Receiving plain XML in .NET WCF service

Question

Hi!

I'm setting up a really simple WCF service whos only job is to receive an XML-message via SOAP and send the message on to an internal service. Let's say the one I'm creating is a guardpost of such. (Actual names have been substituted for example)

Initial info:

1. I cannot change the external service calling on me. As far as I know it's a Soap11 client built in java.

2. All names has been changed to dummy-names in this example.

Endpoint-setup:

<service behaviorConfiguration="GuardpostBehavior" name="Guardpost.ContractImplementation">
    <endpoint address=""  binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="Guardpost.IContract" bindingConfiguration="basic">
     <identity>
      <dns value="localhost"/>
     </identity>
    </endpoint>
   </service>

Binding configuration:

<basicHttpBinding>
  <binding name="basic" textEncoding="utf-8" messageEncoding="Text">
    <security mode="Transport" />
  </binding>
</basicHttpBinding>

(I need Transport-security due to https)

My Contract looks like this:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IContract
{
  [OperationContract(Action="urn:#GuardpostReceive")]
  void GuardpostReceive(string inputXml);
}

Now what I receive is a Soap-wrapped message that has its Action set to urn:#GuardpostReceive, so the actual routing of the message is done correctly.

However - When the message is received it isn't actually pushed into the method because of this error:

OperationFormatter encountered an Invalid Message body. Expected to find node type 'Element' with name 'inputXml' and namespace 'http://tempuri.org/'. Found node type 'Element' with name 'extns:ExternalNodeName' and namespace 'http://foo.com/bar.org/someservice/schema/1'

The problem seems to be that my WCF-service is unable to extract the body of the Soap-message and simply pass it as plain XML, but that is what I need it to do.

Have I encountered a showstopper in WCF?

Answer 1

If you define parameter as String you have to pass encoded XML - like <element/>. If you need to pass unencoded XML try to use XmlElement or XElement as a parameter.

Answer 2

You can define a contract to receive the entire SOAP message and skip the routing entirely:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IUniversalRequestReply
{
    [OperationContract(Action = "*", ReplyAction = "*")]
    Message ProcessMessage(Message msg);
}

[ServiceContract]
public interface IUniversalOneWay
{
    [OperationContract(Action = "*", IsOneWay=true)]
    void ProcessMessage(Message msg);
}

But I think you wouldn't be able to do something like:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IContract
{
  [OperationContract(Action="urn:#GuardpostReceive")]
  void GuardpostReceive(Message inputXml);
}

What are you trying to accomplish in the actual implementation of the operation?