Consume WCF service (using MSMQ) with legacy client - wcf

Question

I created a WCF service which uses MSMQ.
Multiple .NET clients should be able to consume this service and send messages to it.
Partially the clients are written in .NET versions where there was no WCF (e.g. .NET 1.1).
For these clients I make direct use of the Msmq API.
The problem is, that the encoding of the messages don't fit the expected encoding on the service-side.
So I tried to alter the message encoding on the service-side using a customBinding:
<bindings>
<customBinding>
<binding name="MyCustomBinding">
<!-- available encodings: -->
<!-- <textMessageEncoding /> -->
<!-- <binaryMessageEncoding /> -->
<!-- <mtomMessageEncoding /> -->
<!-- <webMessageEncoding /> -->
<msmqTransport ...>
<msmqTransportSecurity ... />
</msmqTransport>
</binding>
</customBinding>
</bindings>
I guess I am restricted to one of the four pre-defined encodings: textMessageEncoding, binaryMessageEncoding, mtomMessageEncoding, webMessageEncoding.
On the client side I tried to alter the formatter:
System.Messaging.Message msmqMessage = new System.Messaging.Message();
msmqMessage.Formatter = new System.Messaging.ActiveXMessageFormatter();
//msmqMessage.Formatter = new System.Messaging.BinaryMessageFormatter();
//msmqMessage.Formatter = new System.Messaging.XMLMessageFormatter();
It seems that no formatter fits to an expected encoding.
Is there another way of unifying the encoding?
Perhaps a custom encoder or something like that?
Or am I completely wrong with adjusting formatter and encoder?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use the built in MsmqIntegrationBinding and set the serialization format to xml:
<service name="MyQueueListenner">
<endpoint address="msmq.formatname:DIRECT=OS:.\private$\myQueue"
binding="msmqIntegrationBinding"
bindingConfiguration="DotNetBinding"
contract="MyContract" />
</service>
...
<msmqIntegrationBinding>
<binding serializationFormat="Xml" name="DotNetBinding" durable="false" exactlyOnce="false">
<security mode="None" />
</binding>
</msmqIntegrationBinding>
UPDATE
The whole point of integration binding is maximum interoperability so that wcf can support non-.Net msmq clients (ActiveX, Java).
For this reason exposing data contracts (beyond String) would not be meaningful.
I guess MS didn't really imagine people would use it for interop between lower .Net versions and WCF.
The only thing I can suggest is host a mex endpoint defining a set of one-way operations exposing your types over http and then allow clients to consume the wsdl from this endpoint.
They can then use this to build up their local type definitions for use with your msmq endpoint.
Just make it clear they should not actually call the http operations, or have the operations throw a NotImplementedException.