无法创建WCF RestFul服务的客户端

Question

I am newbie with web services. I am trying to create a WCF Restful web service . I have implemented a simple service that accepts parameter name and when the client requests the service it prints hello with name.

I have created a web client and added the reference of the web service to the client. As per my research, as soon as I add the service reference it should update client's web.config according to the service's web config which is not happening. The issue is that .config file is not being created with end points after adding the service reference and even after running svcutil.exe..Either way its not generating the required .config file..

Relevant code:

[ServiceContract]
    public interface IRestFulTest
    {
        [OperationContract]
    [WebInvoke(Method= "GET",ResponseFormat=WebMessageFormat.Xml, UriTemplate="xml/{Name}")]
        String sayhello(String name);
    }

service web.config

 <system.serviceModel>
    <services>
      <service name="ServiceDemo.RestFulTest">
        <endpoint behaviorConfiguration="WebBehavior" binding="webHttpBinding"
          bindingConfiguration="" contract="ServiceDemo.IRestFulTest" />
      </service>
    </services>
    <behaviors>
      <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior name="WebBehavior">
          <webHttp />
        </behavior>
      </endpointBehaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="">
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="true" />
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <protocolMapping>
        <add binding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https" />
    </protocolMapping>    
    <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
  </system.serviceModel>

what probably could be wrong? Any ideas or suggestions would be really appreciated.

Answer 1

The reason that no client endpoint configuration is generated in the config file is that generating client code from a RESTful WCF service is not supported .

There is no metadata standard for non-SOAP HTTP services. As a caller of the service you just have to call it directly.

You can consume a RESTful endpoint in .net in many ways, including:

1. Use the WebChannelFactory
2. Use the good old HttpClient
3. Use WebClient

Answer 2

I found the answer myself. In my service I had not declared an endpoint for met data exchange due to which when I was trying to add the reference of the service to the client the required app.config was not being generated.

Adding the end point for metadata exchange solved the problem.

 **<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange"/>**

I hope it would save some one else's lot of time and head banging.