WCF charset=utf-8 of the response message does not match the content type of the binding (application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8)

Question

I\'m hosting a WCF service in IIS 7.5 using .NET 4.0. I also have a WPF application that I am using as my client that was built with Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0. I add

Answer 1

in my case same error was caused by missing

[datacontract] 
[datamember]

attributes in returned data type.

Error message was really misleading.

Answer 2

As Steven Westbrook says in a comment on this answer:

Add ?wsdl to your client's endpoint address, and you should have more luck with the service. ?wsdl is important - it means the browser is just getting "Web Services Description Language" for the service, and not calling the service.

I had the same issue and adding ?wsdl solved my headache.

Answer 3

As I suspected - your client-side config looks like this:

  <endpoint name="WSHttpBinding_ICommAccountingBinding" 
       address="https://secure.inmatecanteen.com/CommAccountingService/CommAccountingWeb.svc"
       binding="wsHttpBinding" 
       bindingConfiguration="WSHttpBinding_IInmateCanteenServiceWeb"
       contract="CommAccountingWeb.ICommAccountingWeb" />

It expects wsHttpBinding - but the server-side address it's connecting to is:

 <service name="CommAccountingWeb.CommAccountingWeb"  
          behaviorConfiguration="HttpMexBehavior">
     <endpoint 
         address="" 
         behaviorConfiguration="httpBehavior" 
         binding="webHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="myWebHttpBinding" 
         contract="CommAccountingWeb.ICommAccountingWeb" />
     <host>
        <baseAddresses>
           <add baseAddress="https://secure.inmatecanteen.com/CommAccountingService/CommAccountingWeb.svc"></add>
        </baseAddresses>
     </host>
 </service>

and this server endpoint uses webHttpBinding.

So while the client expects a SOAP XML message (content type: application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8), the server-side endpoint is a REST endpoint which returns plain XML (content type: application/xml; charset=utf-8)

Solution: you need to make sure both the client and the server endpoint used are in sync with regards to bindings and configuration!

Answer 4

I got this problem after I added a method that returned a collection of instances of a base class that didn't have a [KnownType] attribute that would resolve to a concrete instance. With the [KnownType] attribute in place the problem disappeared.

[ServiceContract]
public interface IService {
    [OperationContract]
    IEnumerable<ItemBase> GetItems();
}

[DataContract]
// [KnownType(typeof(RealItemA))] <--- without these attributes you will get a problem
// [KnownType(typeof(RealItemB))]
public class ItemBase {
}

[DataContract]
public class RealItemA : ItemBase {
}

[DataContract]
public class RealItemB : ITemBase {
}

Answer 5

I came across a similar error while creating a client service to one of the existing server side WebService. I could rectify it using SOAP 1.1 transport protocol on the client. Somehow soap 1.2 is giving/expecting a different format. This trace back to the difference between BasicHttpBinding vs WebHttpBinding vs WsHttpBinding.