How to: Create Self-Hosted Telerik Reporting WCF Service

The advantages of a Self-Hosted service:

Easy to use: With only a few lines of code you have your service running.
Easy to debug: Debugging WCF services that are hosted in a self-hosted environment provides a familiar way of debugging, without having to attach to separate applications that activate your service.
Easy to deploy.
Flexible: You can easily control the lifetime of your services.
Supports all bindings and transport.

To create a Telerik self-hosted reporting service follow the steps below:

Create a new Windows console application and make sure it uses .NET Framework 3.5
Add references to the following System assemblies:
- System.ServiceModel
- System.Runtime.Serialization
- System.Drawing
- System.Windows.Forms
Add references to the following Telerik Reporting assemblies:
- Telerik.Reporting
- Telerik.Reporting.Service
- Telerik.Reporting.XpsRendering (in case you plan to render reports in XPS format)

The Telerik Reporting WCF Service is represented by the Telerik.Reporting.Service.ReportServiceBase - abstract class that requires a base URI to be used for proper resource resolution. This base URI is usually the well-known address of the report service endpoint:

CopyC#

[System.Runtime.Serialization.KnownType(typeof(object[]))]
class ReportService : Telerik.Reporting.Service.ReportServiceBase
{
    static readonly Uri baseUri = new Uri("http://localhost:54321/reportservice");

    protected override Uri BaseAddress
    {
        get { return baseUri; }
    }
}

CopyVB.NET

<System.Runtime.Serialization.KnownType(GetType(Object()))> _
Class ReportService
    Inherits Telerik.Reporting.Service.ReportServiceBase
    Shared ReadOnly baseUri As New Uri("http://localhost:54321/reportservice")

    Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property BaseAddress() As Uri
        Get
            Return baseUri
        End Get
    End Property
End Class

Create a ServiceHost for our ReportService and call its Open method:

CopyC#

public class ReportServiceBaseSnippets
{

    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        System.ServiceModel.ServiceHost host = new System.ServiceModel.ServiceHost(typeof(ReportService));
        host.Open();

        // Block the Main() method until the user presses a key; then close the host and exit the program
        Console.WriteLine("Ready...");
        Console.ReadLine();

        host.Close();
    }

}

CopyVB.NET

Public Class ReportServiceBaseSnippets

    Public Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
        Dim host As New System.ServiceModel.ServiceHost(GetType(ReportService))
        host.Open()

        ' Block the Main() method until the user presses a key; then close the host and exit the program
        Console.WriteLine("Ready...")
        Console.ReadLine()

        host.Close()
    End Sub

End Class

To configure the service and its endpoints add the next code to the application’s configuration file:

CopyC#

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <services>
      <service name="ConsoleApplication1.ReportService"
               behaviorConfiguration="ReportServiceBehavior">

        <host>
          <baseAddresses>
            <add baseAddress="http://localhost:54321"/>
          </baseAddresses>
        </host>

        <endpoint address="ReportService"
                  binding="basicHttpBinding"
                  contract="Telerik.Reporting.Service.IReportService">
          <identity>
            <dns value="localhost" />
          </identity>
        </endpoint>

        <endpoint address="ReportService/resources"
                  binding="webHttpBinding"
                  behaviorConfiguration="WebBehavior"
                  contract="Telerik.Reporting.Service.IResourceService"/>

        <endpoint address=""
                  binding="webHttpBinding"
                  behaviorConfiguration="WebBehavior"
                  contract="Telerik.Reporting.Service.IClientAccessPolicy"/>

        <endpoint address="mex"
                  binding="mexHttpBinding"
                  contract="IMetadataExchange" />
      </service>
    </services>

    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="ReportServiceBehavior">
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>

      <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior name="WebBehavior">
          <webHttp />
        </behavior>
      </endpointBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
  </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

Add a new report Report1 to the project to test the self-hosted report service.
Run the application – the Windows console will appear and when the "Ready…" message appears the service is ready to operate.
To test the self-hosted Telerik Reporting WCF Service we use the Export operation for the Resource Service (Telerik.Reporting.Service.IResourceService). As it is dedicated to be used by HTTP GET request we will use a web browser application as a client. Open any web browser and type the next address:
http://localhost:54321/reportservice/resources/export?format=PDF&report=YourNameSpace.Report1,YourNameSpace&deviceInfo={}¶meterValues={}
This will call the IResourceService. Export operation that will render the report in PDF with no deviceInfo or parameterValues. When completed, a PDF document will be sent back to the browser.