WCF service as a part of MVC application

Question

I have a web application in MVC4. I\'m going to host in on a shared hosting provider. I want to extend it with a WCF service for uploading files. (There wil

Answer 1

Since you're already building an MVC4 app, you might as well consider using MVC4 + Web API since those work together without any issues (Web API is previously known WCF REST).

If you still decide to stick with WCF, I wouldn't mix it in the same project with MVC4 application but rather host it as additional IIS application, side-by-side with MVC4.

Answer 2

I finally found how to make it work.

In your MVC app Web.config add:

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

In your routes config ---> Global.asax or App_Start/RoutesConfig (depending on MVC version) add:

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
    ...
    routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("hello", new ServiceHostFactory(), typeof(YourServiceClass)));
    ...
}

And that's it. Now your service appears under localhost/hello or wherever you deploy your app.

This uses BasicHttpBinging by default. If you need other you have to implement your own ServiceHostFactory. From what I observed, this method only works for HTTP bindings. When I tried to add a NetTcpBinding it failed.

Answer 3

We do this all the time in the following way:

1. Create a WCF class library
2. Reference the WCF class library in your ASP.NET MVC 4 webapplication
3. Create a Svc file in your ASP.NET web app making the WCF endpoint available as such
4. Maybe you need to play a bit with the settings in the web.config file, which is now including WCF service endpoint settings next to the ASP.NET settings.