Is there a way to call a web method in WCF without ever writing an application or using cURL as suggested in WCF - possible to call a wcf service from the command line with parameters? ?
I was able to do this with asmx. For example, i was able to just launch in cmd:
> start http://myservice/abc.asmx/?op=DoSomething
but it doesn't seem to be possible on WCF web service.
Thanks
It depends on which binding you are using in WCF. The majority of the WCF bindings are SOAP-based services, which would require complex payloads to be produced and this wouldn't be feasible using CURL or the browser.
If however you used the WCF REST bindings (webHttpBinding) and had no requirements around HTTP header data you could call such as a service from the command line.
I would like to call out however WCF REST has since been superseded by ASP.NET WEB API as the preferred approach to creating REST-based services. If you have no other business usage for WCF then I would consider Web API as an alternative.
Related
I have created a WCF service and hosted it through self hosting. This service doesn't have any metada published.
First Question
Can I consume it through Visual Studio, Add Service Reference? Hopefully not.
Can I consume it by creating manual proxy, i.e. ChannelFactory<ServiceContract>....?Hopefully yes.
Now in the second scenario, the client must be .Net, right?
So it implies that, to consume a wcf service on a non-.net platform, we have to expose its metadata?
Can't a WCF service without metadata, consume by Ajax client, or say Java client??
There are 3 options to consume a WCF Service:
If the service exposes a WSDL use "add service reference" from VS (or an equivalent from another platform). Note that if you do not want to expose the WSDL you could expose it just temporarly, save the WSDL in a file, and then send it to user in any platform to generate proxy from it. You can turn off the WSDL immediately after you save it. Also note that even if the WSDL is not exposed still you need to protect the web service from unauthorized access.
If this is a .Net client it can compile with the same Service Contract assembly and use ChannelFactory etc.
Any platform can send raw soap message (e.g. XML) to the service. Of course they need to know what is the right format. A WSDL can help but even without it if they have a working sample they can imitate it.
WCF provides REST (Representational State Transfer) support to consume it by non .NET client like JavaScript (AJAX), java, Objective C, web browser, etc...
Basically WCF REST is exposes methods and transferring data over the HTTP protocol and it supports all HTTP operations (GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE). This feature is making it platform independent as well as it doesn’t require metadata exposed.
Please refere below links to get more about WCF REST:
An Introduction To RESTful Services With WCF
WCF REST Programming Model Overview
WCF Rest vs. WCF SOAP
Create RESTful WCF Service API: Step By Step Guide
Probably missing something very basic. I created a WCF 4.0 Rest Service. It works no problems when I'm hitting the url from a browser and I'm getting back what I want.
But now I want to use that service from a client mvc application (it will also be used by other non .net platforms which is why it's a rest service in the first place).
Problem is how do I get a service reference to it so I can start to use it in my c# code? With the new minimal WCF .net 4 config approach and no interface for the service contract, I don't know how to specify a mex endpoint. Ultimately I don't want a mex endpoint in production, just during development. I would love to be able to specify that all my services (around 10 in one application) have endpoints with one tiny piece of config that vs2010 .config transformations just rips out when I publish.
Stop. REST service doesn't use metadata. Metadata (Mex endpoint) are only for SOAP services because WSDL 1.1 (the only version supported by WCF) is able to describe only SOAP service. WADL or WSDL 2.0 is able to describe REST service but non of them is currently supported by WCF.
REST service is consumed by using WebRequest directly or by building ChannelFactory on top of shared contracts. Both methods are described here. Other method is to use HttpClient from REST Starter kit (former API). The problem with Starter kit is that it has never reached RTM (it was replaced by WCF 4). Instead of metadata endpoint WCF 4 REST service offers help page where all operation are described. When using WCF 4 REST template the help page should be already turned on - just add /help sufix to address of your service. Here is another article about building REST clients.
I want to create a create a WCF Service which is invoked on the button click of MS Access Form.
You CAN consume WCF services through MS Access, but not via standard WCF mechanisms. You'll need to consume the service via GET requests, POST requests, or SOAP requests.
One way to accomplish this for SOAP requests on the Access side is using the SOAP toolkit:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa140260%28office.10%29.aspx
Another way that would work for GET, POST or SOAP requests is using XMLHTTP (if you go the SOAP route, you'll need to make your own SOAP envelope in the XML):
http://www.codemaker.co.uk/it/tips/ado_conn.htm (search for XMLHTTP)
On the WCF side you have a couple of choices:
Host a WebHttpBinding service. This gives you options to expose GET and POST endpoints for your services. See http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/net-framework2/exposing-classic-http-endpoints-with-wcf-in-net-3-5.aspx.
Host a BasicHttpBinding service that exposes a SOAP endpoint (this is the default WCF endpoint if you create a new service in Visual Studio). If you go this route, you probably want to set it to use legacy XML serialization and WSDL for compatibility if you go with option 1 on the access end (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.servicemodel.xmlserializerformatattribute.aspx).
One other thing to note: If you create a BasicHttpBinding WCF Service with XmlSerializerFormatAttribute, you are basically getting (from a data exchange standpoint) the same thing as if you were to write a legacy asmx service.
You cannot consume a WCF directly with MS Access.
If you own the WCF service, you would have to change it to a web service using HTTP bindings.
If you don't own it, you will have to write your own web service that is basically a wrapper around the WCF.
Then you can consume it as a web service in MS Access.
I have a web service that is used by many different clients using many different languages.
I want to switch it to wcf to take advantage of the many different endpoints.
However what has been stopping me is that I am afraid that the clients will have to use a special sdk to connect (if they are using java or php or some other language) that is different then the sdk they use to connect to the existing web service.
Is this true? Or is connecting to WCF the exact same as it is for web services in other languages.
The project I am currently working on has multiple WCF configurations, some are using the default SOAP implementation, and some are using a POX (plain-old-xml) style message.
So the short answer is 'yes' you can configure WCF in such a way to work with just about anything.
However, be warned that as soon as you step outside the default little box that WCF has set up for you, it gets pretty complicated. You end up with a lot of custom message parsing and security handling if you go to a POX message format. Its easier if you stick with SOAP though.
As for needing a 'special SDK' you won't. You can communicate with WCF with simple HTTP POST messages if needed.
I have clients that are using VB.NET apps (using SOAP) and Java apps (using POX) to hit my WCF services.
A basicHttpBinding endpoint in WCF is exactly a standard SOAP endpoint, and your Java or PHP clients will not have to change in any way.
I need to upgrade our web services to use WCF instead of ASMX. If the signatures of the web services stays the same, will existing clients that already call the ASMX service have to change anything on their end? Is there anyway to still use WCF but not force them to change anything?
Option 1 :
Using the current ASMX's WSDL, generate the client using svcutil.exe
Grab the generated interface and create a WCF service based on this interface
Output : One new WCF endpoint configured with basicHttpBinding. Clients need to update the URL at which they're sending the messages.
Option 2 :
Refactor your ASMX code. Move all the logic into a separate DLL.
Create a WCF service and use the logic in the refactored DLL.
Output : 2 endpoints, one for ASMX and another one for WCF
If you use the BasicHttpBinding for your new WCF service, and implement the same methods with the same message structure, existing callers should be able to call into this new WCF service without any change on their part.
There's also an AspNetCompatibilityRequirements attribute in order to get around some potential compatibility issue - see the MSDN documentation on it.
Marc