WCF Tools team's blog

Tips for Launching WCF Test Client

WCFToolsBloggers — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:05:33 GMT

Zaiyue Xue, Microsoft STB China

WCF Test Client is a debugging tool to test WCF service. It is very useful to help developing WCF service. In this blog, I will share some tips on how to launch WCF Test Client in Visual Studio.

There are 2 ways to start WCF Test Client out of Visual Studio. The first way is double click WcfTestClient.exe in the folder “Visual Studio installation path\Common7\IDE”. The other way is type the “WcfTestClient” command in “Visual Studio Command Prompt” as shown in Diagram 1:

Diagram 1

In Visual Studio, different project templates provide different ways to launch WCF Test Client. The following form is all the WCF related project templates in Visual Studio 2010 Beta2:

Template Name	Template Path	.NET Framework Version
WCF Service Library	New Project -> WCF Node	3.0/3.5/4.0
WCF Service Application	New Project -> Web Node	3.0/3.5/4.0
WCF Workflow Service Application	New Project -> WCF Node	4.0
Sequential Workflow Service Library	New Project -> WCF Node	3.5
State Machine Workflow Service Library	New Project -> WCF Node	3.5
Syndication Service Library	New Project -> WCF Node	3.5/4.0
WCF Service	New Web Site	3.0/3.5/4.0

Form 1

WCF Service Library, Sequential Workflow Service Library and State Machine Workflow Service Library:

When starting debugging (F5), it will host the service in the WCF Service Host by default. And the WCF Test Client will automatically start for you to test the service. Please see the Diagram 2:

Diagram 2

If you don’t want to start WCF Test Client when pressing F5, you can edit “Project Properties -> Debug -> Command line arguments” as shown in Diagram 3:

Diagram 3

WCF Service Application and WCF Workflow Service Application:

If you set the focus on the .svc or .xamlx file in Solution Explorer, WCF Test Client will start when pressing F5. Please see the diagram 4:

Diagram 4

If you don’t want to use WCF Test Client when pressing F5, you can add the setting of EnableWcfTestClientForSVC property in .csproj.user file to disable WCF Test Client:

<Project>

<ProjectExtensions>

    <VisualStudio>

      <FlavorProperties>

        <WebProjectProperties>

          <EnableWcfTestClientForSVC>False</EnableWcfTestClientForSVC>

        </WebProjectProperties>

      </FlavorProperties>

    </VisualStudio>

</ProjectExtensions>

</Project>

By the way, .csproj file has the default value setting for EnableWcfTestClientForSVC property. If .csproj.user doesn’t set the EnableWcfTestClientForSVC property, it will use the default value in .csproj file:

<Project>

<ProjectExtensions>

    <VisualStudio>

      <FlavorProperties>

        <WebProjectProperties>

          <EnableWcfTestClientForSVCDefaultValue>False</EnableWcfTestClientForSVCDefaultValue>

        </WebProjectProperties>

      </FlavorProperties>

    </VisualStudio>

</ProjectExtensions>

</Project>

The following form shows the detail logic for which client is launching by setting the specific property of .csproj.user and .csproj files:

.csproj.user file setting	True	False	Not Set	Not Set	Not Set
.csproj file setting	True/False/Not Set	True/False/Not Set	True	False	Not Set
client launching	WCF Test Client	IE	WCF Test Client	IE	IE

Form 2

For example, in a project group who are using the source control, the .csproj.user file won’t be checked in, while the .csproj file will be checked in. If you only want to change the launching behavior for yourself, you should change the .csproj.user file. If you want to change the launching behavior for the whole group, you should change the .csproj file.

Syndication Service Library:

WCF Test client doesn’t support to test the kind of service, so the WCF Test client won’t start in this project.

WCF Service (Web Site):

WCF Test Client won’t be launched automatically when pressing F5. If you want to get the same launching behavior as WCF Service Application, you can change the websites.xml file as following (at “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCache” folder. XP/2003 is in a similar location):

<DesignTimeData>

<Website RootUrl="C:\" CacheFolder="WCFService1" EnableWcfTestClientForSVC="true"/>

</DesignTimeData>

You need to close your solution, and then make the above change. It only loads the property up when project load time and will overwrite when the project closed.

