Question

How do I create a single flat WSDL file (with no external references from within) from an existing WCF service? This WSDL will be used (imported) into an older programming technology that only supports BasicHttpBinding. Please address your answer to a beginner.

Answer 1

I had to do this, too. And I used the WSDLExtras library. It’s not too big of a deal.

Here is a step by step instruction for using it:

1. Download the WCFExtras from here, extract it and add a reference to it in VS.

2. Add a reference to your Web.config/App.config like this:

   <system.serviceModel>
       <extensions>
           <behaviorExtensions>
               <add name="wsdlExtensions" type="WCFExtras.Wsdl.WsdlExtensionsConfig, WCFExtras, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null" />
           </behaviorExtensions>
       </extensions>
   </system.serviceModel>
   

3. Add the extension to your endpoint behavior and set the singleFile attribute to true

   <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior name="singleFileEndpointBehavior">
            <wsdlExtensions singleFile="True" />
        </behavior>
   </endpointBehaviors>
   

4. Use the endpointbehavior for your service-endpoint.

   <endpoint address="YourEndPoint/Address" binding="YourBinding" behaviorConfiguration="singleFileEndpointBehavior" contract="IYourContract">
   

This worked fine for me. You can also download a full example from the WCFExtras project page: ProjectPage

Edit:
For the sake of completeness: You can use the ”?singleWsdl” query parameter since .NET 4.5 as stated in Irwins answer. See the link he posted for more details.