Question

We are using an authentication string (guid) for client identification in our wcf services
and for database lookups.
We dont want to add this to every messagecontract.

Is there a way to do this in wcf?

Regards,
Rune

Answer 1

The best and typical way is to add this to a header in your WCF message – and that would be perfect in a message contract.

Why do you not want to add it to the message contract??

WCF typically encourages a “per-call” methodology – you send all necessary info with your call, each and every call that is. It is discouraged to have any kind of “state” that lingers around between calls.

So again: why not just include your authentication string as a header in every message? That’s the preferred way of doing things these days.

UPDATE:

Check out Nicholas Allen’s blog post on Adding Headers to a Call. Besides adding them to the message contract, you could also check out the Message Inspector sample he links to, which creates a message inspector that automagically adds those header entries to each outgoing call. No code clutter, no mess, nothing – just works.