Enable SOAP And REST On Same WCF Service And Contract

In this post, we will see both SOAP and REST enabled in the same WCF Service using the same contract.

People may think, WCF is an outdated technology after Web API became so popular. But I feel we can still use WCF for many occasions. That is the reason behind writing this post.

We can create a WCF service application.

Enable SOAP and REST on same WCF Service and Contract

The project structure is shown below.

One service contract file along with a service file (.svc) is created automatically. We can modify the default contract file and service file.

IService1.cs

using System.ServiceModel;
namespace WcfSOAPandREST
{
[ServiceContract]
public interface IService1
{
[OperationContract]
string Greeting(string value);
}
}

Service1.svc.cs

namespace WcfSOAPandREST
{
public class Service1 : IService1
{
public string Greeting(string value)
{
return string.Format($"Hello {value}! Welcome to C# Corner");
}
}
}

By default, WCF supports SOAP binding. We can add a client to this service and test the application. For that, we can use the same project. Right-click the solution and click "Add Service Reference...".

Click “Discover” and choose “Services in Solution”.

It will list the existing service “Service1.svc”. We can double click on it. It will install the service reference to the project.

If you look at the Web.config file, you can see that the client reference is now added automatically. Also notice that "basicHttpBinding" is added. This binding is used for SOAP operations.

We can add a WebForm to test the SOAP service. I will add a “Greetings.aspx” file and copy the below code to that file.

Greetings.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Greetings.aspx.cs" Inherits="WcfSOAPandREST.Greetings" %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Greet" />
<br />
<br />
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server"></asp:Label>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

We can add the below code to Greetings.aspx.cs file for Button-click event.

Greetings.aspx.cs

using System;
namespace WcfSOAPandREST
{
public partial class Greetings : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ServiceReference1.Service1Client soap = new ServiceReference1.Service1Client();
Label1.Text = soap.Greeting(TextBox1.Text);
}
}
}

We have consumed the service reference and invoked the “Greeting” method in it.

Right-click the Greetings.aspx file and click “View in Browser” option.

Enter a value in the text box and click the “Greet” button. It will execute the SOAP service and return the value to label as shown below.

Let us now add REST binding to this project. For that, we can add “webHttpBinding” configuration to Web.config file.

Define a behavior configuration “web” for this binding.

The entire Web.config file is given below.

Web.config

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="aspnet:UseTaskFriendlySynchronizationContext" value="true" />
</appSettings>
<system.web>
<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5.2" />
<httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5.2"/>
</system.web>
<system.serviceModel>
<services>
<service name="WcfSOAPandREST.Service1">
<endpoint address="" binding="webHttpBinding"
contract="WcfSOAPandREST.IService1" behaviorConfiguration="web">
</endpoint>
</service>
</services>
<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="BasicHttpBinding_IService1" />
</basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<client>
<endpoint address="http://localhost:51004/Service1.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IService1" contract="ServiceReference1.IService1"
name="BasicHttpBinding_IService1" />
</client>
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior>
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="true"/>
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false"/>
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
<endpointBehaviors>
<behavior name="web">
<webHttp/>
</behavior>
</endpointBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<protocolMapping>
<add binding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https" />
</protocolMapping>
<serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
</system.serviceModel>
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
<directoryBrowse enabled="true"/>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

We can decorate the IService1.cs contract with the below attributes for REST operation.

IService1.cs

using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
namespace WcfSOAPandREST
{
[ServiceContract]
public interface IService1
{
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(
Method = "GET",
UriTemplate = "/Greeting/{value}",
RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
string Greeting(string value);
}
}

We have added a “WebInvoke” attribute to this interface. Let us run the application. It will list the entire directory.

Click the “Service1.svc” service file.

Now, let us call the REST service.

We have successfully executed the Greeting method using REST.

In this post, we have created a WCF service application and executed the default SOAP Service in the client application. For that, we have added a web form and executed the service. After that, we enabled the REST binding and configuration and added a WebInvoke attribute in the contract file. We have successfully executed the REST service in the browser. We have seen both, SOAP and REST, working in the same WCF service with the same contract.

6 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Deepan7y ago
Great article..
- Sarathlal Saseendran7y ago
  Thank you Deepan for your feedback.
Marwa Balhoudi7y ago
Good Blog, Thank you for the sharing
- Sarathlal Saseendran7y ago
  Thank you very much Marwa Balhoudi. I am glad you liked my article. Please keep reading.
Rushi Mehta8y ago
Very Nice Explain done... Thanks, Sarathal for Sharing
- Sarathlal Saseendran8y ago
  Thanks Rushi for your feedback.