WCF avoiding too many endpoints for experts - wcf

Question

I have a lot of businesses services already implemented, and I´m exposing them as services by WCF.
I don´t like the idea to have one endpoint to each service..... it could be a problem to maintain in the future as my repository grows.......
I´d like to know wcf´s experts opinions if the code below would be a good approach an them I can move ahead with this solution.
Business Service A:
[ServiceContract]
public interface IServiceA
{
[OperationContract]
object AddA(object a);
[OperationContract]
object Update();
}
Business Service B:
[ServiceContract]
public interface IServiceB
{
[OperationContract]
object AddB(object b);
[OperationContract]
object Update();
}
Concrete implementation for Service A
public class ConcreteServiceA : IServiceA
{
public object AddA(object a)
{
Console.WriteLine("ConcreateServiceA::AddA");
return null;
}
public object Update()
{
Console.WriteLine("ConcreateServiceA::Update");
return null;
}
}
Concrete implementation for Service B
public class ConcreteServiceB : IServiceB
{
public object AddB(object b)
{
Console.WriteLine("ConcreateServiceB::AddB");
return null;
}
public object Update()
{
Console.WriteLine("ConcreateServiceB::Update");
return null;
}
}
My single service is partial to separate concerns to each service.
Note that it´s constructors depends on both business services above, will be injection using IoC
Partial for constructors
public partial class WCFService
{
IServiceA _a;
IServiceB _b;
public WCFService()
: this(new ConcreteServiceA(), new ConcreteServiceB())
{
}
public WCFService(IServiceA serviceA, IServiceB serviceB)
{
_a = serviceA;
_b = serviceB;
}
}
Partial class implementing only IServiveA
public partial class WCFService : IServiceA
{
object IServiceB.AddB(object b)
{
return _b.AddB(b);
}
object IServiceB.Update()
{
return _b.Update();
}
}
Partial class implementing only IServiceB
public partial class WCFService : IServiceB
{
object IServiceA.AddA(object a)
{
return _a.AddA(a);
}
object IServiceA.Update()
{
return _a.Update();
}
}
And in the client side, I using like that:
var endPoint = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost/teste");
ChannelFactory<IServiceA> _factoryA = new ChannelFactory<IServiceA>(new BasicHttpBinding(), endPoint);
IServiceA serviceA = _factoryA.CreateChannel();
serviceA.Update();
var netTcpEndPoint = new EndpointAddress("net.tcp://localhost:9000/teste");
ChannelFactory<IServiceB> _factoryB = new ChannelFactory<IServiceB>(new NetTcpBinding(), netTcpEndPoint);
IServiceB serviceB = _factoryB.CreateChannel();
serviceB.Update();
I really appreciate any opinion or other suggestions.

Answer 1

There's nothing wrong with multiple endpoints - it's part of the process. What is wrong, however, is duplicating functionality over multiple endpoints. How many "UpdateThis's" or "AddThat's" developers need? This can get out of control and makes for a maintenance headache. Just look at your constructor, it will grow and grow as you add new services and consolidate them into one service.
Think coarse-grained not fine-grained.
As an alternative, maybe you can try passing request objects as a parameter and returning response objects. This approach may streamline your code and help you avoid the maintenance issues you mention in your post and gives you a suggestion.
So, it looks something like this:
// Your service will return a very generic Response object
public interface IService
{
Response YourRequest(Request request);
}
// Your service implementation
public partial class WCFService : IService
{
Response IService.YourRequest(Request request)
{
//inspect the Request, do your work based on the values
//and return a response object
}
}
// Your request object
public class Request()
{
object YourClass{get;set;}
DoWhat Action{get;set;} //enum, constants, string etc.
int ID {get; set;}
}
// Your response object
public class Response()
{
bool Success {get; set;}
}
// Create Request object
var request = new Request(){YourClass = YourClassName , Action DoWhat.Update(), ID=1};
// Your service call
var endPoint = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost/teste");
ChannelFactory<IService> _factory = new ChannelFactory<IService>(new BasicHttpBinding(), endPoint);
IService service = _factory.CreateChannel();
var response = service.YourRequest(request);
So, now you've removed the fine-grained approach and replaced it with course-grained one. Let me know if you'd like more detail.