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

WCF client configuration from custom location

I'm new to WCF and am trying to make my first service (a simple usage reporting service). I've gone through examples and tutorials and created a service. I have a simple test program that can run my core code and send the report. Currently I'm running locally hosted in the debugger, but running this simple exe program hosts the service, sends the report, and the service creates the log file just like it's supposed to... all is good.
Now, my actual program is an addin to another commercial program that runs in it's API (Autodesk Revit). When I run the exact same code inside of the Revit API I get an error that there is no endpoint defined. My guess is that this is because it's looking for the main Revit.exe.config which obviously will not have my endpoint defined. I have a .config file for my dll created (MyLibrary.dll.config) and in the executing directory for my code and it defines the endpoint properly, but that doesn't seem to be recognized.
So my question is how do I get it to load the connection settings from this config file? Or is there another way I should be doing this? I'm open to setting it in code somehow or whatever, just can't figure out how to get it to connect...
I'm not sure if it matters, but here is the configuration that is working in the standalone program:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="BasicHttpBinding_IReportingService" />
</basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<client>
<endpoint address="http://localhost:8733/Design_Time_Addresses/SPECtrumReportingService/Service1/"
binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IReportingService"
contract="ReportService.IReportingService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IReportingService" />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>
My constructor that is throwing the endpoint exception is simply:
_reporter = new ReportingServiceClient();
Here is the exception that is thrown:
Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'ReportService.IReportingService' 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.InitializeEndpoint(String configurationName, EndpointAddress address)
at System.ServiceModel.ChannelFactory`1..ctor(String endpointConfigurationName, EndpointAddress remoteAddress)
at System.ServiceModel.ConfigurationEndpointTrait`1.CreateSimplexFactory()
at System.ServiceModel.ClientBase`1.CreateChannelFactoryRef(EndpointTrait`1 endpointTrait)
at System.ServiceModel.ClientBase`1.InitializeChannelFactoryRef()
at RDES.Revit.Sumex.CommonUse.ReportService.ReportingServiceClient..ctor() in c:\RD\Projects\13-004 SPECtrum\Code\SPECtrumBase\Service References\ReportService\Reference.cs:line 241
at RDES.Revit.Sumex.CommonUse.ImportVM..ctor() in c:\RD\Projects\13-004 SPECtrum\Code\SPECtrumBase\ImportVM.cs:line 41
Any help would be greatly appreciated...

it's not relevant that the dll's configuration file is in the same folder as the application. only the application's (executable's) app.config file is read. the solution is to copy the WCF service configuration from the dll config file to you application's app.config file.
the other solution, for modular applications, is to set the service's ABC in code. the problem with this is that you cannot configure it without rebuilding and redeploying the addin.
to create a WCF proxy entirely in code you could use something like this:
IServiceContract proxy = ChannelFactory<IServiceContract>.CreateChannel(new WSHttpBinding(),
new EndpointAddress("<you url here>"));

I found this post that lead me to a possible answer. I have now updated my constructor as follows:
_reporter = new ReportingServiceClient(new BasicHttpBinding(), new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:8733/Design_Time_Addresses/SPECtrumReportingService/Service1/"));
I've left the binding as just default although it looks like I can set other properties if I need to. I just pulled the endpoint address out of the config file that worked in the standalone program and used that to construct.
This seems to be working as expected inside of Revit at least with preliminary tests. Can anyone comment on if this would cause any issues or if there is a better way to handle this situation?

Though you can inject endpoint info into a proxy class ReportingServiceClient through your application codes, the first class programming approach is to use app.config.
In your client config, you have an endpoint named "BasicHttpBinding_IReportingService", to use this endpoint, you should then write:
_reporter = new ReportingServiceClient("BasicHttpBinding_IReportingService");
If you want
_reporter = new ReportingServiceClient();
to work, remove the name attribute or make the name attribute value in the client endpoint defined in the client config. This will be the so called "default endpoint element" mentioned by the exception.

