Exposing metadata from WCF services
As some of you may already have figured out, there have been a few breaking chnages in WCF's RC1 OM which is currently being distributed with the June CTP of .NET Fx 3.0.
One point of confusion:
Metadata publishing is no longer enabled by default for WCF services. You must now explicitly configure metadata endpoints for your service by adding the ServiceMetadataBehavior (from System.ServiceModel.Description namespace) to your service and adding a IMetadataExchange-based endpoint using the standard mechanisms for adding endpoints to a WCF service.
The metadataPublishing behavior configuration section has been renamed to serviceMetadata accordingly. Also, the enableGetWsdl configuration attribute has been split into two attributes: httpGetEnabled and httpsGetEnabled. Likewise, the metadataLocation attribute has been renamed to externalMetadataLocation. OK, so much for the theory.
So here is a complete sample in config - this enables both WSDL and MEX metadata:
<configuration>
<system.serviceModel>
<services>
<service name="Service.TecTvService"
behaviorConfiguration="metadataBehavior">
<host>
<baseAddresses>
<add baseAddress="http://localhost:7777/tectv"/>
</baseAddresses>
</host>
<endpoint
address="mex"
binding="mexHttpBinding"
contract="IMetadataExchange"
/>
<endpoint
address="net.tcp://localhost:1234/tectv"
binding="netTcpBinding" bindingConfiguration="unsecureTcp"
contract="Contracts.ITecTv"
/>
<endpoint
address="http://localhost:7777/tectv/http"
binding="basicHttpBinding"
contract="Contracts.ITecTv"
/>
</service>
</services>
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior name="metadataBehavior">
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>
posted on Saturday, July 01, 2006 8:52 PM
# re: Exposing metadata from WCF services @ Friday, July 07, 2006 3:07 AM
Not quite.
Adding <serviceMetadata /> alone, without any endpoints, enables HTTP/GET ?wsdl support at the baseaddresses specified that support HTTP. This is because httpGetEnabled is true by default.
Adding <serviceMetadata /> AND adding an IMetadataEndpoint will get you WS-MetadataExchange support at that endpoint address.
Do let me know if you don't see that behavior. Oh, and remember that because svcutil tries both http/get and WS-MEX, often it's difficult to know which one was the one that worked. ;-)
Cheers, Ralph
ralph
# re: Exposing metadata from WCF services @ Friday, July 07, 2006 11:25 AM
There is nothing wrong with your and my statements, right?
It all works as explained by the two of us. Of course, your comment makes the whole story more complete :)
Christian Weyer
# re: Exposing metadata from WCF services @ Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:43 PM
can externalMetadataLocation be used to sepcify some external metadata other than the wsdl of the service?? is there anything that can be used to access some other metadata, e.g., the business information of the service provider??
zille
# re: Exposing metadata from WCF services @ Wednesday, October 18, 2006 9:09 AM
Yes, you can point to a URL with the wanted metadata if you are webhosted. If you are self-hosted then you would need to point to a webhosted metadata URL or just extend ServiceHost. I have such a sample here if you need it.
Christian Weyer
Source: Christian Weyer: Smells like service spirit : Exposing metadata from WCF services