WCF Tools in VS2010 Beta2: Introducing new features and enhancements

WCFToolsBloggers — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:36:00 GMT

What’s new for WCF Tools in VS2010 Beta2

If you developed WCF service in VS2008, you should have used a set of WCF Tools integrated in it. If you start to use WCF technology, please read this two blog articles to gain some preliminary knowledge for WCF Tools in Visual Studio: Introducing WCF Tools in Visual Studio 2008 and WCF Tools in VS2008 SP1: Introducing the new features and enhancements

In VS2010, our team continues adding new tools and enhancements in WCF Tools space. I will list them one by one and hope they can provide you better service developing experience:

Adding Service Reference in WF4.0 applications:

When you add service reference in a WF4.0 application, you will see the same “Add Service Reference” dialog box as before, to enable you to input service address and generate client proxy. Unlike generating proxy code, a set of pre-configured XAML activities will be generated, which are corresponding to the operations of WCF service. After building your WF application, these activities will be shown up in Toolbox. You can drag and drop them to be part of your work flow, and use them to invoke the WCF service.

To be mentioned, this activity generation experience is applied specifically for WF4.0 project types. Proxy code will be generated for other project types.

New WCF Workflow Service Application template

In .NET 4.0, we added a new WCF Workflow Service Application template, to help creating long-running Workflow services.

Simplified configuration file in WCF Service templates

The configuration is simplified in WCF 4.0, such as:

- Make the <Services> section as optional, and gain the service endpoint info when hosting the service

- Support the name of service behavior, binding configuration, endpoint configuration to be “”, so that the configuration settings can be shared by multiple services and inherited.

So the configuration file in WCF service templates is simplified accordingly to reflect these changes. Below is an example for WCF Service Application template:

F5 automatically launch WCF Test Client in WCF and WCF Workflow Service application

In VS2008, we only support this experience in the projects created from WCF Service Library template. In VS2010, we expand the scope to WCF and WCF Workflow Service application templates.

After you create an application from one of these templates, select the specific service .svc or .xaml file, and press F5, WCF Test Client will be automatically launched to help you test your service.

WCF Test Client supports DataSet types

WCF Test Client can support testing DataSet types used in WCF services or .NET services.

The new service publishing mechanism in WCF and WCF Workflow Service application

When you create a service application from WCF or WCF Workflow Service Application template, you can use a new publishing wizard to deploy it. For applications created from WCF Service Library template, the publishing wizard is the same as in VS2008.

The features in this new publishing wizard include:

Web Package: You can create a .zip file for your application, which will contain IIS settings, web contents, SQL Server DB, etc. This package can be taken to any server and installed either via IIS Manager UI Wizard or even via command line or API for automated deployment scenarios.

Web Configuration Transformation: You can transform your development time web.config file to production/deployment time web.config file.

One-Click Publish: You can easily use IIS remote management service to publish the application to remote server, by create a publish profile of your hoster account or of various testing servers.

Useful Link:

WCF and WF 4.0 new features: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/cc896557.aspx

WCF, WF and AppFabric Hands on Lab: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc814756.aspx

WCF Tools Related Readme Issues in VS2008 SP1

WCFToolsBloggers — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:51:00 GMT

You can find the readme of VS2008 SP1 in the webpage below：

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/F/E/6FECE629-D1AB-4B47-BEFC-6772F375A6B5/VS2008SP1Readme.htm

I list two WCF tools related items here.

2.3.7 Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Tools

2.3.7.1 WCF Service Library project cannot be hosted by WCF Service Host when relative path is set to "Output Path" on the Properties page

When you create a WCF Service Library project, you can change the Output path from the default bin\debug\ to a relative path such as "." or ".." on the Build tab of the project Properties page. If you then try to debug the service, the service cannot be hosted by the WCF Service Host and this message is displayed: "A project with an Output Type of Class Library cannot be started directly."

To resolve this issue:

On the Build tab, input the fully qualified path instead of a relative path.

