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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-24T12:12:36+00:00

For a service with webHttpBinding and helpEnabled=true, the help information is getting generated properly.

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For a service with webHttpBinding and helpEnabled=”true”, the help information is getting generated properly. Was wondering if it is possible to control the output somehow. Below are the changes I would like to make.

  1. Remove the JSON help as the service doesn’t support JSON output. Having it there might be confusing to users. At least, have a way to output a note saying JSON is not supported.
  2. For the example replies shown, use a better example than “String content” where actual value samples can be specified. Would be good if I can supply the object that is used for being serialized as example.
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The help page for WCF WebHttp endpoints cannot be customized. You can, however, replace it with your own custom page. It’s easy to be implemented, but it’s a lot of code to write. The example below shows how this can be done for a simple service.

    public class StackOverflow_7005187
{
    [DataContract]
    public class MyDC
    {
        [DataMember]
        public string str = "The string";
    }
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface ITest
    {
        [WebInvoke]
        string EchoString(string text);
        [WebGet]
        int Add(int x, int y);
        [WebInvoke]
        MyDC EchoDC(MyDC input);
        [WebGet(UriTemplate = "/help")]
        Message GetMainHelpPage();
        [WebGet(UriTemplate = "/help/operations/EchoDC")]
        Message GetOperationsEchoDCHelpPage();
        // help for other operations not implemented
    }
    public class Service : ITest
    {
        public string EchoString(string text)
        {
            return text;
        }

        public int Add(int x, int y)
        {
            return x + y;
        }

        public MyDC EchoDC(MyDC input)
        {
            return input;
        }

        public Message GetMainHelpPage()
        {
            string page = @"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC ""-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"" ""http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"">
<html xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
  <head>
    <title>Operations at http://localhost:8000/Service</title>
    <style>BODY { color: #000000; background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; } #content { margin-left: 30px; font-size: .70em; padding-bottom: 2em; } A:link { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:visited { color: #6699cc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:active { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .heading1 { background-color: #003366; border-bottom: #336699 6px solid; color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 26px; font-weight: normal;margin: 0em 0em 10px -20px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 30px;padding-top: 16px;} pre { font-size:small; background-color: #e5e5cc; padding: 5px; font-family: Courier New; margin-top: 0px; border: 1px #f0f0e0 solid; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word; } table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Verdana;} table th { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; font-weight: bold; background-color: #cecf9c;} table td { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; background-color: #e5e5cc;}</style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id=""content"">
      <p class=""heading1"">Operations at http://localhost:8000/Service</p>
      <p>This page describes the service operations at this endpoint.</p>
      <table>
        <tr>
          <th>Uri</th>
          <th>Method</th>
          <th>Description</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Add</td>
          <td title=""http://localhost:8000/Service/Add?x={X}&amp;y={Y}"">
            <a rel=""operation"" href=""help/operations/Add"">GET</a>
          </td>
          <td>Service at http://localhost:8000/Service/Add?x={X}&amp;y={Y}</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>EchoDC</td>
          <td title=""http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC"">
            <a rel=""operation"" href=""help/operations/EchoDC"">POST</a>
          </td>
          <td>Service at http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>EchoString</td>
          <td title=""http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoString"">
            <a rel=""operation"" href=""help/operations/EchoString"">POST</a>
          </td>
          <td>Service at http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoString</td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>";
            return WebOperationContext.Current.CreateStreamResponse(
                new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(page)),
                "text/html");
        }


        public Message GetOperationsEchoDCHelpPage()
        {
            string page = @"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC ""-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"" ""http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"">
<html xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
  <head>
    <title>Reference for  http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</title>
    <style>BODY { color: #000000; background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; } #content { margin-left: 30px; font-size: .70em; padding-bottom: 2em; } A:link { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:visited { color: #6699cc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:active { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .heading1 { background-color: #003366; border-bottom: #336699 6px solid; color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 26px; font-weight: normal;margin: 0em 0em 10px -20px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 30px;padding-top: 16px;} pre { font-size:small; background-color: #e5e5cc; padding: 5px; font-family: Courier New; margin-top: 0px; border: 1px #f0f0e0 solid; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word; } table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Verdana;} table th { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; font-weight: bold; background-color: #cecf9c;} table td { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; background-color: #e5e5cc;}</style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id=""content"">
      <p class=""heading1"">Reference for  http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</p>
      <p></p>
      <p xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
        <b>Url: </b>
        <span class=""uri-template"">http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</span>
      </p>
      <p xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
        <b>HTTP Method: </b>
        <span class=""method"">POST</span>
      </p>
      <table>
        <tr>
          <th>Message direction</th>
          <th>Format</th>
          <th>Body</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Request</td>
          <td>Xml</td>
          <td>
            <a href=""#request-xml"">Example</a></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Request</td>
          <td>Json</td>
          <td>
            <a href=""#request-json"">Example</a>
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Response</td>
          <td>Xml</td>
          <td>
            <a href=""#response-xml"">Example</a></td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <p>
        <a name=""#request-xml"">The following is an example request Xml body:</a>
        <pre class=""request-xml"">&lt;StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC xmlns=""http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/WcfForums""&gt;
  &lt;str&gt;This is a modified string content&lt;/str&gt;
&lt;/StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC&gt;</pre>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a name=""#request-json"">The following is an example request Json body:</a>
        <pre class=""request-json"">{
    ""str"":""Some content in JSON""
}</pre>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a name=""#response-xml"">The following is an example response Xml body:</a>
        <pre class=""response-xml"">&lt;StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC xmlns=""http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/WcfForums""&gt;
  &lt;str&gt;Another modified XML content&lt;/str&gt;
&lt;/StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC&gt;</pre>
      </p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>";
            return WebOperationContext.Current.CreateStreamResponse(
                new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(page)),
                "text/html");
        }
    }
    public static void Test()
    {
        string baseAddress = "http://" + Environment.MachineName + ":8000/Service";
        ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(Service), new Uri(baseAddress));
        host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(ITest), new WebHttpBinding(), "").Behaviors.Add(new WebHttpBehavior { HelpEnabled = false });
        host.Open();
        Console.WriteLine("Host opened");

        Console.Write("Press ENTER to close the host");
        Console.ReadLine();
        host.Close();
    }
}
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