Question

Is it possible to change the endpoint address on a WCF service when using IIS Hosting, I current just point to the svc file but I would like to use RESTful commands?

Answer 1

WCF in .NET 4 will support so-called file-less activation, which will allow you to define any arbitrary URL, and map that to a WCF service.

Check out the Developer’s Introduction to WCF 4 for some info, or read this blog post specifically on file-less activation.

Basically, in WCF 4, you can add an entry to your web.config:

<serviceHostingEnvironment  >
   <serviceActivations>
       <add factory="System.ServiceModel.Activation.ServiceHostFactory" 
            relativeAddress="/Services/MyService" 
            service="MyServiceClass"/>
   </serviceActivations>
 </serviceHostingEnvironment>

and thus, pointing your browser to http://YourServer/Services/MyService would then activate that particular service.

Ron Jacobs also has an interesting approach for REST services, where he registers a route to avoid the *.svc file – he explains this for the WCF Data Services, but it’s my feeling, this should work for all WCF REST services, really. But it’s a .NET 4 only feature, also.