Change Casing in WCF Service Reference - wcf

I'm creating a service reference to a web service written in Java. The generated classes now follow the Java casing convention used in the web service, for example class names are camelCase rather than PascalCase.
Is there a way to get the desired casing from the service reference?
CLARIFICATION:
With WSE based services, one could modify the generated Reference.cs to provide .NET standard casing and use XmlElementAttribute to map to the Java naming presented by the external web service, like this:
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("resultType", Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
[System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMember]
public virtual MyResultType ResultType
{ ... }
Not terribly maintenance-friendly without writing custom code to either generate the proxy code or modify it after it's been generated.
What I'm after is one or more options to present a WCF generated client proxy to calling applications using the .NET casing conventions, achieving the same as I did previously with WSE. Hopefully with less manual effort.

Well, since your WCF client proxies are partial classes, you could always add a second file for the same class, which implements the PascalCasedMethodName for each javaCasedMethodName and then just call the Java method from your new method.
public partial class MyClientProxy
{
......
public MyResultType GetResultType(string inputParam)
{
return this.getResultType(inputParam);
}
......
}
Seems a bit redundant - but that should really work, I think. Since your code is stored in a separate file, it won't be overwritten if you re-create the client proxy - and since it's the second part of a partial class, it will be "merged into" the class definition for your client code to call.

Related

WCF RIA services and WSDL generation

Need help on an issue I am having. I inherited this WCF RIA project and am trying to understand a couple of things.
When I publish the project, how does the WSDL get generated and put on the URL that I published to?
And I want to incorporate FaultException handling so as to transmit the exceptions to the client side. I read some stuff regarding the FaultException on the web and was able to get a small sample working with the regular WCF service.
I thought it would be similar within my actual project. But unfortunately I am running into some issues(probably due to my lack of WCF + RIA services knowledge).
So in my actual project my Context class derives off of LinqToEntitiesDomainService.
I created a new ContextFaultException class which had some methods to capture some custom error messaging.
Then I applied the [FaultContract(typeof(ContextFaultException))] to some of the methods in my Context class. Everything compiles and all is fine. But when I published to a website and then when I added this service reference to the client, I don't see my new ContextFaultException in the Reference.cs file that's generated.
I thought may be moving it within the Context class will solve the issue. So I made my ContextFaultException class as an inner class of this Context class but I am running into some other issues. Before I try to figure out these issues, I just want to know if this the right approach?
Any suggestions/pointers??
TIA
The URL must be formatted to get to the namespace wdsl
for example:
namespace My.Namespace.Services
{
[EnableClientAccess()]
public partial class MyClassName : LinqToEntitiesDomainService<XXX>
{
....
}
}
Then use the following pattern for the url
http://YOURHOST/APP/Services/My-Namespace-Services-MyClassName.svc?wsdl
Use "-" for the "."

Share POCO types between WCF Data Service and Client Generated by Add Service Reference

