We Keep Coding

Can we have environment-based endpoints with a WCF Connected Service?

I recently migrated one of our assemblies (a referenced library) from the old CSProj format to the new CSProj format (the Microsoft.Net.Sdk format). This helps a lot due to the globbing rules and how it handles dependencies (reference, project reference, package reference) so well.
After the transition, there is no longer an option for "Service References", instead we have "Connected Services". I removed the old Service Reference files (code, wsdl, xsd, etc.) and created a new Connected Service.
It seems cleaner because it generates a json configuration (used for auto-generating code) and a single Reference.cs file. The auto-generated code is a bit different than the old service reference code that was generated. Firstly, all methods are async (makes sense), so I adjusted our code to account for this.
The problem I am running into is that we had originally relied on the application's Web.Config file (also Web.Dev.Config, Web.Test.Config, etc.) -- during our deploy process we rename/replace the Web.Config with the appropriate environments configuration. This worked just fine, our app added a reference to our library and the app held the config information.
With the new Connected Services auto-generated code, it is hard coding in the localhost address as the endpoint because I used that to auto-generate the code.
Basically, the old "Service Reference" generated code had the default constructor of the client pull the endpoint from the application config. The new Connected Service offers overloads, but does not by default pull the endpoint from the config.
<system.serviceModel>
<client>
<endpoint address="http://xdev/xservice.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IXService" contract="XService.IXService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IXService" />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>
What do I do different to take advantage of my app config with the new WCF Connected Services auto-generated code?

See this answer:
There is a partial abstract method partial void ConfigureEndpoint in your service client to override. There you can programmatically set the endpoint via serviceEndpoint.Address = new EndpointAddress(...).
This URL can be stored in the <appSettings> of your .config or in the appsettings.<Environment>.json, depending on your platform.
Note, that the development endpoint from which the code was generated gets hard-coded into the sources and remains as a fallback. If for some reason your overridden method does not get called, you have a very hard to spot error. If someone has a solution for that, I'd be very interested.

WCF custom ServiceHost on IIS

I'm trying to host my WCF service with a custom ServiceHost on IIS. I found a couple of articles on MSDN like this: Custom Service Host. Here, I'm supposed to add something to my services svc file, but I don't have one and I can't add one in visual studio either. Then I found this article: Configuration-Based Activation in IIS and WAS. This says
"The configuration-based activation feature removes the requirement to have a .svc file and therefore the associated overhead."
so I can just create a serviceHostingEnvironment entry in my Web.config (which I don't have either, but I guess App.config is equivalent since it contains my system.serviceModel configuration). However, I have to specify a relativeAddress for the service activation.
"The relativeAddress attribute must be set to a relative address such as <sub-directory>/service.svc or ~/<sub-directory/service.svc. "
So it should point to my svc file? I'm a bit confused, could you point me to the right direction?

I know documentation on MSDN is little confusing. Here is configuration that you need to put in web.confi/app.config
<serviceHostingEnvironment>
<serviceActivations>
<add relativeAddress="MyNonExistingServiceSVC.svc" service="MyService" factory=”MyServiceHostFactory”/>
</serviceActivations>
</serviceHostingEnvironment>
Here relative address will be just any dummy name. This name will be used to browse your service metadata. Please note that this name can be anything of your choice and it DOES NOT require same physical file to be present on disk. It just needs any name with .SVC extension.
So while accessing service metadata your URL will be
http://myserver/myservice/MyNonExistingServiceSVC.svc

Passing parameter to WCF Service Ctor from Proxy Client

This may be a basic question since I am new to WCF. I don't even know if this is supported or not.
I have a WCF Service called MyCustomService. I added this service reference in my client solution and now I can create a proxy object by calling:
MyCustomServiceClient myClient = new MyCustomServiceClient();
myClient.GetData();
myClient.GetData();
How, do I layout my Service so that I can pass the parameter during proxy instance creation i.e.
MyCustomServiceClient myClient = new MyCustomServiceClient("SomeString");
I noticed every method call I make creates a new instance of the MyCustomService(i.e I can get the breakpoint hit on MyCustomService Ctor). So, I want the value that I had passed when creating proxy object (i.e. SomeString) to exist for all the calls I make until the lifetime of myClient
Any ideas ?

The proxy generation feature of Visual Studio (or svcutil.exe) creates a proxy class with five different constructor signatures. The one that you are asking about, the constructor that takes a single string, is a very useful one, because it allows you to reference different client configurations from your app.config or Web.config file.
Take this extremely simple hypothetical configuration file:
<configuration>
<system.serviceModel>
<client>
<endpoint name="serverABinding" />
<endpoint name="serverBBinding" />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>
You can then control which binding you use for the proxy:
string endpointName = useB ? "serverBBinding" : "serverABinding";
var myClient = new MyCustomServiceClient(endpointName);
Of course, the endpoint bindings I've shown above are too simple to actually be useful, but hopefully you get the idea.
Your motivation isn't exactly clear, but it sounds like you want to control the proxy behavior across all proxy instances of your application. If that's what you want, then don't use a constructor: use the endpoint configuration in your app.config or Web.config file to control the proxy connection. The default endpoint configuration that is generated by Visual Studio uses an endpoint name that matches the default name of the proxy client. Change this endpoint definition, and you'll change the behavior of your service client.
Since you are new to WCF, my advice to you is this: learn all about configuration files. Once you understand a WCF configuration file, you understand WCF.

