WCF MesageContract - customizing outgoing SOAP message - multiple bodies

Question

I have to call a Web service that is extremely demanding (unstandard) regarding the SOAP message format that it chooses to process. I have no control over the server side implementation and there is no WSDL available, all I have is an intercepted message attached bellow.

My first thought was WCF+MessageContract, but whatever I do with the last, I can't seem to get the right result. Outgoing messages should look like the one bellow. The most tricky part seems to be multiple body contents ("ProxyInfo" and "PayloadInfo" bellow). Besides that I also can not get WCF to remove "Action" element from SOAP message header. I realize that it is a vital element to WCF, but I doubt that I could persuade Web service to accept it. The reply will probably be another story, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Currently I am considering custom serialization and post-/pre- processing of outgoing/incoming messages. In the worst case I guess I will have to do Web requests as well as serialization manually. Please help, I am getting realy desperate...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<e:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasisopen.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd"&gt;
 <e:Header>
  <ServiceHeader xmlns="http://services/serviceheader" e:actor="http://services/loadbalancer" >
   <ServiceLevel>
    <Type>HIGH</Type>
    <Method>FIFO</Method>
   </ServiceLevel>
  </ServiceHeader>
 </e:Header>
 <e:Body>
  <ProxyInfo xmlns="http://services/proxyinfo"&gt;
   <Server>
    <Address>proxy1:8080</Address>
    <AppId>case_delegator</AppId>
   </Server>
  </ProxyInfo>
  <PayloadInfo xmlns="http://services/payload"&gt;
   <GetConfirmation>
    <CaseId>
     <Id>9728DFC889874CC8B1505D91E33FCFCD</Id>
    </CaseId>
   </GetConfirmation>
  </PayloadInfo>
 </e:Body>
</e:Envelope>

Answer 1

If you don't want to use Address header you have to use binding without WS-Addressing. In your case use BasicHttpBinding. It will not use WS-Addressing and Action SOAP header but instead it will use SOAPAction HTTP header.

For your message contract try to use something like this:

[DataContract]
public class ServiceHeader
{
  ...
}

[DataContract]
public class ProxyInfo
{
  ...
}

[DataContract]
public class PayloadInfo
{ 
  ...
}

[MessageContract(IsWrapped = false)]
public class Request
{
  [MessageHeader(Namespace="http://services/serviceheader")]
  public ServiceHeader ServiceHeader { get; set; }

  [MessageBodyMember(Namespace="http://services/proxyinfo")]
  public ProxyInfo ProxyInfo { get; set; }

  [MessageBodyMember(Namespace="http://services/payload")]
  public PayloadInfo PayloadInfo { get; set; }
}

The strange thing is the actor attribute in ServiceHeader. Your message doesn't define namespace for prefix e so the message is not valid XML.