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How to: Call WCF Service Operations Asynchronously

  • Article

This article covers how a client can access a service operation asynchronously. The service in this article implements the ICalculator interface. The client can call the operations on this interface asynchronously by using the event-driven asynchronous calling model. (For more information about the event-based asynchronous calling model, see Multithreaded Programming with the Event-based Asynchronous Pattern). For an example that shows how to implement an operation asynchronously in a service, see How to: Implement an Asynchronous Service Operation. For more information about synchronous and asynchronous operations, see Synchronous and Asynchronous Operations.

Note

The event-driven asynchronous calling model is not supported when using a ChannelFactory<TChannel>. For information about making asynchronous calls using the ChannelFactory<TChannel>, see How to: Call Operations Asynchronously Using a Channel Factory.

Procedure

To call WCF service operations asynchronously

  1. Run the ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) tool with both the /async and the /tcv:Version35 command options together as shown in the following command.

    svcutil /n:http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples,Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples http://localhost:8000/servicemodelsamples/service/mex /a /tcv:Version35

    This generates, in addition to the synchronous and standard delegate-based asynchronous operations, a WCF client class that contains:

    • Two <operationName>``Async operations for use with the event-based asynchronous calling approach. For example:

      public void AddAsync(double n1, double n2)
{
    this.AddAsync(n1, n2, null);
}

public void AddAsync(double n1, double n2, object userState)
{
    if ((this.onBeginAddDelegate == null))
    {
        this.onBeginAddDelegate = new BeginOperationDelegate(this.OnBeginAdd);
    }
    if ((this.onEndAddDelegate == null))
    {
        this.onEndAddDelegate = new EndOperationDelegate(this.OnEndAdd);
    }
    if ((this.onAddCompletedDelegate == null))
    {
        this.onAddCompletedDelegate = new System.Threading.SendOrPostCallback(this.OnAddCompleted);
    }
    base.InvokeAsync(this.onBeginAddDelegate, new object[] {
                n1,
                n2}, this.onEndAddDelegate, this.onAddCompletedDelegate, userState);
}

    • Operation completed events of the form <operationName>``Completed for use with the event-based asynchronous calling approach. For example:

      public event System.EventHandler<AddCompletedEventArgs> AddCompleted;

    • System.EventArgs types for each operation (of the form <operationName>``CompletedEventArgs) for use with the event-based asynchronous calling approach. For example:

      [System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("System.ServiceModel", "3.0.0.0")]
public partial class AddCompletedEventArgs : System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventArgs
{
    private object[] results;

    public AddCompletedEventArgs(object[] results, System.Exception exception, bool cancelled, object userState) :
            base(exception, cancelled, userState)
    {       this.results = results;         }

    public double Result
    {
        get            {
            base.RaiseExceptionIfNecessary();
            return ((double)(this.results[0]));
        }
    }
}

  2. In the calling application, create a callback method to be called when the asynchronous operation is complete, as shown in the following sample code.

    // Asynchronous callbacks for displaying results.
static void AddCallback(object sender, AddCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Add Result: {e.Result}");
}

  3. Prior to calling the operation, use a new generic System.EventHandler<TEventArgs> of type <operationName>``EventArgs to add the handler method (created in the preceding step) to the <operationName>``Completed event. Then call the <operationName>``Async method. For example:

    // AddAsync
double value1 = 100.00D;
double value2 = 15.99D;
client.AddCompleted += new EventHandler<AddCompletedEventArgs>(AddCallback);
client.AddAsync(value1, value2);
Console.WriteLine($"Add({value1},{value2})");

Example

Note

The design guidelines for the event-based asynchronous model state that if more than one value is returned, one value is returned as the Result property and the others are returned as properties on the EventArgs object. One result of this is that if a client imports metadata using the event-based asynchronous command options and the operation returns more than one value, the default EventArgs object returns one value as the Result property and the remainder are properties of the EventArgs object.If you want to receive the message object as the Result property and have the returned values as properties on that object, use the /messageContract command option. This generates a signature that returns the response message as the Result property on the EventArgs object. All internal return values are then properties of the response message object.

using System;

namespace Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples
{
    // The service contract is defined in generatedClient.cs, generated from the service by the svcutil tool.

    class Client
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to terminate client once the output is displayed.");
            Console.WriteLine();

            // Create a client
            CalculatorClient client = new CalculatorClient();

            // AddAsync
            double value1 = 100.00D;
            double value2 = 15.99D;
            client.AddCompleted += new EventHandler<AddCompletedEventArgs>(AddCallback);
            client.AddAsync(value1, value2);
            Console.WriteLine($"Add({value1},{value2})");

            // SubtractAsync
            value1 = 145.00D;
            value2 = 76.54D;
            client.SubtractCompleted += new EventHandler<SubtractCompletedEventArgs>(SubtractCallback);
            client.SubtractAsync(value1, value2);
            Console.WriteLine($"Subtract({value1},{value2})");

            // Multiply
            value1 = 9.00D;
            value2 = 81.25D;
            double result = client.Multiply(value1, value2);
            Console.WriteLine($"Multiply({value1},{value2}) = {result}");

            // Divide
            value1 = 22.00D;
            value2 = 7.00D;
            result = client.Divide(value1, value2);
            Console.WriteLine($"Divide({value1},{value2}) = {result}");

            Console.ReadLine();

            //Closing the client gracefully closes the connection and cleans up resources
            client.Close();
        }

        // Asynchronous callbacks for displaying results.
        static void AddCallback(object sender, AddCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Add Result: {e.Result}");
        }

        static void SubtractCallback(object sender, SubtractCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Subtract Result: {e.Result}");
        }
    }
}

See also