2.3.7.2 Error message when "Add New Item" is selected in a WCF Service Library project in Visual Studio with TFS plug-in

If you create a new WCF Service Library project in Visual Studio with the TFS plug-in, you may see an error displayed when you select Add New Item in this project. After clicking OK to close the error dialog box, the item service is added successfully and works as expected.

To resolve this issue:

Click OK to dismiss the error dialog box.

Tips for WCF Tools in VS2008 SP1

WCFToolsBloggers — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:17:00 GMT

In this article, I would like to share some tips of WCF Tools in VS2008 SP1. Hope this can help your better use these tools.

WCF Test Client: How to change the folder that stores temporary client configuration files and assembly files

Prior to VS2008 SP1, WCF Test Client put the temporary client configuration files and assembly files in “My Document” folder. When this folder is set as a network share, sometimes WCF Test Client cannot invoke services with the error message: “An error occurred creating the configuration section handler for system.serviceModel/bindings: That assembly does not allow partially trusted callers…”

In VS2008 SP1, we improve the experience:

First, we change the default folder from “My Document” to %temp%, because %temp% folder has less probability to be set as a network share.

Second, we also offer command line options to let the folder configurable. You can change it to your specific folder and can also restore to the default one. Snapshot below shows the detailed format of these commands.

WCF Test Client fails to add services with mismatched svcutil version

Sometimes, when svcutil.exe isn’t properly installed or installed with an earlier version in Windows SDK v6.1, WCF Test Client won’t work with the error message: “Error: Unrecognized option ‘targetclientversion’ specified.”

Please double check the below version info:

- The SvcUtil.exe shipped with Windows SDK v6.0A (which comes with VS 2008) is of version 3.0.4506.648 or above

- The SvcUtil.exe shipped with Windows SDK v6.1 is also of version 3.0.4506.648 or above

- The WcfTestClient.exe shipped with VS 2008 is of version 9.0.588.0

If the version number is wrong or svcutil.exe isn’t properly installed, the resolution is:

- Install the latest version of Windows SDK

- Or copy svcutil.exe from Windows SDK v6.0A to Windows SDK v6.1

Installing Biztalk Services SDK will introduce an unrecognized endpoint to WCF Test Client

If you have installed the Biztalk Services SDK on top of VS 2008 SP1, the Biztalk Service SDK introduces an endpoint with relayBinding in the <client> section of the <system.serviceModel> element in the machine.config file.

When adding a service to WCF Test Client, an unrecognized endpoint will be generated whose contract is IMetadataExchange. Then Test Client will report error: “The contract ‘IMetadataExchange’ in client configuration does not match the name in service contract…”. The screenshot is attached below:

After you click “OK”, the service node will appear in the tree with the redundant “IMetadataExange (sb)” section. There is no impact for the functionalities.

The screenshot is attached below:

If you will frequently add services to WCF Test Client, there is a work around to avoid the inconvenient error message:

When you run the WcfTestClient, modify the machine.config file (located in \WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG) by commenting out the <client> section below that is nested in the <system.serviceModel> element. Re-enable the section when you use the Biztalk Services SDK.

<endpoint address="" binding="relayBinding" bindingConfiguration="metadataExchangeRelayBinding"

contract="IMetadataExchange" name="sb" />

</client>

</relayBinding>

</bindings>

Service Configuration Editor cannot be launched in VS after some improper installation steps

A customer reported a issue, and I would like to share with you here.

The user has VS2008 SP1 Beta, .net3.5 SP1 Beta and Windows SDK v6.1 installed in his machine, and then he installed VS2008 SP1 release and .net3.5 SP1 release. There should be some improper steps.

When he created a new WCF Service Library project and tried to launch Service Configuration Editor (SvcConfigEdior.exe) to edit the app.config file, an error dialog pop up:

There are two issues:

- SvcConfigEditor.exe in v6.0A seems disappear

- Windows SDK v6.0A is still the default SDK after installing Windows SDK v6.1. So VS tried to find SvcConfigEditor.exe in Window SDK v6.0A

To resolve the problem, I will recommend using the “Windows SDK Configuration Tool” to set the default SDK.

