Exposing a WCF Service REST-fully

Question

Hello,

I have created a brand new WCF Service. I created this service by just saying Add New Item... -> WCF Service in Visual Studio. I then edited the contract slightly to look like the following:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IMyService
{
    [OperationContract]
    [WebGet(UriTemplate = "/Authenticate/{username}/{password}", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
    bool Authenticate(string username, string password);
}

My operations looks like the following:

[AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Required)]
[ServiceBehavior(IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = false)]
public class MyService : IMyService
{
    public bool Authenticate(string username, string password)
    {
        try
        {
            return false;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw new ApplicationException("Unknown exception");
        }
    }
}

When I visit: http://localhost:80/MyService.svc/Authenticate/someUserName/somePassword in my browser window, an empty screen appears. I was expecting "false" to appear in JSON syntax. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Use a tool like Fiddler to see the actual HTTP messages. Helps with debugging.

Second, you're request URL is wrong. Try this:

http://localhost:80/MyService.svc/Authenticate/someUserName/somePassword

You do have a SVC file, correct? You'll need that if you're hosting this in IIS. If you're self hosting it in a WebServiceHost object, then you don't need them.

    using( WebServiceHost host = new WebServiceHost( typeof( MyService) ) )
    {
        host.Open();
        Console.WriteLine( "Service is running" );
        Console.WriteLine( "Press enter to quit..." );
        Console.ReadLine();
        host.Close();
    }