CODEWITHSUNDEEP
wcfconfiguration
MBender
MBender

Reputation: 5650

Automatic configuration of WCF client

We have created a WCF service application for a customer. Since the service is used to transmit large amounts of data (which can take a long time), some changes (such as increased timeout limits or message size limits) have been made to the Web.config file to accommodate this.

Everything works fine and there are no technical issues... except the client isn't exactly happy that whenever they create a new application which consumes the WCF service they need to manually add all the changes to the client-side App.config file.

They would like to have the changes to be read from the service automatically.

I've never of WCF having such functionality, so I don't think this is possible. But I would very much like to have this confirmed... or denied, if this is actually possible.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 150

Answers (2)

granadaCoder
granadaCoder

Reputation: 27852

IIRC .. in earlier releases of the stocktrader app.

How to implement Configuration Service 5.0 of the StockTrader 5.0 sample application?

mentioned in the above SOF link

There was a way to get configuration from a service. However, the stocktrader app looks much different now then it did earlier. So I don't know which version it become something different. Greg Leake (Leak) was the name of the dude I met at TechEd one year....talking about this, IIRC.

IT IS NOT TRIVIAL TO IMPLEMENT.

The cost of editing some clientside config files........vs the configuration service.....you'll have to make that call.

But it sounds like you have a case of your client needing some cheese with their whine.

Here is an older video...that might get you on the right path.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Endpoint/endpointtv-High-Performance-WCF-NET-Stock-Trader-with-Greg-Leake

This PDF

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/C/9/7C9F7B89-8AF0-4433-AB3A-B615C8EF9484/ConfigServiceVSTemplate.pdf

will give you the hints at it.

It is a lot of work to get a "configuration service" up and running.

We ended up...NOT doing it.......and using xml-manipulation in msbuild tasks.......to tweak the wcf client-side xml sections.

EDIT:

Alternate idea. Put you WCF in separate files..and distribute those. It will make the "where to edit" much more discernable ..... or go with whole-sale replacement all of the (4) files.

app.config or web.config

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>

    <system.serviceModel>

        <behaviors configSource="WCFBehaviors.config">
        </behaviors>

        <bindings configSource="WCFBindings.config">
        </bindings>

        <client configSource="WCFClient.config">
        </client>

        <services configSource="WCFServices.config">
        </services>


    </system.serviceModel>

Then make the 4 files. Example WCFServices.config

<services>
    <service name="MyApp.MyService">
        <endpoint
              address  = "http://localhost:8001/MyService"
              binding  = "wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WSHttpBindingName1"
              contract = "MyApp.MyIService" >
        </endpoint>
    </service>
</services>

Note, these won't be auto-voodoo-included like web.config and app.config. You'll have to make sure they end up in your build-outputs.

Upvotes: 1

Kinexus
Kinexus

Reputation: 12904

Unless you create a custom method to expose these parameters, or at least the values of them, they are not visible to the consumer.

Config files are supposed to be private which is why you are not able to browse to them in a standard installation.

It sounds to me like your client needs to accept that perhaps when adding a new service, there is a little bit of work that needs to be done. They could in theory cut and paste the servicemodel configuration, or sections of it, from an existing application to save 'some' time.

Upvotes: 1

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