wsHttpBinding not working in a WCF service selfhosted; SOAP-based bindings do work

Question

I have a simple WCF Service shown below.

[ServiceContract]
public interface IService1
{
    [OperationContract]
    [WebInvoke(Method = "POST", BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest)]
    string GetData(int value);
}

public class Service1 : IService1
{
    public string GetData(int value)
    {
        return string.Format("You entered: {0}", value);
    }
}

The server Web.config file is

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
    <add key="aspnet:UseTaskFriendlySynchronizationContext" value="true" />
</appSettings>

<system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
        <endpointBehaviors>
            <behavior name="webHttpEndpointBehavior">
                <webHttp faultExceptionEnabled="true" />
            </behavior>
        </endpointBehaviors>
        <serviceBehaviors>
            <behavior name="serviceBehaviourDebug">
                <!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information, set the values below to false before deployment -->
                <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="true"/>
                <!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true.
                     Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information -->
                <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/>
            </behavior>
        </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>

    <services>
        <service name="Diws.Service1" behaviorConfiguration="serviceBehaviourDebug">
            <endpoint
                address="/basicHttp"
                binding="basicHttpBinding"
                contract="Diws.IService1"/>
            <endpoint
                address="/webHttp"
                binding="webHttpBinding"
                behaviorConfiguration="webHttpEndpointBehavior"
                contract="Diws.IService1"/>
            <endpoint
                address="/wsHttp"
                binding="wsHttpBinding"
                contract="Diws.IService1"/>
            <endpoint
                address="mex"
                binding="mexHttpBinding"
                contract="IMetadataExchange" />
        </service>
    </services>

    <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
</system.serviceModel>

<system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5" />
    <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5"/>
</system.web>

<system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
    <!--
    To browse web app root directory during debugging, set the value below to true.
    Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing web app folder information.
    -->
    <directoryBrowse enabled="true"/>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

The client is a console app whose App.config is this.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<startup> 
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" />
</startup>

<system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
        <endpointBehaviors>
            <behavior name="webHttpEndpointBehavior">
                <webHttp />
            </behavior>
        </endpointBehaviors>
    </behaviors>

    <bindings>
        <basicHttpBinding>
            <binding name="BasicHttpBinding_IService1" />
        </basicHttpBinding>
        <wsHttpBinding>
            <binding name="WsHttpBinding_IService1" />
        </wsHttpBinding>
        <webHttpBinding>
            <binding name="WebHttpBinding_IService1" />
        </webHttpBinding>
    </bindings>

    <client>
        <endpoint
            address="http://localhost:50001/Service1.svc/basicHttp"
            binding="basicHttpBinding"
            bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_IService1"
            contract="ServiceReference1.IService1"
            name="BasicHttpEndpoint_IService1" />
        <endpoint
            address="http://localhost:50001/Service1.svc/webHttp"
            behaviorConfiguration="webHttpEndpointBehavior"
            binding="webHttpBinding"
            bindingConfiguration="WebHttpBinding_IService1"
            contract="ServiceReference1.IService1"
            name="WebHttpEndpoint_IService1" />
        <endpoint
            address="http://localhost:50001/Service1.svc/wsHttp"
            binding="wsHttpBinding"
            bindingConfiguration="WsHttpBinding_IService1"
            contract="ServiceReference1.IService1"
            name="WsHttpEndpoint_IService1"/>
    </client>
</system.serviceModel>

<system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5" />
    <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>

And the client program is this.

class Program
{
    static void Main(String[] args)
    {
        String response = "";

        Service1Client basicHttpClient = new Service1Client("BasicHttpEndpoint_IService1");
        response = basicHttpClient.GetData(10);
        basicHttpClient.Close();
        Console.WriteLine(response);

        ///* Some communication exception
        Service1Client webHttpClient = new Service1Client("WebHttpEndpoint_IService1");
        response = webHttpClient.GetData(20);
        webHttpClient.Close();
        Console.WriteLine(response);
        //*/

        Service1Client wsHttpClient = new Service1Client("WsHttpEndpoint_IService1");
        response = wsHttpClient.GetData(30);
        wsHttpClient.Close();
        Console.WriteLine(response);

        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Done");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

The basicHttpClient and the wsHttpClient work perfectly. However, the webHttpClient throws the exception "System.ServiceModel.CommunicationException was unhandled, HResult=-2146233087, Message=Internal Server Error"

I cannot debug on the servers side as Visual Studio 2012 says "Unable to automatically debug 'MyProject'. The remote procedure could not be debugged. This usually indicates that debugging has not been enabled on the server."

However, debugging is enabled. I wasn't able to get any insights from using the SvcTraceViewer with diagnostics turned on.

My main interest is figuring out why the REST call using WebHttpBinding is failing, but help getting server side debugging working would be appreciated as well. I'm debugging both the client and the server in VS2012 using multiple startup projects. Localhost is the only server involved.

I understand that the REST endpoint won't show up in WcfTestClient since it provides no metadata exchange, but I expected to be able to call the service through that endpoint and I see no difference between my code and examples of calling RESTful WCF services.

Answer 1

For accessing a REST endpoint try making a HTTP POST request using a browser or HttpClient to the URL : $http://localhost:50001/Service1.svc/webHttp/GetData$. When you use webHttpClient as you do in your code to make a call to the service you are sending a SOAP request which a REST endpoint cannot process. I believe that's the reason your other two endpoints work fine but not this one.