To avoid this problem, please make sure to uninstall the Beta versions first: not only the related programs but also the updates, before installing the Release versions.

VS2008 SP1 is released: WCF Tools new features with snapshots

WCFToolsBloggers — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:20:00 GMT

VS 2008 SP1 is shipped and is available for public download NOW!

The WCF tools team from China is proud to introduce the new features we delivered in VS2008 SP1!

à Enhancements for WCF Test Client:

n Support XML Serializer, Message Contract, Dictionary and Nullable<T> types

n Support WCF Session

n Support standalone mode, and enable connecting and testing services from third-party

n Support client-side configuration file customization

à WCF Service Publishing, which allows publishing of services to Local IIS, File System, FTP site or Remote site directly from the WCF Service Library projects.

In addition, we also did several small enhancements that directly reflect our customers’ feedback.

Such as: We provide a way for you to control whether or not to automatically launch WCF Service Host for a WCF service project when debugging another project in the same solution.

Want to use these tools to build you WCF service application? You can find VS 2008 SP1 here.

WCF Tools in VS2008 SP1: Introducing the new features and enhancements

WCFToolsBloggers — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:18:00 GMT

Have you tried the WCF dev tools and IT pro tools in VS2008? Till VS2008, our team has developed WCF Service Templates, WCF Service Host and WCF Test Client as our dev tools, and contributed to Add Service Reference and Auto Attach features embedded in VS system, and also developed Service Configuration Editor and Service Trace Viewer as our IT Pro Tools.

Now VS2008 SP1 Beta is coming! Are you curious how this release can help you on WCF tooling experience? We really did a lot to help easily build your WCF Service! I would like to share with you the enhancements for current tools and also the new features in SP1 Beta!

By the way, if you haven’t used our tools before, it doesn’t matter. You can first read the article here before continuing.

WCF Dev Tools:

In SP1, we mainly focused on enhancing WCF Test Client, so that we can provide better testing experience whether you are a new comer to the WCF world or an experienced WCF developer:

- Support XML Serializer, Message Contract, Dictionary and Nullable<T> types in SP1. WCF Test Client can now be used to test most of types used in WCF Services or other .net services.

- Support WCF Session.

- Support standalone mode. In VS2008, Test Client is launched only when debugging a WCF Service in VS. In VS2008 SP1, Test Client becomes a standalone tool. You can open Test Client, then add, remove or refresh services to test them.

- Support client-side configuration file customization. When adding a service to Test Client, the client configuration is automatically generated. In VS2008, you can only view it. In VS2008 SP1, you can not only edit it, but also save the changes you made so that you can re-use it each time when you re-launch the same service in Test Client.

The other cool new feature is to allow publishing of services to Local IIS, File System, FTP site or Remote site directly from the WCF Service Library projects. Previously you can only do this from web-based WCF service projects. After publishing your service, you can again use Test Client to see whether the service works well.

In addition, a couple smaller enhancements are also worth mentioning, since they directly reflected our customers’ feedback:

- In Add Service Reference, if the WCF service projects are in the current solution, we improved the user experience by building the projects automatically.

- We provide a way for you to control whether or not to automatically launch WCF Service Host for a WCF service project when debugging another project in the same solution. Look for the WCF Options tab of the WcfServiceLibrary project properties page.

Here is a summary of all our WCF dev tools:

WCF IT Pro Tools (Part of Windows SDK):

Service Configuration Editor stayed the same in SP1 but we did make a few changes to Service Trace Viewer. The most notable one is that now you can double-click on the trace files (*.svclog or *.stvproj) to open the Trace Viewer.

All these enhancements are aimed to simplify the experience of building WCF services. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for everyone to adopt SOA and enjoy its benefits. Give these tools a try and send us feedback!

Useful Resources:

For Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta, you can find useful info and resources in the below link.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc533447.aspx

Urgent: Help us prioritize our future investment in Windows Workflow/Rules Designer re-hosting scenarios

WCFToolsBloggers — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:36:00 GMT

The Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) team is looking for YOUR input to help us prioritize our efforts around designer re-hosting scenarios.

