I have references to two different WCF services in a project. I updated the reference for one of the services, and now no code is generated for it. The references.cs file just has the "this is genrated code" comment at the top. Updating that same service in other projects and updating the other service both work fine. It's only that one service reference in this one project that's causing the problem, and I'm getting no information from Visual Studio (it just says it failed to generate code and I should look at the other errors, which provide no information).
If I uncheck the "reuse types in referenced assemblies", code is generated, but I don't want to have this one project be different from the others. I'd like to solve the problem. Re-checking the reuse type option produces an empty references.cs file, again. The collection type doesn't seem to matter, either.
How can I diagnose and solve this problem?
Update:
It seems I was mistaken. Updating the service reference does seem to break the generation in other projects as well. I did also notice these warnings, as well:
Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType
Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerMessageContractImporter
Error: ISerializable type with data contract name 'Exception' in namespace 'http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System' cannot be imported. The data contract namespace cannot be customized for ISerializable types and the generated namespace 'TheDefaultNamespaceOfTheProject.ServiceReferenceName' does not match the required CLR namespace 'System'. Check if the required namespace has been mapped to a different data contract namespace and consider mapping it explicitly using the namespaces collection.
Obviously I changed the namespace there, but it seems like it's trying to map System.Exception to ThatNamespace.Exception? Why would it do that, and how can I correct it? I think this is the key to the whole thing.
I had a similar error in a Silverlight application making WCF calls. I created a WCF method that passed an Exception object as a parameter. It turns out that Exception objects are not serializable in Silverlight because:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/suwatch/archive/2009/01/21/wcf-silverlight-exception-and-serialization.aspx
Here's the relevant excerpt:
WCF’s DataContractSerializer serialize s Exception class via
ISerializable (Exception in .Net Framework implements ISerializable).
However, in Silverlight, there is no ISerializable interface.
Therefore, Serialization information of Exception transferred over the
wire will not be set into the Exception class. This does not only
apply to Exception but also any types implementing ISerializable on
the .Net Framework serialized to Silverlight.
Related
I've managed to reproduce one of the errors in a test project with a similar structure to my production code. It consists of three simple projects:
Common (class library):
namespace Common
{
public enum PrimaryColor
{
Red,
Green,
Blue
};
}
Library (WCF service library), which has a reference to Common:
using Common;
namespace Library
{
[ServiceContract]
public interface ILibrary
{
[OperationContract]
PrimaryColor GetColor();
}
public class Library : ILibrary
{
public PrimaryColor GetColor()
{
return PrimaryColor.Red;
}
}
}
ClientApp (console application), which has a reference to Common, and a service reference to Library called "LibraryServiceReference":
using Common;
using ClientApp.LibraryServiceReference;
namespace ClientApp
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
LibraryClient client = new LibraryClient("WSHttpBinding_ILibrary");
PrimaryColor color = client.GetColor();
}
}
}
The app.config files in ClientApp and Library are auto-generated and I have not modified them, and I have not changed the default configuration for the LibraryServiceReference in ClientApp.
When I compile this solution, I get the following errors in the ClientApp project:
Error 1
'PrimaryColor' is an ambiguous reference between 'Common.PrimaryColor' and 'ClientApp.LibraryServiceReference.PrimaryColor'
Error 2
Cannot implicitly convert type 'ClientApp.LibraryServiceReference.PrimaryColor' to 'Common.PrimaryColor'. An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)
please help me to fix this.
Make sure that 'Reuse types in all referenced assemblies' is selected in the Advanced options of Add service reference or Configure Service Reference.
it's because you're building x64 not "AnyCpu". I am running across this right now, and am trying to figure out if it's a bug, or if it's expected behavior.
Decorate your enum like this:
namespace Common
{
[DataContract]
public enum PrimaryColor
{
[EnumMember]
Red,
[EnumMember]
Green,
[EnumMember]
Blue
};
}
Update Your service reference (with checking reuse types just like Mark stated).
Rebuild your client code.
I have had this issue arise in innocuous, unpredictable manners so many times! I thought I'd share how I "fixed" it this last time.
I am using Visual Studio 2013 - but have had the issue down rev.
The ambiguous reference seems to come on by itself. I did nothing of note to cause it. In the latest instance I was debugging some code behind and suddenly I had 7, then 22 then 49 errors - all of the same nature.
I deleted the service reference altogether and re-added it. Simply modifying the re-use type did nothing. My solution has a WCF service, Class Library, UI and a Control Library. I also removed the using - in some code behind, of the class library.
This is an exceptionally troublesome issue which thankfully only occurs about every few weeks. Why this worked? Beyond my pay grade. I feel your pain! Hope this helps. In this case, the error came on, again, when I opened some code behind on a xaml page.
