Programming WCF Services, 2nd Edition

Asynchronous Calls

When a client calls a service, usually the client is blocked while the service executes the call, and control returns to the client only when the operation completes its execution and returns. However, there are quite a few cases in which you will want to call operations asynchronously; that is, you'll want control to return immediately to the client while the service executes the operation in the background and then somehow let the client know that the method has completed execution and provide the client with the results of the invocation. Such an execution mode is called asynchronous operation invocation, and the action is known as an asynchronous call. Asynchronous calls allow you to improve client responsiveness and availability.

Requirements for an Asynchronous Mechanism

To make the most of the various options available with WCF asynchronous calls, you should be aware of the generic requirements set for any service-oriented asynchronous call support. These requirements include the following:

• The same service code should be used for both synchronous and asynchronous invocation. This allows service developers to focus on business logic and cater to both synchronous and asynchronous clients.

• A corollary of the first requirement is that the client should be the one to decide whether to call a service synchronously or asynchronously. That, in turn, implies that the client will have different code for each case (whether to invoke the call synchronously or asynchronously). ...