I create a WCF service in Visual Studio 2013 and publish it to IIS. I can the add a service reference in another project and consume methods on the service. When I go to the IIS Server Manager I see WCF Activation and its two sub-items (HTTP Activation and Non-HTTP Activation) unchecked.
What are these features and how does my WCF site work without them enabled? I've looked around the web quite a bit and haven't found any definitive answers. Thanks.
Before IIS 7.0 you could only host HTTP services on IIS. If you wanted to use non-HTTP protocols (e.g. net.tcp) you had to self-host. Microsoft introduced the Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) to allow common hosting within IIS regardless of the communications protocol being used.
In practical terms, one of the neat features of this is that you can host your net.tcp WCF services on IIS and they will be dynamically activated once traffic starts arriving. Previously you had to have your service running (console app, Windows Service or whatever) before messages began arriving.
Further details can be found in this MSDN article.
If you are just running WCF services using the HTTP protocol and have those services hosted in a IIS web site, the default configuration will just work.
Related
I have a RESTFul WCF service and it needs to be deployed now. I am really confused whether to deploy in windows service or IIS 7. I need to implement SSL also so the protocol would be HTTPS. It is just a simple service consumed by client using HTTPS protocol.
Please let me know which one is better.
Your question seems to have been asked (and answered) previously.
The following link provides a good discussion:
IIS WCF service hosting vs Windows Service
If your RESTFul WCF Service needs to be accessed via http (or https) protocol, then deploy in IIS7.
i know it's been asked, but i want to clear things out, what is the difference between WCF service application and wcf service library, and how can i connect them to other machine?
is Wcf SA need to host on IIS? or is it the SL?
A service application includes a website host already setup for you. A service library is a library of services that a host can reference and startup.
If you start with a service library (recommended) you can then choose any host you wish (a windows service, IIS/ASP.NET, or even a console application) and you'd just reference your library from your new host. Choosing a Service Application limits your host to just IIS/ASP.NET (though this might be ok for your purposes, but will limit the protocols you can use).
Is it possible to enable HTTP components for WCF without installing IIS. When i try to enable the HTTP components on windows server 2008 it forces me to enable the web server components.
Is there a workaround by not installing webserver.
(any solution other than self hosting or windows service)
thanks
Ben
WCF services can be hosted in any managed .NET application, not only IIS. You can either host it inside a windows service, or create a standard .NET executable to host the service (self-hosting). You can configure your end point to http eventhough the WCF is hosted outside IIS.
Check this article for more insight:
Hosting and Consuming WCF Services
I am hosting a WCF service in IIS 7 through net.tcp binding. I have two questions about IIS configuration.
Can I only configure net.tcp protocol in the the web site containing my service code? All the samples I found so far always append the net.tcp protocol after http protocol.
There are two features we can turn on: Windows Communication Foundation Http Activation and Windows Communication Foundation Non-Http Activation. Some sample state that we need to turn on Non-Http activation and others state that both are required to turn on. My test shows that both are required. However, I do not understand the difference between the two. If only net.tcp protocol is used by my service and client, why should Http Activation be required?
Even if your service is net.tcp the meta data exchange that is used when you add a service reference may be http.
Which tests did you do? If you need more help post your config file.
I've installed HTTP Activation and Non-HTTP Activation IIS's features for Framework.NET 3.0 under WCF Activation feature.
I'm trying to remove http and https bindings (under default Web Site) from IIS Manager and leave others (net.tcp, net.msmq, etc.) but if I close and re-open IIS manager I not found any icons in the right panel (Feature View). The only feature I see is IIS Manager Permissions.
It's right I don't see them?
I hope you can help me.
Thank you in advance!
Actually if you only use non HTTP activation, you don't need IIS Manager any more. IIS Manager is designed for HTTP web sites and FTP sites.