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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T11:24:30+00:00

I thought HttpContext.Current is supposed to be null in a WCF service (even if

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I thought HttpContext.Current is supposed to be null in a WCF service (even if aspNetCompatibilityEnabled is enabled).

MSDN: HttpContext: Current is always null when accessed from within
a WCF service.
from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa702682.aspx

I have this in my web.config:

 <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true">

But this :

 HttpContext.Current + " has file path of " + HttpContext.Current.Request.FilePath

returns a valid context (and proof that I’m in a .svc file)

 "System.Web.HttpContext has file path of /rrmvc/MVCServices/OrderPipelineService.svc"

I basically need a way to tell if I’m in SVC or ASMX. How should I do that?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    No, when ASP.NET compatibility is enabled, that is the whole point – that the WCF service is executed in the context of the ASP.NET pipeline and you have full access to the ASP.NET services such as Cache, Session State, Forms Authentication, etc.

    If you need to tell if the current request is to a WCF service or a ASMX service you could:

    Note in all cases you won’t have a HttpContext.Current when ASP.NET compatibility is not enabled in which case you can be certain you’re not running in the scope of a ASMX web service.

    Excerpt from the page you linked: Hosting WCF Services in ASP.NET Compatibility Mode

    Unlike the default side-by-side
    configuration, where the WCF hosting
    infrastructure intercepts WCF messages
    and routes them out of the HTTP
    pipeline, WCF services running in
    ASP.NET Compatibility Mode participate
    fully in the ASP.NET HTTP request
    lifecycle. In compatibility mode, WCF
    services use the HTTP pipeline through
    an IHttpHandler implementation,
    similar to the way requests for ASPX
    pages and ASMX Web services are
    handled. As a result, WCF behaves
    identically to ASMX with respect to
    the following ASP.NET features:

    HttpContext: WCF services running in
    ASP.NET Compatibility Mode can access
    Current and its associated state.

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