If you're interested in helping us shape the future of this feature, tell us what you think by filling in this survey. The survey will close on Wednesday, March 19th 2008.

Introducing WCF Tools in Visual Studio 2008

WCFToolsBloggers — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:05:00 GMT

WCF Dev Tools:

Ever tired of having to run utility program and write extra code in order to test and debug your WCF services? Ever wonder how would you get started with all the cool, new WCF-related technologies in .Net 3.5?

Our team developed a set of new WCF dev tools that significantly improve the WCF service authoring experience, and ease the adoption of WCF technology. Believe or not, you can literally start running a WCF service within one minute! These tools are shipped together with Visual Studio 2008. Let’s see how it’s done:

1. Launch Visual Studio 2008

2. Create a new WCF Service Library project under either Visual Basic or Visual C#

3. F5!

4. WCF Service Host and WCF Test Client automatically complete hosting and loading of the service

5. Double-click one of the operations on the left pane of the WCF Test Client, and enter parameters on the right pane

6. Click “Invoke” and response will be displayed. We’re done!

You can see the WCF service development experience is significantly simplified. The following are more details on these new features.

WcfSvcHost (WCF Service Host)

WcfSvcHost enumerates the services in a WCF Service project, loads the project’s configuration file, and instantiates a host for each service that was found. It is integrated into Visual Studio through the WCF Service project template and is invoked when users attempt to debug their project.

Support services created in WCF Service Library, Sequential Workflow Service Library, State Machine Workflow Service Library and Syndication Service Library project templates.

It launches as tray icon. When double clicking it, the detailed host information can show for your reference.

WcfTestClient (WCF Test Client)

WcfTestClient acts as a client that dynamically changes its behavior each time re-launching, based on the service implementation. It is integrated into Visual Studio through the WCF Service project template and is invoked together with WcfSvcHost when users attempt to debug their project.

Support debugging for: WCF Service Library, Sequential Workflow Service Library and State Machine Workflow Service Library.

WCF Service Templates

Help to quickly adopt WCF and new related technologies in .Net3.5. They all support two languages: VB and C#.

Technology Area	Project Template	Item Template
General WCF Technology	WCF Service Library	WCF Service
	WCF Service Application (Web Application)	WCF Service (Web Application)
	WCF Service (Website)	WCF Service (Website)
Workflow Service Technology in .Net framework 3.5	Sequential Workflow Service Library	WF Sequential Service / XAML WF Sequential Service
Workflow Service Technology in .Net framework 3.5	State Machine Workflow Service Library	WF State Machine Service / XAML WF State Machine Service
Syndication Technology in .Net framework 3.5	Syndication Service Library	--
Ajax Technology in .Net framework 3.5	--	Ajax-enabled WCF Service (Both Web Application and Website)

Add Service Reference and Auto-attaching Features

The “Add Service Reference” feature makes it easy to discover and consume WCF services. You can leverage this feature to write your own client.

And with the “Auto-attaching” feature, you can have end-to-end debugging experience from client project to WCF service projects in one solution, just as simple and as consistent as debugging in one process.

WCF IT Pro Tools:

Many of you have heard of or used our WCF IT Pro Tools, since their first version was released in Windows Vista. Now they’re installed as part of Visual Studio 2008! You can find them under Start Menu/All Programs/Microsoft Windows SDK v 6.0A/Tools after installing Visual Studio 2008.

Service Configuration Editor

Enables administrators and developers to create and modify configuration settings for WCF services using a graphical user interface (GUI). With this tool, you can manage settings for WCF bindings, behaviors, services, and diagnostics without having to directly edit XML files.

You can directly right click on the configuration file of a VS 2008 project that you want to edit to open this tool.

Service Trace Viewer

Service Trace Viewer provides a way to easily merge, view, and filter trace messages so that you can diagnose, repair, and verify WCF service issues.

Useful Resources:

For WCF tools, you can find more detailed instruction in MSDN Library.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb552361.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms732015.aspx

For Visual Studio 2008 RTM, you can find useful info and resources in the below link.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx