WCF service documentation

Question

What is the best way to document/publish information on a WCF service in a technical product document that both programmers as well as non-programmers will look at? Also, what is the best tool for publishing.

Answer 1

That's a thorny issue at best! :-)

You could export your WCF service description to a WSDL file and enrich it with <xs:documentation> and <xs:annotation> elements, and then convert that to a readable HTML document using an XSLT transformation - but that's less than great and useful, really....

Here's a link that shows how to do that: http://andrewtokeley.net/archive/2008/10/30/adding-wsdl-documentation-to-your-wcf-services.aspx

Several of the XML tools out there also offer ways to document WSDL files - often also from those documentation and annotation tags - one example is here: http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-oxygen/generate-wsdl-documentation.html

Here's an online version (and a downloadable XSLT transformation) to convert the documentation and annotation elements out of your WSDL: http://tomi.vanek.sk/index.php?page=wsdl-viewer

I don't really have the ultimate answer here - but an avid interest in the topic, too!

Marc

Answer 2

Take a look at this Question: Best way to document a WCF interface.

Answer 3

There is a a help page that is generated when you create a WCF REST Service using the WCF REST Starter Kit. You don't seem to be using REST, but I thought I'd mention it because this format might work well for you.

This uses the Operation Description to expose an Atom Feed of the operations.

A little reflection turned up this sample:

public Atom10FeedFormatter GetFeed(ContractDescription contractDescription)
{
    List<SyndicationItem> items = new List<SyndicationItem>();
    foreach (OperationDescription od in contractDescription.Description.Operations)
    {
        WebGetAttribute get = od.Behaviors.Find<WebGetAttribute>();
        WebInvokeAttribute invoke = od.Behaviors.Find<WebInvokeAttribute>();
        string method = this.GetMethod(get, invoke);
        string requestFormat = null;
        if (invoke != null)
        {
            requestFormat = this.GetRequestFormat(invoke, od);
        }
        string responseFormat = this.GetResponseFormat(get, invoke, od);
        string uriTemplate = this.GetUriTemplate(get, invoke, od);
        WebMessageBodyStyle bodyStyle = this.GetBodyStyle(get, invoke);
        string requestSchemaLink = null;
        string responseSchemaLink = null;
        string requestExampleLink = null;
        string responseExampleLink = null;
        if (bodyStyle == WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare)
        {
            UriTemplate responseSchemaTemplate = new UriTemplate("help/{operation}/response/schema");
            responseSchemaLink = responseSchemaTemplate.BindByPosition(this.BaseUri, new string[] { od.Name }).AbsoluteUri;
            UriTemplate responseExampleTemplate = new UriTemplate("help/{operation}/response/example");
            responseExampleLink = responseExampleTemplate.BindByPosition(this.BaseUri, new string[] { od.Name }).AbsoluteUri;
            if (invoke != null)
            {
                UriTemplate requestSchemaTemplate = new UriTemplate("help/{operation}/request/schema");
                requestSchemaLink = requestSchemaTemplate.BindByPosition(this.BaseUri, new string[] { od.Name }).AbsoluteUri;
                UriTemplate requestExampleTemplate = new UriTemplate("help/{operation}/request/example");
                requestExampleLink = requestExampleTemplate.BindByPosition(this.BaseUri, new string[] { od.Name }).AbsoluteUri;
            }
        }
        uriTemplate = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(string.Format("{0}/{1}", this.BaseUri.AbsoluteUri, uriTemplate));
        string xhtmlDescription = string.Format("<div xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\"&gt;&lt;table border=\"5\"><tr><td>UriTemplate</td><td>{0}</td></tr><tr><td>Method</td><td>{1}</td></tr>", uriTemplate, method);
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(requestFormat))
        {
            xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + string.Format("<tr><td>Request Format</td><td>{0}</td></tr>", requestFormat);
        }
        if (requestSchemaLink != null)
        {
            xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + string.Format("<tr><td>Request Schema</td><td><a href=\"{0}\">{0}</a></td></tr>", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(requestSchemaLink));
        }
        if (requestExampleLink != null)
        {
            xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + string.Format("<tr><td>Request Example</td><td><a href=\"{0}\">{0}</a></td></tr>", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(requestExampleLink));
        }
        xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + string.Format("<tr><td>Response Format</td><td>{0}</td></tr>", responseFormat);
        if (responseSchemaLink != null)
        {
            xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + string.Format("<tr><td>Response Schema</td><td><a href=\"{0}\">{0}</a></td></tr>", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(responseSchemaLink));
        }
        if (responseExampleLink != null)
        {
            xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + string.Format("<tr><td>Response Example</td><td><a href=\"{0}\">{0}</a></td></tr>", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(responseExampleLink));
        }
        WebHelpAttribute help = od.Behaviors.Find<WebHelpAttribute>();
        if ((help != null) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(help.Comment))
        {
            xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + string.Format("<tr><td>Description</td><td>{0}</td></tr>", help.Comment);
        }
        xhtmlDescription = xhtmlDescription + "</table></div>";
        var item = new SyndicationItem() {
           Id = "http://tmpuri.org/" + od.Name,
           Content = new TextSyndicationContent(xhtmlDescription, TextSyndicationContentKind.XHtml),
           LastUpdatedTime = DateTime.UtcNow,
           Title = new TextSyndicationContent(string.Format("{0}: {1}", this.Description.Name, od.Name))
        };
        items.Add(item);
    }
    SyndicationFeed feed = new SyndicationFeed()
    {
       Title = new TextSyndicationContent("Service help page"),
       LastUpdatedTime = DateTime.UtcNow,
       Items = items
    };
    WebOperationContext.Current.OutgoingResponse.ContentType = "application/atom+xml";
    return feed.GetAtom10Formatter();
}