Question

I am new WCF programming, I did followed series of Getting Started tutorials from following link

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms734712.aspx

I have hosted service in console application but when I tried to create a client and tried to add service reference I got the following exceptions.

There was an error downloading
‘http: localhost:8000/GettingStarted/mex/_vti_bin/ListData.svc/$metadata’.
The request failed with HTTP status 405: Method Not Allowed. Metadata
contains a reference that cannot be resolved:
‘http: localhost:8000/GettingStarted/mex’. There was no endpoint
listening at http: localhost:8000/GettingStarted/mex that could
accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or
SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details. The
remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found. If the service is
defined in the current solution, try building the solution and adding
the service reference again.

code of hosting application

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Step 1 Create a URI to serve as the base address.
        Uri baseAddress = 
            new Uri("http://localhost:8000/GettingStarted/");

        // Step 2 Create a ServiceHost instance
        ServiceHost selfHost = 
            new ServiceHost(typeof(CalculatorService), baseAddress);

        try
        {
            // Step 3 Add a service endpoint.
            selfHost.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(ICalculator), 
                new WSHttpBinding(), 
                "CalculatorService");

            // Step 4 Enable metadata exchange.
            var smb = new ServiceMetadataBehavior();
            smb.HttpGetEnabled = true;
            selfHost.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb);

            // Step 5 Start the service.
            selfHost.Open();
            Console.WriteLine("The service is ready.");
            Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to terminate.");
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.ReadLine();

            // Close the ServiceHostBase to shutdown.
            selfHost.Close();
        }
        catch (CommunicationException ce)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("exception: {0}", ce.Message);
            selfHost.Abort();
        }
    }
}

Now I am unable to figure out what the problem is. I am using visual studio 2012 and .net platform 4.5.

Answer 1

I had a similar issue as well, messing with this. Yes you seem to have followed the tutorial correctly, but if you want to connect to it and consume as a service (as in make a service reference) you must also add in the MEX service enpoint. Add this line after your selfhost.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb):

selfhost.AddServiceEndpoint(
            typeof(IMetadataExchange),
            MetadataExchangeBindings.CreateMexHttpBinding(),
            "http://localhost:8000/GettingStarted/mex");

That should enable you to connect via “Add Service Reference”. Also, I have found depending on your system, you may need to run VS as admin to allow for connection to network (in case you accidentally told it no in the past).