WCF - The maximum nametable character count quota (16384) has been exceeded while reading XML data

Question

I'm having a WCF Service that uses wsHttpBinding. The server configuration is as follows :

<bindings>
      <wsHttpBinding>
        <binding name="wsHttpBinding" maxBufferPoolSize="2147483647"
          maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647">
          <readerQuotas maxDepth="2147483647" maxStringContentLength="2147483647"
            maxArrayLength="2147483647" maxBytesPerRead="2147483647" maxNameTableCharCount="2147483647" />
          <security mode="None">
            <transport clientCredentialType="Windows" proxyCredentialType="None"
              realm="" />
            <message clientCredentialType="Windows" negotiateServiceCredential="true"
              algorithmSuite="Default" establishSecurityContext="true" />
          </security>
        </binding>
      </wsHttpBinding>
    </bindings>

At the client side I'm including the Service reference of the WCF-Service. It works great if I have limited functions say 90 Operation Contract in my IService but if add one more OperationContract than I'm unable to Update the Service reference nor i'm able to add that service reference. In this article it's mentioned that by changing those config files(i.e devenv.exe.config, WcfTestClient.exe.config and SvcUtil.exe.config) it will work but even including those bindings in those config files still that error pops up saying

There was an error downloading 'http://10.0.3.112/MyService/Service1.svc/mex'. The request failed with HTTP status 400: Bad Request. Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: 'http://10.0.3.112/MyService/Service1.svc/mex'. There is an error in XML document (1, 89549). The maximum nametable character count quota (16384) has been exceeded while reading XML data. The nametable is a data structure used to store strings encountered during XML processing - long XML documents with non-repeating element names, attribute names and attribute values may trigger this quota. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxNameTableCharCount property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 89549. If the service is defined in the current solution, try building the solution and adding the service reference again.

Any idea how to solve this????

Answer 1

Try the following:

In the installation directory of your Visual Studio where devenv.exe is located (e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE) add this section to the devenv.exe.cofig

<system.serviceModel>
<client>
  <endpoint binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="largeServiceBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" name="http" />
</client>

<bindings>
  <customBinding>
    <!-- NOTE: The binding name must be the same as specified in the config file of the wcf service -->
    <binding name="largeServiceBinding" >
      <textMessageEncoding>
        <readerQuotas maxDepth="2147483647" maxStringContentLength="2147483647" maxArrayLength="2147483647" maxBytesPerRead="2147483647" maxNameTableCharCount="2147483647" />
      </textMessageEncoding>

      <httpTransport transferMode="Buffered" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647" maxBufferSize="2147483647"/>
    </binding>

  </customBinding>
</bindings>
</system.serviceModel>

in the app.config of your WCF-service add the same binding:

<bindings>
  <customBinding >
    <!-- NOTE: The binding name must be the same as specified in the devenv.exe.config file located ..\Common7\IDE folder of the VS installation directory -->
    <binding name="largeServiceBinding" >
      <textMessageEncoding>
        <readerQuotas maxDepth="2147483647" maxStringContentLength="2147483647" maxArrayLength="2147483647" maxBytesPerRead="2147483647"
          maxNameTableCharCount="2147483647" />
      </textMessageEncoding>
      <httpTransport transferMode="Buffered" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647" maxBufferSize="2147483647"/>
    </binding>
  </customBinding>
</bindings>

Note that the name attribute of the binding tags from the two files must match (e.g. largeServiceBinding)

Finally add the following mex endpoint into your service tag:

 <endpoint address="mex" binding="customBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" bindingName="testBinding" bindingConfiguration="largeServiceBinding" name="http"/>

this may look like this:

 <services>
  <service behaviorConfiguration="MyServiceBehavior"
    name="MyService.MyService">
    <endpoint address="" binding="wsHttpBinding" contract="MyService.IMyService">
      <identity>
        <dns value="localhost" />
      </identity>
    </endpoint>
    <endpoint address="mex" binding="customBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" bindingName="testBinding" bindingConfiguration="largeServiceBinding" name="http"/>
    <host>
      <baseAddresses>
        <add baseAddress="http://localhost:8731/Design_Time_Addresses/MyService/MyService/" />
      </baseAddresses>
    </host>
  </service>
</services>