How can I host a WCF service without an SVC file in IIS

Question

I'd like to deploy a dual interface (SOAP/REST/XML/JSON) WCF service in IIS with just a config file and the binaries and no svc file in the URL

We use VS2012 and .Net 4.5

We have something like it working, I followed a guide here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rjacobs/archive/2010/04/05/using-system-web-routing-with-data-services-odata.aspx

I added a Global class with

public class Global : HttpApplication
{
    void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        RegisterRoutes();
    }

    private void RegisterRoutes()
    {
        DataServiceHostFactory factory = new DataServiceHostFactory();
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("wrap", factory, typeof(NeOtheWrapper)));
    }
}

And I used my existing web.config which defines all the endpoints:

<system.serviceModel>
    <!-- Clients -->
    <client>
      <endpoint name="MySoftLive" address="https://backof.somewebsitett.com/Cmp.MySoft.bl/MySoft.svc" binding="basicHttpsBinding" bindingConfiguration="soapSecureBindingConfig" contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.WCF.MySoftInterface" />
      <endpoint name="MySoftTest" address="http://localhost:49957/MySoft.svc"                         binding="basicHttpBinding"  bindingConfiguration="soapBindingConfig"       contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.WCF.MySoftInterface" />
    </client>
    <!-- Services -->
    <services>
      <service name="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.NeOtheWrapper">
        <endpoint name="rest"       address="rest" behaviorConfiguration="restEndpointBehaviour" binding="webHttpBinding"    bindingConfiguration="restBindingConfig"       contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.INeOtheWrapper"/>
        <endpoint name="restSecure" address="rest" behaviorConfiguration="restEndpointBehaviour" binding="webHttpBinding"    bindingConfiguration="restSecureBindingConfig" contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.INeOtheWrapper"/>
        <endpoint name="mex"        address="mex"  behaviorConfiguration=""                      binding="mexHttpBinding"    bindingConfiguration="mexBindingConfig"        contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.INeOtheWrapper"/>
        <endpoint name="mexSecure"  address="mex"  behaviorConfiguration=""                      binding="mexHttpsBinding"   bindingConfiguration="mexSecureBindingConfig"  contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.INeOtheWrapper"/>
        <endpoint name="soap"       address="soap" behaviorConfiguration=""                      binding="basicHttpBinding"  bindingConfiguration="soapBindingConfig"       contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.INeOtheWrapper"/>
        <endpoint name="soapSecure" address="soap" behaviorConfiguration=""                      binding="basicHttpsBinding" bindingConfiguration="soapSecureBindingConfig" contract="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.INeOtheWrapper"/>
      </service>
    </services>
    <!--  Binding Configurations -->
    <bindings>
      <webHttpBinding>
        <binding name="restBindingConfig">
          <security mode="None"/>
        </binding>
        <binding name="restSecureBindingConfig">
          <security mode="Transport"/>
        </binding>
      </webHttpBinding>
      <mexHttpBinding>
        <binding name="mexBindingConfig"/>
      </mexHttpBinding>
      <mexHttpsBinding>
        <binding name="mexSecureBindingConfig"/>
      </mexHttpsBinding>
      <basicHttpsBinding>
        <binding name="soapSecureBindingConfig">
          <security mode="Transport"/>
        </binding>
      </basicHttpsBinding>
      <basicHttpBinding>
        <binding name="soapBindingConfig">
          <security mode="None"/>
        </binding>
      </basicHttpBinding>
    </bindings>
    <!-- Behaviour Configurations -->
    <behaviors>
      <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior name="restEndpointBehaviour">
          <webHttp helpEnabled="true" defaultBodyStyle="Bare" defaultOutgoingResponseFormat="Json" automaticFormatSelectionEnabled="true" faultExceptionEnabled="true" />
        </behavior>
      </endpointBehaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="">
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="true" />
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />
          <dataContractSerializer maxItemsInObjectGraph="2147483647" />
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <!-- Hosting Environment Settings -->
    <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true"/>
  </system.serviceModel>

It compiles, runs and if I browse to http://mypc:12345/wrap/rest/help I get the auto generated ASP.NET REST help page.

But, if I go to http://mypc:12345/wrap/soap/ I get 400 Bad Request.

I can't suffix that with ?wsdl to get the wsdl, or pass the url to svcutil (soap+xml not expected)

I was hoping the .SVC SOAP place holder page would appear, same as /help does for REST.

If I browse to the .svc file (it's at the same level as /wrap) that works and the soap service works, as does meta data publishing.

Am I using the wrong URL or is my configuration wrong?

Answer 1

If you're using WCF 4.0 or later, you can use "file-less" activation. Add something like the following to config your file:

<serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true">
  <serviceActivations>
    <add factory="System.ServiceModel.Activation.ServiceHostFactory" 
         relativeAddress="Soap.svc" 
         service="Cmp.MySoft.BL.NeOthe.NeOtheWrapper" />
  </serviceActivations>
</serviceHostingEnvironment>

This allows you to host a WCF service without a physical .svc file. The relativeAddress is relative to the base address of the site, and you'll need to create the IIS application as usual.

See the "File-Less activation" section in A Developer's Introduction to Windows Communication Foundation 4 for more information.