I have a WCF Data Service layer that is exposing POCO entities generated by the POCO T4 template. These POCO entities are created in their own project (i.e. Company.ProjectName.Entities) because I'd like to share them wherever possible.
I have a set of interfaces in another project (Company.ProjectName.Clients) that reference these POCO types by adding an assembly reference to the Company.ProjectName.Entities.dll. One of the implementation of these interfaces is a .NET client that I want to consumes the service using the WCF Data Service Client Library.
I've used the Add Service Reference to add service reference. This generated the DataServiceContext client class and the POCO entities that are used by the service. However, these POCO types gemerated by the Add Service Reference utility now have a different namespace (i.e. Company.ProjectName.Clients.Implementation.WcfDsReference).
What that means is that the POCO types defined in the interfaces cannot be used by the types generated by the utility without have to cast or map.
i.e. Suppose I have:
1. POCO Entity: Company.ProjectName.Entities.Account
2. Interface: interface IRepository<Company.ProjectName.Entities.Account>{....}
3. Implementation: ServiceClientRepository : IRepository<Company.ProjectName.Entities.Account>
4. WcfDsReference: Company.ProjectName.Clients.Implementation.WcfDsReference
& Company.ProjectName.Clients.Implementation.WcfDsReference.Account
Let's say I want to create a DataServiceQuery query on the Account, I won't be able to do this:
var client = new WcfDsReference(baseUrl);
var accounts = client.CreateQuery<Company.ProjectName.Entities.Account>(...)
OR: client.AddToAccounts(Company.ProjectName.Entities.Account)
, because the CreateQuery<T>() expects T to be of type & Company.ProjectName.Clients.Implementation.WcfDsReference.Account
What I currently have to do is to pass the correct entity to the CreateQuery method and have to map the results back to the type the interface understands. (Possible with a mapper but doesn't seems like a good solution.)
So the question is, is there a way to get the Add Service Reference utility to generate methods that use the POCO types that are in the Company.ProjectName.Entities namespace?
One solution I am thinking of is to not use the utility to generate the DataServiceContext and other types, but to create my own.
The other solution is to update the IRepository<T> interface to use the POCO types generated by the utility. But this sounds a little bit hacky.
Is there any better solution that anyone has come up with or if there's any suggestion?
Ok, a few hours after starting the bounty I found out why it wasn't working as expected on my end.
It turns out that the sharing process is quite easy. All that needs to be done is mark the model classes with the [DataServiceKey] attribute. This article explains the process quite well, in the 'Exposing another Data Model' section
With that in mind, what I was trying to do is the following:
Placing the model on a separate class library project C, sharing it with both webapplication projects A and B
Create the data service on project A
Add the service reference on project B
Delete the generated model proxies out of the service reference, and update it to use my model classes in project C
Add the DataServiceKey attribute to the models, specifying the correct keys
When I tried this it did not work, giving me the following error:
There is a type mismatch between the client and the service. Type
{MyType} is not an entity type, but the type in the
response payload represents an entity type. Please ensure that types
defined on the client match the data model of the service, or update
the service reference on the client.
This problem was caused by a version mismatch between project C (which was using the stock implementations on the System.Data.OData assemblies) and the client project B that was calling the service (using the Microsoft.Data.OData assemblies in the packages). By matching the version on both ends, it worked the first time.
After all this, one problem remained though: The service reference procedure is still not detecting the models to be shared, meaning proxies are being created as usual. This led me to opt out of the automatic service integration mechanic, instead forcing me to go forward with a simple class of my own to serve as the client to the Wcf Data service. Basically, it's a heavily trimmed version of the normally autogenerated class:
using System;
using System.Data.Services.Client;
using System.Data.Services.Common;
using Model;
public class DataServiceClient : DataServiceContext
{
private readonly Lazy<DataServiceQuery<Unit>> m_units;
public DataServiceClient(Uri _uri)
: base(_uri, DataServiceProtocolVersion.V3)
{
m_units = new Lazy<DataServiceQuery<Unit>>(() => CreateQuery<Unit>("Units"));
}
public DataServiceQuery<Unit> Units
{
get { return m_units.Value; }
}
}
This is simple enough because I'm only using the service in readonly mode. I would still like to use the service reference feature though, potentially avoiding future maintenance problems, as evidenced by the hardcoded EntitySet name in this simple case. At the moment, I'm using this implementation and have deleted the service reference altogether.
I would really like to see this fully integrated with the service reference approach if anyone can share a workaround to it, but this custom method is acceptable for our current needs.

WCF Calling C# Methods

I used to code only in databases enviroments. Recent changes in the corp. made me start developing in whole new worlds.
This new project is something like SQL - C# - PHP.
The class I've been working on in VS2008 is almost dnoe. It calls all the SQL SPs I need and the info is there in the DataReaders.
When It came to read that info from PHP so I could populate the website I found out it wasn't that easy. I was recommended into trying several options, the one that suits the best for the project is to create a Web Service and then consume it (please be patient, As I just stated I'm new to most web related programming)
So, I'm trying to WCF/Rest and then consume it from PHP but I haven't got there yet.
I've read and watched several tutorials on WCF and It seems to be smooth, but all I've read is:
. Create Interface with its OperationContracts.
. Create Service with DataMembers etc and define the Methods listed in the Interface.
Ok, but what I'd like to do is not to specify any methods there, since all I want is to call C# method I've already written.
Should I do that in the Service or in the Interface? And first of all, is this the right the way to approach it?
You would want to write service methods that implement an operation contract interface. The service methods can call the C# code that you've already written.
For example, here is a simple service interface:
[ServiceContract]
public interface IYourService
{
[OperationContract]
int GetCountOfTransactions(string filter);
}
And then you would implement this interface in your service class:
public class YourService : IYourService
{
public int GetCountOfTransactions(string filter)
{
// Call your existing code
YourClass yourClass = new YourClass();
return yourClass.GetCountOfTransactions(filter);
}
}
There are plenty of examples out there for setting this up as a REST service, but I think you're on the right track.
The trickiest part is usually setting up the binding configuration to make sure all of your consuming client applications can connect.
Hopefully this helps.

