How to generate a WSDL file from a C# webservice.

Question

I've created a WebService like this:

[WebService(Namespace = "http://ns")]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
public class GroupManagerService : WebService
{
    public GroupManagerService()
    {
    }

    [WebMethod]
    public bool MyMethod(string loginname, string country)
    {
        // code here...
    }
}

Is it possible to generate a WSDL file for this code without connecting to a running service ? I searched and I found information about SvcUtil.exe & wsdl.exe, but these work only when retrieving the WSDL from a running WebService.

(For java, there is a tool called java2wsdl, is there a equivalent for c# ?)

:Update:
The context for this question is that I want to add new CustomWebService to SharePoint which should deployed using WSPBuilder in the _vti_bin folder on SharePoint. See also my post on sharepointoverflow.com

And I want to automatically generate (using msbuild commands) the 'MyServicewsdl.aspx' & 'MyServicedisco.wsdl' which must be placed in the _vti_bin folder.

Maybe I'm missing some things? Output from svcutil.exe is:

bin\Debug>SvcUtil.exe MyWebService.dll
Microsoft (R) Service Model Metadata Tool
[Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Communication Foundation, Version 3.0.4506.2152]
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Generating metadata files...
Warning: No metadata files were generated. No service contracts were exported.
 To export a service, use the /serviceName option. To export data contracts, spe
cify the /dataContractOnly option. This can sometimes occur in certain security
contexts, such as when the assembly is loaded over a UNC network file share. If
this is the case, try copying the assembly into a trusted environment and runnin
g it.

Answer 1

See svcutil /?

                          -= METADATA EXPORT =-

Description: svcutil.exe can export metadata for services, contracts and data types in compiled assemblies. To
    export metadata for a service, you must use the /serviceName option to indicate the service you would like
    to export. To export all Data Contract types within an assembly use the /dataContractOnly option. By
    default metadata is exported for all Service Contracts in the input assemblies.

Syntax: svcutil.exe [/t:metadata] [/serviceName:<serviceConfigName>] [/dataContractOnly] <assemblyPath>*

 <assemblyPath> - The path to an assembly that contains services, contracts or Data Contract types to be
                  exported. Standard command-line wildcards can be used to provide multiple files as input.

Options:

 /serviceName:<serviceConfigName> - The config name of a service to export. If this option is used, an
                                    executable assembly with an associated config file must be passed as
                                    input. Svcutil will search through all associated config files for the
                                    service configuration. If the config files contain any extension types,
                                    the assemblies containing these types must either be in the GAC or
                                    explicitly provided using the /r option.
 /reference:<file path>           - Add the specified assembly to the set of assemblies used for resolving
                                    type references. If you are exporting or validating a service that uses
                                    3rd-party extensions (Behaviors, Bindings and BindingElements) registered
                                    in config use this option to locate extension assemblies that are not in
                                    the GAC.  (Short Form: /r)
 /dataContractOnly                - Operate on Data Contract types only. Service Contracts will not be
                                    processed. (Short Form: /dconly)
 /excludeType:<type>              - The fully-qualified or assembly-qualified name of a type to exclude from
                                    export. This option can be used when exporting metadata for a service or a
                                    set of service contracts to exclude types from being exported. This option
                                    cannot be used with the /dconly option. (Short Form: /et)

Answer 2

Svcutil.exe will definitely generate the WSDL with the service down. The correct usage is svcutil your.executable.dll(exe). I'm using this a lot so I'm sure it will generate the WSDL.

Answer 3

I've created a tool which can generate a WSDL file from a compiled c# assembly (dll) which contains one or more WebServices. Normally you require a running service (IIS or other) which hosts the .asmx so that you can retrieve the WSDL using /MyWebService.asmx?wsdl

This tool generate a WSDL file using reflection to retrieve all information from an assembly (dll).

Download can be found at http://wsdlgenerator.codeplex.com

Any hints and tips are welcome !

--Stef