Error when trying to add a Service Reference

Question

I´m trying to create a client in C# to a web service which (I suppose) is written in Java. It´s my first time trying to write a client, so I´m following the instructions on MSDN, but I´m stuck on a problem with Add Reference. When I open the Add Service Reference dialog and add the URL, an error occurs:

There was an error downloading 'http://geoportal.cuzk.cz/WCTService/WCTService.svc'.
The request failed with HTTP status 404: Not Found.
Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: 'http://geoportal.cuzk.cz/WCTService/WCTService.svc'.
There was no endpoint listening at http://geoportal.cuzk.cz/WCTService/WCTService.svc that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details.
The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
If the service is defined in the current solution, try building the solution and adding the service reference again.

What should my next step be? I don´t know what I should do with this! (It is a coordinates-transformation service from the Czech Republic.)

For more information:
Property services (GetCapabilities) http://geoportal.cuzk.cz/WCTService/WCTService.svc/get?

Localization services: http://geoportal.cuzk.cz/WCTService/WCTService.svc/get?request=GetCapabilities&service=WCTS

Answer 1

I had the same problem happen to me earlier today. The webservice was running fine on local host but for some reason, I was having a 400 when trying to add the service reference in another project.

My error was caused by setting the [DataMember] annotation instead of the [EnumMember] annotation on an enum of the service. Changing it solved my issue.

Answer 2

I know this is an old thread and has already been resolved, but I just finished troubleshooting this exact issue, and none of the resolutions presented here worked for me. Wanted to share my resolution in case anyone else runs into this thread with a similar issue.

My ENTIRE issue stemmed from a bad Refactor->Rename operation. I recently purchased Resharper for my dev team and Resharper did not like the name of our service implementation name. We had named it "WCFAccess" and Resharper wanted the name "WcfAccess". I had just published an update, had the release safely isolated in its own release branch in git, and figured this was a good time to perform a rename on the develop branch and shut Resharper up about the naming. I used Refactor->Rename to change the name of the file to match the naming convention we had defined in the Resharper configuration. The rename operation completed, the solution compiled and ran, time goes on and the WCF rename was forgotten.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and its time to deploy out web services to the test environment for regression testing. The solution compiled successfully, published successfully, then gave me the EXACT error that the OP posted. What I ended up finding out is that the Rename operation from weeks ago ONLY UPDATED SOURCE CODE REFERENCES to the old name and did not rename MARKUP. When I navigated out to our web server where the service was published to and double clicked on the .svc file, it opened the markup in Visual Studio and I noticed that the character casing of the CodeBehind="ServiceNameHere.svc.vb" was inconstant with the new naming convention. Updating the markup and web.config files to reference the correct character casing resolved my issue.

I hope this helps someone. It was incredibly frustrating to troubleshoot

(Please don't hate me for using VB.Net, I inherited this application) :-)

Answer 3

While adding service reference to the client application, metadata is not accessible from service to client application. hence The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found. Actually we can host the WCF service as follows:

1. Self hosting(console application)
2. IIS Hosting
3. WAS Hosting
4. window service hosting.

if you are using self hosting then you need to host the service in console application and run the service(run the console application) and then add the service reference to the client application, then metadata would be exchange. If service is not running then while adding service reference to the client application then 404 not found error would be getting. Same process would follow for all the hosting type. first run the service then add service reference.

Answer 4

I tried browsing to http://geoportal.cuzk.cz/WCTService/WCTService.svc?wsdl. It looks like this service is not exposing metadata.

I did a bit of googling on OpenGIS, and I think you need to have a look at this article:

OpenGIS with .NET

You won't be able to just add a service reference and go. It looks like you need to craft a concrete WSDL.

There may be a client-side library you can use / customize to assist with integration. Have a look at Stack Overflow question Using MySQL GeoSpatial data types in .NET.

Answer 5

The webservices doesn't run.

If you don't have access to the server where this service run, you're blocked.

Otherwise, you need to check if the server run, etc. As I don't know how the Java webservice is run, I can't help you further.

Answer 6

Is the service definitely up and running before you try to add a service reference? If it exposes meta data, does it have a service behaviour or equivalent configured? Have you configured your firewall correctly?

Answer 7

I was facing a similar situation in which I had created a WCF Service (Employee.svc) and later changed the named to EmployeeService.svc. WCF project compiled just fine but when I was trying to add service reference from by UI Client, I was getting following error:

Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: 'http://localhost:2278/EmployeeService.svc?wsdl'.
The document format is not recognized (the content type is 'text/html; charset=UTF-8').
Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: 'http://localhost:2278/EmployeeService.svc'.
There was no endpoint listening at 'http://localhost:2278/EmployeeService.svc' that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details.
The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
If the service is defined in the current solution, try building the solution and adding the service reference again.

I resolved it by replacing the correct service class name everywhere. In my case, it should have been EmployeeService and NOT employee. The left out place was in the markup code of svc file:

<%@ ServiceHost Language="C#" Debug="true" Service="WCFServiceHost.**Employee**" CodeBehind="EmployeeService.svc.cs" %>

Changed it to

<%@ ServiceHost Language="C#" Debug="true" Service="WCFServiceHost.**EmployeeService**" CodeBehind="EmployeeService.svc.cs" %>

And it started working again!!! Dont forget to build your WCF project after changing the service name.