Question

This has probably been discussed however all the threads I saw on this topic did not help me hence I’m posting.

I am attempting to host a WCF HTTP service on IIS 5.1. It is extremely basic. I created a virtual directory in IE called wcftest, which points to the actual folder containing the contents of the service. Here is the structure:

Web.config
ConsoleWCF.svc
[App_Code] \ Program.cs

Here is the code for ConsoleWCF.svc

<%@ ServiceHost Debug="true" Service="ConsoleWCF.WCFImplementer" Language="C#" %>

The Web.config looks like this:

<configuration>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="ServiceBehavior">
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <services>
      <service name="ConsoleWCF.WCFImplementer" 
               behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehavior">
        <endpoint 
            address="" 
            binding="basicHttpBinding" 
            contract="ConsoleWCF.WCFInterface" />
        <endpoint 
            address="mex" 
            binding="mexHttpBinding" 
            contract="IMetadataExchange" />
      </service>
    </services>
  </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

And finally the Program.cs is:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.ServiceModel.Description;

namespace ConsoleWCF
{
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface WCFInterface
    {
        [OperationContract]
        [WebGet]
        string GetData();
    }

    public class WCFImplementer : WCFInterface
    {
        public string GetData()
        {
            return "Tested Console WCF";
        }
    }
}

I can access this in IE by browsing to http://localhost/wcftest/ConsoleWCF.svc.

However I do not understand how to access the GetData method I have. When I did this using a stand-alone host, I had no issues accessing it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

In order for WCF to understand the [WebGet] attribute, the endpoint needs to have a certain configuration, namely use the webHttpBinding (not basicHttpBinding as you do) and to have a WebHttpBehavior added to it. If you change the web.config to something like the one below, you should be able to browse to http://localhost/wcftest/ConsoleWCF.svc/GetData.

<system.serviceModel>
  <behaviors>
    <endpointBehaviors>
      <behavior name="REST">
        <webHttp/>
      </behavior>
    </endpointBehaviors>
  </behaviors>
  <services>
    <service name="ConsoleWCF.WCFImplementer">
      <endpoint address=""
                behaviorConfiguration="REST"
                binding="webHttpBinding"
                contract="ConsoleWCF.WCFInterface" />
    </service>
  </services>
</system.serviceModel>