How to catch exception/fault where message size is larger than accepted by the service (server side)? - wcf

Question

At first, I thought if I added an implementation of IDispatchMessageInspector, that perhaps this would intercept the message size before any checking on the limit is done. I soon found, this is not the case. The running service obviously makes sure to enforce this rule on a lower level. Now I am curious if there is a way in which I can capture such an exception on the server level and return a response to the client. Would the an implementation of IErrorHandler as a ServiceBehavior do the trick?
Maybe the more general question is: Can this be tracked at the server level?
It may also be worth noting that I am not in control of the WSDL.

Answer 1

The message size is verified at the lower level - at the transport level.
There isn't a easy way to catch that exception (The IErrorHandling interface provided by WCF to handle exceptions doesn't work at this level).
One way would be to create your own custom wcf transport channel (see here an example)
See below how the generated exception looks like when the quota is exceeded - you can see that this is thrown from the low level (HttpChannelListener).
<ExceptionType>System.ServiceModel.ProtocolException, System.ServiceModel, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089</ExceptionType>
<Message>The maximum message size quota for incoming messages (225) has been exceeded. To increase the quota, use the MaxReceivedMessageSize property on the appropriate binding element.</Message>
<StackTrace>
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ThrowHttpProtocolException(String message, HttpStatusCode statusCode, String statusDescription)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ThrowMaxReceivedMessageSizeExceeded()
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.GetMessageBuffer()
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ParseMessageAsyncResult.DecodeBufferedMessageAsync()
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ParseMessageAsyncResult.BeginParse()
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.BeginParseIncomingMessage(HttpRequestMessage httpRequestMessage, AsyncCallback callback, Object state)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpPipeline.EmptyHttpPipeline.BeginParseIncomingMessage(AsyncCallback asynCallback, Object state)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpPipeline.EnqueueMessageAsyncResult..ctor(ReplyChannelAcceptor acceptor, Action dequeuedCallback, HttpPipeline pipeline, AsyncCallback callback, Object state)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpPipeline.EmptyHttpPipeline.BeginProcessInboundRequest(ReplyChannelAcceptor replyChannelAcceptor, Action dequeuedCallback, AsyncCallback callback, Object state)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelListener`1.HttpContextReceivedAsyncResult`1.ProcessHttpContextAsync()
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelListener`1.BeginHttpContextReceived(HttpRequestContext context, Action acceptorCallback, AsyncCallback callback, Object state)
at System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedHttpTransportManager.HttpContextReceived(HostedHttpRequestAsyncResult result)
at System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedHttpRequestAsyncResult.HandleRequest()
at System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedHttpRequestAsyncResult.BeginRequest()
at System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedHttpRequestAsyncResult.OnBeginRequest(Object state)
at System.Runtime.IOThreadScheduler.ScheduledOverlapped.IOCallback(UInt32 errorCode, UInt32 numBytes, NativeOverlapped* nativeOverlapped)
at System.Runtime.Fx.IOCompletionThunk.UnhandledExceptionFrame(UInt32 error, UInt32 bytesRead, NativeOverlapped* nativeOverlapped)
at System.Threading._IOCompletionCallback.PerformIOCompletionCallback(UInt32 errorCode, UInt32 numBytes, NativeOverlapped* pOVERLAP)
</StackTrace>

Answer 2

The best you can do (and the usual way of monitoring this) is to enable logging at the message level.
http://geekswithblogs.net/mnf/archive/2008/10/03/use-wcf-message-logging.aspx
the problem is that the maxMessageSize properties must be set on both client and server. So if the message is too large to be sent or received on the client side, your server will not know about this.