Service factory: extremely long path/filenames problems

Question

I have been trying out Service Factory and have run into some problems in regards to long filenames - surpassing the limit in Vista/XP. The problem is that when generating code from the models service factory prefixes everything with the namespace specified. Making the folder structure huge. For example starting in

c:\work\sftest\MyWebService

I create each of the models with moderate length of names in data contracts and service interface. I set the namespace to be MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebservice

After generating code I end up with

c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Business Logic
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Resource Access
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.DataContracts
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.FaultContracts
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.MessageContracts
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceContracts
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceImplementation
c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Tests

Under each of the folders is a project file with the same prefix

c:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceImplementation\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceImplementation.proj

This blows up the recipe as windows can't accept filenames exceeding a specific length.

Is it necessary to explicitly include the namespace in each of the foldernames? Obviously at some point I might want to branch a service to another location but for the same reason as above might be unable to. Is there a workaround for this?

Answer 1

I don't know Service Factory so i am not sure if this will help. Anyway: maybe the article Naming a File or Directory from MSDN can help.

Windows API has a maximum length for paths (MAX_PATH = 260). If you want to use longer pathnames you will have to use the Unicode versions of the API by prefixing your paths with "\\?\", i. e. use

"\\?\C:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceImplementation\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceImplementation.proj"

instead of

"C:\work\sftest\MyWebService\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService\Source\Service Interface\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceImplementation\MyCompany.SFTest.MyWebService.ServiceImplementation.proj"

Does Service Factory allow that notation?

Answer 2

We had exactly this problem and we got around it by making our service factory a very thin wrapper around a normal library (that has been marked up with the WCF stuff). This gave us a normally deep project (the factory) and then a stunningly deep wrapper factory (without all that extract interface and logic and what not).

We still have some problems - but mainly in the client side - our servers are for the most part trouble free.