Naming conventions for a project containg only WCF ServiceReferences?

Let's say we have a back-end that needs to talk to N external systems using some kind of Web Services.
What I do is: Create a separate project and generate there the proxy classes (using the service's WSDL in the WCF Service Reference dialog).
About the project name suffix:
I firstly though XxAdapter. But then, I started creating classes with additional logic like CircuitBreakers so I ended up with XxAgent (from ServiceAgent).
What should be the "correct" suffix for the name of such projects.
The most appropriate suffix is "Proxies" because of several reasons:
Your component contains all the web service proxy classes.
In case that you want to make calls to several service proxies transparent, you can create a new class named MyLocalProxy, and perform the action
public class MyServiceProxy
{
public void DoSomething()
{
var serviceProxy1 = new ServiceProxy1();
serviceProxy1.DoOneThing();
var serviceProxy2 = new ServiceProxy2();
serviceProxy2.DoAnotherThing();
}
}
The additional class helps you to not depend on concrete service proxies, so you can interchange them as you wish.
Cheers.

Web services and interface compatibility

Adding a service reference to a web service (this is all WCF) in Visual Studio produces some generated code including a client-side restatement of the interface being exposed.
I understand why this interface is generated: you might be consuming a 3rd party service and not have access to the actual interface.
But I do, and the two are not assignment compatible even though the transparent proxy does indeed exactly implement the interface to which I want to cast.
I can use reflection, but that's ugly. Is there some way to defeat this faux type safety and inject metadata to so I can use an interface with a class?
My specific problem departs from the norm in complicated ways that have to do with a single client that uses some derivatives of a base class directly and uses others remotely via service references. The base class for each server needs to keep references to subscribing clients in a collection for enumeration to notify events, and the problem was type varied due to the use of proxies.
None of these answers solves my specific problem, yet every single answer was instructive and helpful. I found my own solution (use a dual binding) but I would never have figured it out if you hadn't radically improved my understanding of the whole business.
Three excellent answers. How to choose just one? I choose the first, because it directly solves the problem I first thought I had.
If you already have the contract dll at the client, you don't even need a service reference (unless you are using it to write the setup code for you) - you can simply subclass ClientBase and expose the Channel, and use that directly - something like (no IDE handy...):
public class WcfClient<T> : ClientBase<T> where T : class
{
public new T Channel {get {return base.Channel;}}
}
Then you can just do things like:
using(var client = new WcfClient<IFoo>())
{
client.Channel.Bar(); // defined by IFoo
}
You still need the configuration settings in the config to determine the address, binding, etc - but less messy than proxy generation. Also, you might choose to re-implement IDipsoable to deal with the fact that WCF proxies can throw in Dispose() (which is bad):
public class WcfClient<T> : ClientBase<T>, IDisposable where T : class
{
public new T Channel {get {return base.Channel;}}
void IDisposable.Dispose() {
try {
switch(State) {
case CommunicationState.Open: Close(); break;
// etc
}
} catch {} // swallow it down (perhaps log it first)
}
}
When you add the service reference, go to "Advanced" and make sure "Reuse types in referenced assemblies" is selected and that the assembly containing your interface definition is selected. You can also do this with an existing service reference by right clicking on it and going to "Configure".
In order to return an interface from a service you need to use the KnownType attribute:
http://weblogs.asp.net/avnerk/archive/2006/07/31/WCF-Serialization-part-1_3A00_-Interfaces_2C00_-Base-classes-and-the-NetDataContractFormatSerializer.aspx
If you want to return a custom type from the service:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb628653.aspx
Does any of that help?