REST / SOAP endpoints for a WCF service

This post has already a very good answer by "Community wiki" and I also recommend to look at Rick Strahl's Web Blog, there are many good posts about WCF Rest like this.

I used both to get this kind of MyService-service... Then I can use the REST-interface from jQuery or SOAP from Java.

This is from my Web.Config:

<system.serviceModel>
 <services>
  <service name="MyService" behaviorConfiguration="MyServiceBehavior">
   <endpoint name="rest" address="" binding="webHttpBinding" contract="MyService" behaviorConfiguration="restBehavior"/>
   <endpoint name="mex" address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="MyService"/>
   <endpoint name="soap" address="soap" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="MyService"/>
  </service>
 </services>
 <behaviors>
  <serviceBehaviors>
   <behavior name="MyServiceBehavior">
    <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
    <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />
   </behavior>
  </serviceBehaviors>
  <endpointBehaviors>
   <behavior name="restBehavior">
    <webHttp/>
   </behavior>
  </endpointBehaviors>
 </behaviors>
</system.serviceModel>

And this is my service-class (.svc-codebehind, no interfaces required):

    /// <summary> MyService documentation here ;) </summary>
[ServiceContract(Name = "MyService", Namespace = "http://myservice/", SessionMode = SessionMode.NotAllowed)]
//[ServiceKnownType(typeof (IList<MyDataContractTypes>))]
[ServiceBehavior(Name = "MyService", Namespace = "http://myservice/")]
public class MyService
{
    [OperationContract(Name = "MyResource1")]
    [WebGet(ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, UriTemplate = "MyXmlResource/{key}")]
    public string MyResource1(string key)
    {
        return "Test: " + key;
    }

    [OperationContract(Name = "MyResource2")]
    [WebGet(ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, UriTemplate = "MyJsonResource/{key}")]
    public string MyResource2(string key)
    {
        return "Test: " + key;
    }
}

Actually I use only Json or Xml but those both are here for a demo purpose. Those are GET-requests to get data. To insert data I would use method with attributes:

[OperationContract(Name = "MyResourceSave")]
[WebInvoke(Method = "POST", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, UriTemplate = "MyJsonResource")]
public string MyResourceSave(string thing){
    //...

If you only want to develop a single web service and have it hosted on many different endpoints (i.e. SOAP + REST, with XML, JSON, CSV, HTML outputes). You should also consider using ServiceStack which I've built for exactly this purpose where every service you develop is automatically available on on both SOAP and REST endpoints out-of-the-box without any configuration required.

The Hello World example shows how to create a simple with service with just (no config required):

public class Hello {
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class HelloResponse {
    public string Result { get; set; }
}

public class HelloService : IService
{
    public object Any(Hello request)
    {
        return new HelloResponse { Result = "Hello, " + request.Name };
    }
}

No other configuration is required, and this service is immediately available with REST in:

  • SOAP
  • XML
  • JSON
  • HTML

It also comes in-built with a friendly HTML output (when called with a HTTP client that has Accept:text/html e.g a browser) so you're able to better visualize the output of your services.

Handling different REST verbs are also as trivial, here's a complete REST-service CRUD app in 1 page of C# (less than it would take to configure WCF ;):

  • Front-end TODO applicaiton
  • Back-end REST Service implementation

You can expose the service in two different endpoints. the SOAP one can use the binding that support SOAP e.g. basicHttpBinding, the RESTful one can use the webHttpBinding. I assume your REST service will be in JSON, in that case, you need to configure the two endpoints with the following behaviour configuration

<endpointBehaviors>
  <behavior name="jsonBehavior">
    <enableWebScript/>
  </behavior>
</endpointBehaviors>

An example of endpoint configuration in your scenario is 

<services>
  <service name="TestService">
    <endpoint address="soap" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="ITestService"/>
    <endpoint address="json" binding="webHttpBinding"  behaviorConfiguration="jsonBehavior" contract="ITestService"/>
  </service>
</services>

so, the service will be available at

  • http://www.example.com/soap
  • http://www.example.com/json

Apply [WebGet] to the operation contract to make it RESTful. e.g.

public interface ITestService
{
   [OperationContract]
   [WebGet]
   string HelloWorld(string text)
}

Note, if the REST service is not in JSON, parameters of the operations can not contain complex type.

Reply to the post for SOAP and RESTful POX(XML)

For plain old XML as return format, this is an example that would work both for SOAP and XML.

[ServiceContract(Namespace = "http://test")]
public interface ITestService
{
    [OperationContract]
    [WebGet(UriTemplate = "accounts/{id}")]
    Account[] GetAccount(string id);
}

POX behavior for REST Plain Old XML

<behavior name="poxBehavior">
  <webHttp/>
</behavior>

Endpoints

<services>
  <service name="TestService">
    <endpoint address="soap" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="ITestService"/>
    <endpoint address="xml" binding="webHttpBinding"  behaviorConfiguration="poxBehavior" contract="ITestService"/>
  </service>
</services>

Service will be available at

  • http://www.example.com/soap
  • http://www.example.com/xml

REST request try it in browser,

http://www.example.com/xml/accounts/A123

SOAP request client endpoint configuration for SOAP service after adding the service reference,

  <client>
    <endpoint address="http://www.example.com/soap" binding="basicHttpBinding"
      contract="ITestService" name="BasicHttpBinding_ITestService" />
  </client>

in C#

TestServiceClient client = new TestServiceClient();
client.GetAccount("A123");

Another way of doing it is to expose two different service contract and each one with specific configuration. This may generate some duplicates at code level, however at the end of the day, you want to make it working.

Tags:

Rest

Wcf

Soap

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