Make a single WCF service support both SOAP, REST and WSDL

Question

I'm trying to build a C# service in .NET 3.5 that supports both SOAP - and shows the WSDL - and REST.

The SOAP service and WSDL generation was easy enough to do using the ServiceHost and a BasicHttpBinding classes. Got that working and the client was happy.

Because the SOAP calls all used simple parameters, the client developers requested a REST interface for some of the commands. So I changed the ServiceHost class to a WebServiceHost, added necessary WebInvoke and WebGet attributes, added a WebHttpBinding class, and bingo - REST and SOAP were both working out of one service. Way cool, change one interface and both REST and SOAP got the new stuff.

But one problem - the WSDL no longer gets generated. I couldn't browse to http://server/service?wsdl and get the WSDL file. Checking the MSDN docs, that appears to be behavior for a default WebServiceHost.

Question: can I override this behavior so that the WSDL could be obtained? Doesn't have to the same URL as before - it can change - but I just need to have some URL into service to get the WSDL for those SOAP developers.

Answer 1

When you say "added a WebHttpBinding class", it sounds like you are doing a lot of the configuration in code as opposed to in configuration files.

If this is the case, you could try moving the configuration to the configuration file. Then create 2 endpoints for the contract one REST and one SOAP, with 2 different addresses and bindings.

Answer 2

But one problem - the WSDL no longer gets generated. I couldn't browse to http://server/service?wsdl and get the WSDL file. Checking the MSDN docs, that appears to be behavior for a default WebServiceHost.

Yes - that's one of the drawbacks of REST - no more WSDL, no more machine-readable service description. You need to hope the service provider gives you a usable and up to date documentation on what you can do.

There's no WSDL for REST - period. Can't be turned on or anything - it just doesn't exist.

There are some efforts under way to provide something similar - called WADL (Web Application Description Language), but as far as I know, it's still far from an established standard by any means. Also see: Do we need WADL?

Answer 3

similar problem with solution.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/wcf/thread/845d0bbd-52b4-420f-bf06-793d53ef93ba