It sounds like you control both the client and the server code. Why do you want to create a service reference, is there a specific reason or is it just deemed easier?
In projects where you control both sides of the client server application you are better of creating a "contract assembly" (which is probably your common assembly). This contains the interfaces and objects that are involved with the contract and should be referenced by both your client and your server. In order to communicate with the service the client creates a proxy class using the ChannelFactory, there is no need to have a dedicated WCF client.
Example:
ChannelFactory<ISampleService> factory = new ChannelFactory<ISampleService>("Binding_from_config");
ISampleService sampleService = factory.CreateChannel();
sampleService.SomeCall();
factory.Close();
The factory pattern also makes it an ideal candidate for injecting your proxy in via IoC.
The benefits of referencing a common assembly over creating a service reference are:
No ambiguous reference as there will be no need for auto generated classes.
You will not have to update your service reference every time you change the contract.
For what it's worth, I was running in to this same error after moving my data contracts to a separate library. Updated the service references multiple times and tried all combinations of the settings for assembly reuse, to no avail.
What eventually fixed it for me was to 1) restart Visual Studio and 2) update the service reference. The auto-generated code in Reference.cs in the service definition looked very different and did not duplicate my data contract class. It used the proper reference from my library. So something must be getting cached in the IDE.
Hopefully someone else finds this useful.
I was able to fix this by right-clicking on the Service Reference and then changing from "Reuse types in all referenced assemblies" to "Reuse types in specified referenced assemblies" and then checking the specific common assembly.
Just remove the reference to Common project from your ClientApp project and the error should go away. When you're creating a proxy for your service, all dependent code from the service must be injected into the proxy. If you want your types to be same as those on the service side, just enable the 'Reuse types' option while generating the proxy code (otherwise they will be put under a different namespace).
The problem here is that PrimaryColor exists in both Common and ClientApp.LibraryServiceReference and you are referencing both namespaces in your class.
To overcome this issue, either explicitly reference the instance that you require, i.e.
Common.PrimaryColor color = ....
or set up an alias:
using Service = ClientLibraryServiceReference;
...
Service.PrimaryColor color = ......
When making the service reference aren't there some options that say something like: "inlcude common types in generated service contract" ?
I have the idea that in your service reference the classes are "copied" and that's why you get this error. Inspect the generated service files, remove then and add them again with "Add Service Reference" and see what options you have there.
EDIT
Although I'm almost sure that the Type PrimaryColor is defined twice. One time in the common project and one time in your service reference, you can also try this in your clientApp (to more explicitely specify the PrimaryColor Type):
Common.PrimaryColor color = client.GetColor();
I am attempting to replace a WSE service with the WCF equivalent where the WSDL is provided externally.
First, I used svcutil and wsdl to generate all the service and client classes (ATP, I'm only concerned with the service implementation.) I generated an empty WCF Service Library project and replaced/renamed the IService1.cs with a class named for the interface ServiceContractAttribute generated. I then renamed the implementation class Service1.cs with the name of the implementation-class JINDEXWcfListener.cs. I removed the generated code from this class and created class definition JINDEXWcfListener:[interface name].
The tool auto-generated the implementation of the interface. I used the single method adorned with [OperationContractAttribute] to put my local implementation code. I modified the default app.config generated to adjust the contract and service names as required.
When I start debug, I can see that the service is starting in the WTC. However, when the single operation is exposed, the is a red dot with a yellow question mark in front of the operation name. When I RC on the op name, I get "This operation is not supported in WCF Test client" with no additional information. What is wrong?
WCFTestClient has quite a few limitations. I have fought "problems" for several hours that later turned out to be just WCFTestClient problems. Complex objects can give you a lot of grief, also any custom lists, etc such as a custom implementation of the IList interface. Try out WcfStorm. I think they have a free version and a trial version.
I have a WCF service that I'd like clients to be able to reference using Visual Studio's "Add Service Reference" feature. They've been able to recognize the metadata endpoint, the interfaces, methods and data types appear in the Add Service Reference dialog, and it appears to successfully generate the proxy without a hitch - but when viewing the generated code file or viewing the classes in the object browser, there is no service interface generated from the ServiceContract - only the DataContracts are represented. When I point svcutil at the same endpoint URL from the command line, the generated file does contain the interfaces.
The service itself has been used in production for a while and seems to work fine
It uses a custom binding, but the exact same binding configuration (and other config settings) are used by another service that seems to work fine with Add Service Reference
One thing that is different is that this service uses a custom behavior (an attribute derived from IServiceBehavior). The interface is also in a different assembly from the concrete service type, although so are the data contracts.
