How to best expose methods in WinForm?

Question

I have a C# form application that connects to a electronic device using the serial port. The class "'SerialCommunicationManager'" hooks up to the serial port on application startup and handles the dirty business of talkning to the device.

What I would like is to expose the following methods.

• Write()
• SerialDataReceived event
• SerialDataTransmitted event

Primarily a local website running on the same machine is the one I want to expose the methods for, but in the future I imagine the need for external applications as well.

What is the easiest way to expose the functionality?

• TCPIP client server?
• Web service? (Can I create a web service inside a WinForm?)
• other?

Big thanks

//David

Answer 1

I would recommend self-hosting a WCF Service. This provides you a huge amount of flexibility in terms of how you serve and expose this information, including being able to change the method by which its served via configuration.