How can I consume a WCF service using a local WSDL file?

Question

I need to consume a WCF service based on a (preferably single) wsdl file.

The environment is VS-2008 (sp1), and I will be using a customized "Add Service Reference" macro to generate an error handling proxy. I want to be able to do this, by supplying a WSDL file that I get from the service provider (I do not want to supply a host URL).

How can this be done?

Answer 1

Sure - you can copy the path+filename for the WSDL and paste that into the "Add Service Reference" dialog box in Visual Studio (or just type int the full path + WSDL file name).

Alternatively, you can use the svcutil.exe command line utility to convert the WSDL file to your client proxy class.