Update:
What seems to be causing the problem, which I'd somehow overlooked, is that there are FaultContracts for some of the methods on this interface, and these FaultContracts are referencing an exception type that is [Serializable], not [DataContract] (as I think anything that derives from Exception must be). The exception type itself is represented in the generated code, but its public properties aren't (in either svcutil or ASR-generated code)
What seemed to be causing the problem, which I'd somehow overlooked, is that there are FaultContracts for some of the methods on this interface, and these FaultContracts are referencing an exception type that is [Serializable], not [DataContract] (as I think anything that derives from Exception must be). The exception type itself is represented in the generated code, but its public properties aren't (in either svcutil or ASR-generated code)
I'm getting the following error in my WCF project:
"An unhandled exception of type 'System.InvalidOperationException' occurred in System.ServiceModel.dll
Additional information: Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'IPhiFeed' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element."
The WCF project is a bit experimental: is a mixture of managed and unmanaged C++, and C#. I've got everything working in pure C#, but I have to consume WCF from unmanaged C++, thus the need to write a C++ wrapper around WCF.
Update
As requested, here is the code thats throws the exception:
// WCF library written in C#
public class EngineAPI : IEngineAPI
{
public FeedClient client;
// constructor
public EngineAPI()
{
// the line below in this C# library works *perfectly* when called from a C#
// console app, but it fails when a C++ console app calls the same C# library
// UPDATE: exception fixed if you copy app.config to out.exe.config, see comments below
client = new FeedClient(); // << exception here
}
.....
}
// NOTE: the line "client = new FeedClient" instantiates generatedProxy.cs,
// which is generated with svcutil
// NOTE: if I temporarily delete "app.config" from the pure C# project, it generates *exactly* the same error as I'm getting when I attempt to call everything from the separate C++ project with managed code.
Update
Found the problem, it was unrelated to the code: you have to copy app.config to out.exe.config. I now have a 100% working C++/CLI project calling a C# library which uses WCF. See my comments below.
Typically when you are using wcf in the client project you have entries in your config file that describe the binding to be used as well as the endpoint where the service is located:
I am presuming that your FeedClient class is the class that inherits from ClientBase(IPhiFeed). ClientBase actually defines numerous constructors, if you call the constructor with no parameters it will attempt to find the 'default' client endpoint in your configuration file; and in this case there isn't one because the only endpoint defined in the configuration has a name. To correct this you can do one of two things: you could call the ClientBase constructor that takes a string parameter with the endpoint name: ClientBase<IPhiFeed>("MyService")
or you could change the configuration file so that the endpoint does not have a name:
Edits:
The code you have in your question looks like C# code. Does the FeedClient class inherit from ClientBase? If yes and the C# code that calls it works then what is the C++ code that doesn't work? In general in C++ code you can have both managed and unmanaged code; that is unmanaged code can call into managed code. In your unmanaged project you should do the following: go to the property page for the project, Click Configuration Properties the General; in the general tab under Project Defaults the second from the bottom option should be Common Language Runtime Support, make sure it is set to Common Language Runtime Support (/clr). Add the project that contains the FeedClient class in as a reference to the unmanaged project if necessary. Then you should be able to instantiate the FeedClient class directly in unmanaged code:
MyNamespace::FeedClient wcfClient;
wcfClient.SomeMethod() // Add parameters as appropriate...
I'm writing a WCF service and want to expose some custom configuration elements (e.g. Custom ConfigurationSection and ConnectionStringSettings) so that I can modify the service's configuration.
One of my custom configuration elements inherits from System.Configuration.ConfigurationElementCollection. When I try to start my WCF service I get the following error message...
Type 'System.Configuration.ConfigurationElementCollection' cannot be serialized. Consider marking it with the DataContractAttribute attribute, and marking all of its members you want serialized with the DataMemberAttribute attribute.
Is there a way to implement the DataContract for this Type? I have my inherited class marked with the [DataContract] attribute.
Just hit this issue today. It was confusing because the problem came up moving a project from machine to machine. This article seems relevant:
http://blogs.msdn.com/youssefm/archive/2009/08/10/serializing-plain-old-clr-objects-poco-types-with-datacontractserializer.aspx
To summarize in case of link rot, the issue seems to emerge in runtime 3.5 and go away in runtime 3.5 SP1.
Ok, well in the end I had to re-architect my solution. I found the SerializableConfigurationSection most beneficial. It's in the patterns and practices EnterpriseLibrary. So rather than trying to pass my Custom Configuration Sections through WCF, I perform the seralization/deserialization manually and pass the configuration sections through WCF as a string.