You can not have constructor with parameter in your WCF service, even when you try to create such service you will get below error.
The service type provided could not be loaded as a service because it
does not have a default (parameter-less) constructor. To fix the
problem, add a default constructor to the type, or pass an instance of
the type to the host.
Now if you want the data to persist for a client you can set ServiceInstanceContextMode as below as a attribute on Service Class
[ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.PerSession)]
public class Service : IService

Client/Server configuration issue with a Service Reference

I am running a Client/Server WinForm application.
I added a Service Reference to a server side project.
However during runtime I get the following error:
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract '' in the ServiceModel client configuration section.
This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
However the node does exist. Is there a certain section that it needs to reside in? Could I have it located in the wrong location of the web.config file?
Currently in my web.config it is in the
"<system.serviceModel>
<client>
my endpoint node
</client>
</system.serviceModel>"

please check your contract in endpoint on client side, as your dnt provide the endpoint xml part of config file we cant tell what is the issue. but what i think contract part of endpoint is making an issue

Integrating PayPal in C#/.NET Solution using WSDL (SOAP)

Environment :
Visual Studio 2010 Professional
.NET Framework 4
C#
Added Service Reference using the following WSDL : https://www.paypalobjects.com/wsdl/PayPalSvc.wsdl
Problem 1 : When compiled simply like this, get a bunch of errors from the Reference.cs file. Looks like namespace errors. It mentions that it cannot find the Service Reference Namespace in my project's Namespace. Therefore, I went into the Reference.cs file and whereever I got this error, I removed the project's namespace before the method names, and now it compiles.
Finally getting access to all classes.
Created and populated DoDirectPaymentReq and CustomSecurityHeader objects with the required properties.
Created an instance of PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient class, which contains the method DoDirectPayment which takes in the arguments of type CustomSecurityHeader and DoDirectPaymentReq. Looks like this :
using (var client = new **PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient**())
{
var credentials = new CustomSecurityHeaderType
{
Credentials = new UserIdPasswordType
{
Username = "xxxxxxxx#xxxxxx.com",
Password = "xxxxxxx",
Signature = "jksadfuhasfweakjhasf"
}
};
_doDirectPaymentResponseType = client.DoDirectPayment(ref credentials, _doDirectPaymentReq);
}
Problem 2 : After writing a TestMethod for the method which contains the above code, I get the error as follows :
System.InvalidOperationException: Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'Paypal.PayPalAPIAAInterface' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.
at System.ServiceModel.Description.ConfigLoader.LoadChannelBehaviors(ServiceEndpoint serviceEndpoint, String configurationName)
at System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory.ApplyConfiguration(String configurationName, Configuration configuration)
at System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory.ApplyConfiguration(String configurationName)
at System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory.InitializeEndpoint(String configurationName, EndpointAddress address)
at System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory`1..ctor(String endpointConfigurationName, EndpointAddress remoteAddress)
at System.ServiceModel.EndpointTrait`1.CreateSimplexFactory()
at System.ServiceModel.ClientBase`1.CreateChannelFactoryRef(EndpointTrait`1 endpointTrait)
at System.ServiceModel.ClientBase`1.InitializeChannelFactoryRef()
at System.ServiceModel.ClientBase`1..ctor()
at PaymentEngine.Paypal.PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient..ctor() in Reference.cs: line 30063
Therefore, so far I have not been able to make a successful transaction using PayPal SOAP protocol via using WSDL in C#.
I was under the impression that this is very simple. Simply Add Service Reference and utilize the Classes with their properties and methods created in the proxy from WSDL.
Where am I going wrong ?
Am I using the wrong WSDL ? I'd like to test against Sandbox first and then go Live.
If I am right with the WSDL, looks like the class PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient doesn't know its endpoint, which I don't know if I am suppose to set manually or not since its already there in the WSDL definition at the end (check it out). I think the class itself should know which endpoint to call depending on whether I am using Signature or Certificate to populate CustomSecurityHeaderType.
But how does the PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient class know whether I am trying to call into the Sandbox (testing) or it is a live transaction ?
PayPal used to have two different WSDLs for Sandbox and for Live. They can be found here :
->https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_api_soap_PayPalSOAPAPIArchitecture
After speaking to their support I was asked to use the following WSDL for both Sandbox and Live:
->https://www.paypalobjects.com/wsdl/PayPalSvc.wsdl
But how do I tell the PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient class when it is suppose to perform Live or Sandbox tests. And also to which end point to use depending on my method of SOAP and Signature. The endpoints from PayPal are mentioned here :
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_api_endpoints
HELP !

You have a few problems here, but none should be too painful to resolve. First of all, when I add a Service Reference to the WSDL you link at the top of your post I don't have any of the problems with namespaces that you describe. It could be that your own namespaces/references are conflicting somehow with the auto-generated terms, or perhaps that you selected some strange option during the add reference process? A delete-and-re-add might solve the problem, or I guess you can just ignore it since you've already worked around it. (It is kind of a hassle to edit auto-generated code, however, so you should plan on a fix eventually.)
To resolve the InvalidOperationException, you probably just need to specify one of the endpoints that Visual Studio has automatically added to your app.config file. You should have something like this in your config file:
<system.serviceModel>
<client>
<endpoint name="PayPalAPI" ... />
<endpoint name="PayPalAPIAA" ... />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>
You can pass the name of the endpoint you want to the constructor of the proxy class. There are other options to solve this problem, but just specifying an endpoint is easy and clean. (Note: if you don't have this section in your config file, then something went wrong during the Add Service Reference phase. Again I would just suggest resetting your project and re-adding the reference.)
Finally, you don't want to use a using block when you make use of the proxy class in spite of it being IDisposable. Basically, there's a design bug in WCF.

I had the same problem, because I was doing unit testing.
You have to copy the application.config file to the test project, otherwise it won't find the WCF config.