Question

I have written a WCF web service (not a web site, just JSON over HTTP) intended to run in Azure. I need to write tests for it.

I know how to do this, but it seems amateurish:

1. Run the web service,
2. Copy the root URL (e.g. http://localhost:81/)
3. Apply the root URL to my test project,
4. Run the test project.

I would like to be able to do this:

1. Hit F5
2. –> web service starts running
3. –> tests start running, automatically finding where IIS decided to run the service.

Is there a way?

Answer 1

There are 2 ways you can do this. Since you’re using Windows Azure I assume you’re using the emulator. Using the emulator means that the RoleEnvironment is available and you can get a list of roles, their instances, and their endpoints that are available.

var endpoint = RoleEnvironment.Roles["WebRole1"].Instances.First().InstanceEndpoints["Endpoint1"];
var siteUrl = String.Format("{0}://{1}", endpoint.Protocol, endpoint.IPEndpoint);

This code will get the role named WebRole1, get the first instance on this role (you could use this to test if your web service supports load balancing) and get the InstanceEndpoint. The instance endpoint will give you all info you need like protocol (http/https) and the IP/port (these are things you configure in the ServiceConfiguration).

Note: This also works for processes running outside the emulator (like your test project). The only thing you’ll need to do is reference Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.

Besides that you can also try to use the ServerManager class to find the current sites running in IIS, but I don’t think this will work if you’re running in IIS Express (which is also possible if you’re working with Azure).