'm not sure what do you mean by pulling associated addresses and contracts from config - this is done automatically. Service section in configuration file is automatically paired with type of service hosted in ServiceHost:

Service hosting:

using (var host = new ServiceHost(typeof(MyNamespace.Service))
{
  // no endpoint setting needed if configuration is correctly paired by the type name
  host.Open() 
}

Service configuration:

<services>
  <service name="MyNamespace.Service">
    ...
  </service>
</service>

Now the only thing you need is to handle ServiceHost creation automatically. Here is my sample code to do it:

   class Program
   {
       static void Main(string[] args)
       {
           List<ServiceHost> hosts = new List<ServiceHost>();

           try
           {
               var section = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.serviceModel/services") as ServicesSection;
               if (section != null)
               {
                   foreach (ServiceElement element in section.Services)
                   {
                       var serviceType = Type.GetType(element.Name);
                       var host = new ServiceHost(serviceType);
                       hosts.Add(host);
                       host.Open();
                   }
               }

               Console.ReadLine();
           }
           catch (Exception e)
           {
               Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
               Console.ReadLine();
           }
           finally
           {
               foreach (ServiceHost host in hosts)
               {
                   if (host.State == CommunicationState.Opened)
                   {
                       host.Close();
                   }
                   else
                   {
                       host.Abort();
                   }
               }
           }
       }
   }