WCF Test Client cannot add service, cannot obtain metadata

Can anyone tell me why I get this error when I try to add my service?
Error: Cannot obtain Metadata from http://myserver/myapp. If this is a Windows (R) Communication Foundation service to which you have access, please check that you have enabled metadata publishing at the specified address. For help enabling metadata publishing, please refer to the MSDN documentation at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65455. WS-Metadata Exchange Error URI: http://myserver/myapp Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: 'http://myserver/myapp'. The remote server returned an unexpected response: (405) Method Not Allowed.
The remote server returned an error: (405) Method Not Allowed.HTTP GET Error URI: http://myserver/myapp There was an error downloading 'http://myserver/myapp'. The request failed with HTTP status 403: Forbidden.
Update: I have the following endpoint already,
<endpoint address="mex"
binding="mexHttpBinding"
name="Metadata"
contract="IMetadataExchange" />
I also have the service behaviors set:
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior name="myBehavior">
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>

I had this issue, turns out that when I renamed the .svc file a reference to it hadn't been renamed from Service1.svc. Run a project wide search and replace .Service1 with your new name.
<%# ServiceHost Language="C#" Debug="true" Service="MyNamespace.Service1" CodeBehind="MyRenamedService.svc.cs" %>
Service="MyNamespace.Service1" should read Service="MyNamespace.MyRenamedService"

This can also happen when you try to return a custom class object from one of the functions and that function doesn't have the [DataContract] attribute on the class declaration. WCF cant figure out what type your returning so it throws the standard message.
[Serializable]
[DataContract]
public class ServiceResult
{
....
}

I figured it out. I was using an absolute path on one of my endpoints and I had more than one. I changed it to a relative path and then everything worked.
Also, this can happen if your service isn't running and may have nothing to do with metadata. If you have a ConfigurationErrorsException then you will see this result as well.
I also got it when trying to save configuration changes to the project and then it told me to save/overwrite/ignore, etc. It ended up adding a project subtype of "designer" and once I removed that it went back to working properly.

Some times there isn't anything to be done with metadata or the settings; instead we may simply use 127.0.0.1 instead of http:\localhost\

If adding the metadata endpoints is not your issue. Check further in the error message details. I had a missing library; "Could not load file or assembly *".
I needed to change the reference to Copy Local = True

I'm new to WCF and just got a project handed to me with WCF services inside.
I was having similar issues with using WCF Test Client in VS2010 on Win7. After trying all the config changes in this article and others I was still getting similar errors.
So I gave up and started reading up on WCF. Here I found that VS should be launched as administrator. Here's the article: Getting Started Tutorial WCF
Turns out I have to launch VS2010 with 'Run as Administrator' checked. This fixed the issue and I was able to test WCF services in VS2010. I'm posting this answer incase others over look the Run as Administrator.

I discovered that I had the same error because of a DataContract that I was using that inherited from Dictionary. The proper setup of the DataContract should be as follows:
[CollectionDataContract(Name = "AdditionalProperties",
ItemName = "Property",
KeyName = "Key",
ValueName = "Value")]
public class AdditionalProperties : Dictionary<string, string>
{
}

This is my experience on this error message,might be useful to others.
My WCF service is working fine on windows 2008 server.I copied the same solution to Dev machine, selected .svc file from solution so that WCF test client can be popped-up.
WCF test client opened with errors cannot obtain metadata,assembly can't be loaded etc.
Key is, first kick up the service (http://localhost:port/Service) then only try WCF test client.

In my case, I had not enabled BindingParams.AllowHttpGet. When that was set to true, it worked...

please check and read all text of error.
in my case another dll has error but show same error in above text of error.

Please check that you can resolve that address and that you have specified the correct virtual directory. Does myserver resolve to an IP with forexample ping myserver? Is myapp the correct virtual directory? You have enabled metadata for your wcf service, but the url is most likely wrong.

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.