有没有办法迭代潜在的WCF服务器端点？

Question

In a WCF server/client situation, the WCF configurations on both server and client have to be synchronized. Eg In a situation where my client has the configuration below, the server has to have the same binding name, contract and configuration, or it won't connect properly.

<bindings>
   <basicHttpBinding>
       <binding name="ServerContract" />
   </basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<client>
   <endpoint address="http://localhost/.../ServerContractImpl.svc/Mtom"
            binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="ServerContract"
            contract="ServerReference.ServerContract" name="ServerContract" />
</client>

I'm writing WCF client code for a server whose configuration I don't control, and this requirement makes me very nervous. I've generated my initial client configuration using VS2010's Service Reference, but if at any time the admin of the server changes, say, their binding names, how would my WCF client respond to that?

So my questions:

• How does a WCF client, assuming it has the URL to the server's .svc endpoint address, find out which endpoints and bindings are active on the server and connect to whichever one of them it chooses?
• How are situations such as these, where the WCF server and client are controlled by different people, usually managed in terms of WCF configuration?

Answer 1

I asked a somewhat related question a few weeks ago: WCF endpoint discovery from a client; Is it possible?

From the answer:

The following MSDN article should address your concern, as it clearly states that a client must have prior knowledge of the service address prior to discovery.

The answer includes a link to this article which is pretty informative and might address what you're looking for: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee335779.aspx

From the article:

It would be great if the service could use any available address. The client, in turn, would need to discover that address at runtime. In fact, there is an industry standard-based solution that stipulates how that discovery takes place. That solution, called simply discovery (and its supporting mechanisms), is the subject of this column.

Answer 2

In my opinion this is more like a best practice thing. If you have no prior knowledge about the server you are about to connect to, the best thing is to prevent the worst to happen.

You can develop an exception mechanism to fail over one endpoint to another endpoint. The exception you expect to catch include CommunicationException and FaultException, both are under the Service.ServiceModel namespace.

Secondly as the other user said, get better knowledge of the WCF server side see if they enable WCF discovery. WCF discovery allow you decouple your WCF client and the address it connects to. In case of service failure/migration your client (yourself) can automatically connect to a proper address without failure.