I want to host my WCF web service in the public domain (on internet) so that any client application (java, .net etc.) can consume it.
The WSDL will give details of the service (what it offers etc.). But,
How to inform the binding details to the clients?
I want to know how do we inform binding details to the outside world when you are on internet and you do not know who the client will be. WSDL gives the details of the service; similarly what mechanism is there to inform the binding that's required to communicate with the service.
Do I need to stick to some specific bindings when I want to publish my web service over internet where anybody can consume it?
svcutil or Visual Studio (using svcutil in background) will understand binding specification provided by metadata exchange binding (look here)
it wouldn't. If You want Your web service to by used by technologies other than .NET You shouldn't use .NET specific implementations.
basicHttpBinding works with soap 1.1. wsHttpBinding with soap 1.2 and WS-*. You shouldn't use other bindings if you want your web service to be interoperable.
Related
I am on a WCF project that is going to be interfacing with WebSphere.
They have told me that they will create a WSDL for me to call from my WCF solution.
I know ZERO about WebSphere. So I am asking if the term WSDL is universal. Or is it kind of like "SQL" (meaning the basics are the same, but an Oracle/WebSphere query/call may not run on SQL Server/WCF).
Has anyone tried this? Are there hidden "gotchas"?
From a purely semantic perspective both WCF WSDL's and JAX-RPC (Websphere) WSDL's are compliant with both SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2. However they both tend to have some slight variations in out of the box endpoint generation, wsdl location to endpoint mapping external references location, soap:action generation and WS-* compliance that could present you issues.
IBM mentions the following as a common issue when integrating WCF generated WSDL's with their products which are based on JAX-RPC
Note: Web services allow applications to interoperate by using standard descriptions of services and standard formats for the messages they exchange. For example, the Web service import and export bindings can interoperate with services that are implemented using Web Services Enhancements (WSE) Version 3.5 and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Version 3.5 for Microsoft .NET. When interoperating with such services, you must ensure that:
The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file that is used to access a Web service export includes a non-empty SOAP action value for each operation in the interface.
The Web service client sets either the SOAPAction header or the wsa:Action header when sending messages to a Web service export.
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
I am starting a new webservice project which will be consumed by multiple consumer applications done in different technology like ASP, ASP.Net and PHP. I am planning to develop this service as a WCF service. I am new to WCF and I understand WCF is like umbrella tech which has all the features for developing a distributed SOA applications.
I would like to get your advice on whether my choice of opting WCF service over classic asmx service is correct. The consumer applications are existing application done different technologies as I said before. This service is a simple service that creates and updates user information in a centralized DB.
If my decision of choosing WCF is correct, then please let me know if there are any specific things I need to consider so that the existing application can consume my WCF service without any hiccups. In other words, I can provide a asmx service for this which they can consume directly without any issues (and currently they are consuming some of our asmx service. Since the current requirement is new I want it to be done with WCF). Likewise, the consumer should be able to consume my service like they consume asmx service.
I am asking this question because WCF provides additional features like security, etc. and hence the consumers should also follow the practice to communicate with the service.
Any advice is highly appreciated.
You probably want to use BasicHttpBinding in your WCF service and, although I'm not a PHP developer, I understand that PHP 5 has a SOAP library that can be used to create a service proxy based on the WSDL document exposed by the WCF service, assuming metadata exchange is enabled.
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.
How can we consume WCF service in .Net 2.0 Winform. Please note that we don't have IIS on the client. an example or a sample would be great.
It all depends on how your WCF endpoints are configured.
If you're using SOAP based WCF Services over HTTP, you should be able to simply add a Service Reference from your .NET 2.0 WinForms application and be on your way (which is what I would suggest doing).
If that's not the case, you'll have to provide a little more detail about what you're trying to do with your WCF Services.
You can host your WCF service in a Windows Service as per this article. In that case, it will listen on the HTTP protocol on any port you configure.