WCF Data Services version 5.0 and Json - wcf

I want my OData service to support Json serialization, I read about a WCF Data Service toolkit which add this behaviour to the V2 version. After I read WCF Data Service released a new version of WCF Data Service 5.0, I need to know how to do it.
I add the $Format=json and I get all the time this attribute isn't supported.
Any suggestion .
Thanks in advance ...

The usual way to request JSON is to use Accept header (basically following HTTP, if the client wants a certain representation of the response, it should ask for it in the Accept header).
So if you send Accept: application/json;odata=verbose, you will get the Verbose JSON response.
WCF Data Services currently doesn't implement the $format query option. But you can add it "on top". There are several ways to do this (just search the web). One of them is for example here: http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/DataServicesJSONP

Related

WCF service authentication method

I'm building a WCF SOAP service at the moment. I will, of course, need some authentication on the service.
Reading this very helpful blog post says that to use the built-in authentication points requires that the endpoint use the wsHttp binding.
This would be fine if I could guarantee that users would be communicating with the service through a client based on the meta-data exposed by WCF (basically, something like a client written in C# with a web service reference). However, I can't guarantee this!
I will still need to allow users to communicate with just raw (unencrypted) XML.
So, questions:
Does the wsHttp binding still allow for raw XML input?
If not, would I be wiser to
Implement two separate authetication points? One for raw XML input and one for encrypted input
Or
Allow input from wsHttp to fall back on some in-method validation that would be shared with the raw XML input?
Is it wise to allow users to pass their credentials inside a raw XML request?
EDIT: It sounds like I miscommunicated or misunderstood something in my original post, so here I will clarify what I mean by "raw XML".
By raw XML, I mean just the SOAP packet and the accompanying HTTP headers - as I might send from soapUI or Fiddler. As I understand it, messages over the wsHttp binding are encrypted when a client is generated from the WSDL (for example, in C#).
If this is not the case, then how would I go about attaching the same sorts of credentials to a raw XML (for want of a better term) request as I do a request run through a client? Are they attached as HTTP headers? XML elements in the SOAP envelope?
wsHttp is a SOAP binding, which means that your content gets wrapped in a SOAP envelope, possibly with headers relating to the message and various WS-* specifications being used.
I would ask why you need to support raw XML? Most platforms today support SOAP messaging and the whole idea of SOAP is to provide interoperability between different platforms. On most platforms it is as easy to develop a SOAP client as a raw XML client. In most cases, it is simply a case of taking the WSDL and generating a client. If you want to use standard facilities like authentication and message encryption then this is a much better way to go.
There are currently no hooks to do interoperable authentication for raw XML. You will have to come up with your own mechanism to do this and it will be non-standard. For your web service users, this means it will be probably entail more development effort than if you just went with SOAP.

Can I use Json serialization in WCF service?

I am going develop a WPF windows based application. I want to work with Entity Framework Self Tracking Entities and WCF. I was wondering if using Json is possible/recommended? If yes, please assist me; is there any tutorial that can help?
You can use the DataContractJsonSerializer to serialize the messages. You will have to use a REST based service (WebHttpBinding) as SOAP mandates XML as the message payload.
You can tell WCF to use the DatcontractJsonSerializer on the service side by settings in the WebGet and WebInvoke attributes but on the client side you will have to manually use this serializer as REST doesn;t have a metadata standard and therefore you have to create the requests and manage responses in a more manual fashion
Here is a reasonable guide to using Json and REST support in WCF
However, what is your driver to using Json? WCF is much more geared to SOAP based interaction currently (although the WCF 4.5 WebApi is going to address that to quite a degree). As your client is WPF you don't seem to gain alot from using Json

Is it possible to implement a redirector / reverse proxy using RequestInterceptor from WCF REST Starter kit

I am attempting to implement a reverse proxy using the RequestInterceptor from WCF REST starter kit. I am able to set the basic header properties and configure the calls. I am getting stuck with the following aspects:
Returning an appropriate response - my webservice can return text+xml, image or json. I am not able to send the appropriate response type. The Message.CreateMessage overloads are all SOAP aligned i.e. they accept only Xml constructs, so I am not able to send either JSON or image streams. I need to convert them into XElements - I am definitely doing something wrong here.
I also want the reverse proxy to be functioning well in the presence of cookies, gzip/deflate and SSL.
Based on the above requirements, do you think it makes sense to do this using REST starter kit? The Requestinterceptor was fairly easy to plug into, however the rest of the code is driving me nuts.
There is a mapping between both JSON and arbitrary binary content to XML which is used in messages for WCF (see some examples at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/carlosfigueira/archive/2011/04/19/wcf-extensibility-message-inspectors.aspx), so you can use Message.CreateMessage to create non-XML messages as well.
Having said that, it's really not intuitive to do that in WCF as of now. The new libraries in the WCF Web API - http://wcf.codeplex.com - provide a very nice way of intercepting / redirecting / bypassing the WCF pipeline especifically for HTTP messages. Also, it support multiple formats in a native way (i.e., without need to do some mapping to XML).

Client Side Binding using by Converting the WCF Services to JSON

We have a Requirement of Consuming the WCf Services which is hosted in IIS like http://localhost/someservice.svc.
We would like to consume that Service via java script and bind my sample data controls called grid view on client side itself.
I think this can be done by Serializing and deserialzing to JSON and consume the data source and bind the grid controls.
Pls Refer the below link
http://forums.infragistics.com/forums/p/48035/258346.aspx
I would like to Achieve my func like the above link.
Can you pls guide me to achieve this Tasks.
Thanks
Regards
N.Balaji
Balaji,
Yes, you can definitely enable your WCF service (whether within IIS or not) to use JSON.
You do need to make one choice: do you want to use that service from the ASP .NET AJAX framework, or do you want to create a more general solution that is not tied down to that framework's usage within the browser?
If it's the former, use WebScriptEnablingBehavior. If it's the latter, use WebHttpBehavior.
For either scenario, detailed instructions are available in the following two MSDN sections:
AJAX Integration and JSON Support
WCF Web Http Programming Model

View underlying SOAP message using vb.net

I have a VB.NET web service that calls a third party web service. How can I view the SOAP message generated by .NET before it is sent to the third party web service and how can I see the SOAP response before it is serialized by .NET.
When creating a standalone EXE, I see the Reference.vb file that is automatically generated, but don't see a similar file when my project is a web service. I have found lots of C# code to do this, but none in VB.NET.
Edit - Fiddler and TCP loggers are great, but will not work for my purposes. I need to be able to access the raw SOAP messages from within the application so I can log them or modify them. I need to do more than just see the messages going back and forth.
You can use fiddler or a tcp sniffer to filter and identify all outgoing and incoming traffic on your host.
This is if you want to see the xml request and response.
How about using an extension to allow you to examine the SOAP message?
Accessing Raw SOAP Messages in ASP.NET Web Services
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc188761.aspx
I was trying to do the same thing and this seems to work for me:
Dim message As String = OperationContext.Current.RequestContext.RequestMessage.ToString()
I didn't think it would be that easy since most of the time ToString() returns the name of the class, but I tried it out and low and behold.
I know you asked this back in January so if since then you've figured out a better way let me know.
Please note that if you're catching the exception in a class that implements IErrorHandler then you have to perform this operation from within the ProvideFault() method instead of the HandleError() method because the context is closed before it gets to call the HandleError() method.
Hope this helps.