creating WCF ChannelFactory

Here’s a helper class that I use to handle channel factories:

public class ChannelFactoryManager : IDisposable
{
    private static Dictionary<Type, ChannelFactory> _factories = new Dictionary<Type,ChannelFactory>();
    private static readonly object _syncRoot = new object();

    public virtual T CreateChannel<T>() where T : class
    {
        return CreateChannel<T>("*", null);
    }

    public virtual T CreateChannel<T>(string endpointConfigurationName) where T : class
    {
        return CreateChannel<T>(endpointConfigurationName, null);
    }

    public virtual T CreateChannel<T>(string endpointConfigurationName, string endpointAddress) where T : class
    {
        T local = GetFactory<T>(endpointConfigurationName, endpointAddress).CreateChannel();
        ((IClientChannel)local).Faulted += ChannelFaulted;
        return local;
    }

    protected virtual ChannelFactory<T> GetFactory<T>(string endpointConfigurationName, string endpointAddress) where T : class
    {
        lock (_syncRoot)
        {
            ChannelFactory factory;
            if (!_factories.TryGetValue(typeof(T), out factory))
            {
                factory = CreateFactoryInstance<T>(endpointConfigurationName, endpointAddress);
                _factories.Add(typeof(T), factory);
            }
            return (factory as ChannelFactory<T>);
        }
    }

    private ChannelFactory CreateFactoryInstance<T>(string endpointConfigurationName, string endpointAddress)
    {
        ChannelFactory factory = null;
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(endpointAddress))
        {
            factory = new ChannelFactory<T>(endpointConfigurationName, new EndpointAddress(endpointAddress));
        }
        else
        {
            factory = new ChannelFactory<T>(endpointConfigurationName);
        }
        factory.Faulted += FactoryFaulted;
        factory.Open();
        return factory;
    }

    private void ChannelFaulted(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        IClientChannel channel = (IClientChannel)sender;
        try
        {
            channel.Close();
        }
        catch
        {
            channel.Abort();
        }
        throw new ApplicationException("Exc_ChannelFailure");
    }

    private void FactoryFaulted(object sender, EventArgs args)
    {
        ChannelFactory factory = (ChannelFactory)sender;
        try
        {
            factory.Close();
        }
        catch
        {
            factory.Abort();
        }
        Type[] genericArguments = factory.GetType().GetGenericArguments();
        if ((genericArguments != null) && (genericArguments.Length == 1))
        {
            Type key = genericArguments[0];
            if (_factories.ContainsKey(key))
            {
                _factories.Remove(key);
            }
        }
        throw new ApplicationException("Exc_ChannelFactoryFailure");
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        Dispose(true);
    }

    protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        if (disposing)
        {
            lock (_syncRoot)
            {
                foreach (Type type in _factories.Keys)
                {
                    ChannelFactory factory = _factories[type];
                    try
                    {
                        factory.Close();
                        continue;
                    }
                    catch
                    {
                        factory.Abort();
                        continue;
                    }
                }
                _factories.Clear();
            }
        }
    }
}

Then I define a service invoker:

public interface IServiceInvoker
{
    R InvokeService<T, R>(Func<T, R> invokeHandler) where T: class;
}

and an implementation:

public class WCFServiceInvoker : IServiceInvoker
{
    private static ChannelFactoryManager _factoryManager = new ChannelFactoryManager();
    private static ClientSection _clientSection = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.serviceModel/client") as ClientSection;

    public R InvokeService<T, R>(Func<T, R> invokeHandler) where T : class
    {
        var endpointNameAddressPair = GetEndpointNameAddressPair(typeof(T));
        T arg = _factoryManager.CreateChannel<T>(endpointNameAddressPair.Key, endpointNameAddressPair.Value);
        ICommunicationObject obj2 = (ICommunicationObject)arg;
        try
        {
            return invokeHandler(arg);
        }
        finally
        {
            try
            {
                if (obj2.State != CommunicationState.Faulted)
                {
                    obj2.Close();
                }
            }
            catch
            {
                obj2.Abort();
            }
        }
    }

    private KeyValuePair<string, string> GetEndpointNameAddressPair(Type serviceContractType)
    {
        var configException = new ConfigurationErrorsException(string.Format("No client endpoint found for type {0}. Please add the section <client><endpoint name=\"myservice\" address=\"http://address/\" binding=\"basicHttpBinding\" contract=\"{0}\"/></client> in the config file.", serviceContractType));
        if (((_clientSection == null) || (_clientSection.Endpoints == null)) || (_clientSection.Endpoints.Count < 1))
        {
            throw configException;
        }
        foreach (ChannelEndpointElement element in _clientSection.Endpoints)
        {
            if (element.Contract == serviceContractType.ToString())
            {
                return new KeyValuePair<string, string>(element.Name, element.Address.AbsoluteUri);
            }
        }
        throw configException;
    }

}

Now every time you need to call a WCF service you could use this:

WCFServiceInvoker invoker = new WCFServiceInvoker();
SomeReturnType result = invoker.InvokeService<IMyServiceContract, SomeReturnType>(
    proxy => proxy.SomeMethod()
);

This assumes that you’ve defined a client endpoint for the IMyServiceContract service contract in the config file:

<client>
    <endpoint 
        name="myservice" 
        address="http://example.com/" 
        binding="basicHttpBinding" 
        contract="IMyServiceContract" />
</client>