Reading WCF behavior elements from config file programmticlally when exposing self-hosted service

Question

I have this configuration in my app.config:

    </binding>
  </basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>



<behaviors>
  <serviceBehaviors>
    <behavior name="myBehavior">
      <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
      <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/>
    </behavior>
  </serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>

I want to expose this service programmatically from my desktop app:

I define the host instance:

ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(MyType), new Uri("http://" + hostName + ":" + port + "/MyName"));

Then I add the endpoint with it's binding:

var binding = new BasicHttpBinding("myBinding");
host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(IMyInterface), binding, "MyName");

Now, I want to replace the folowing code with some code that reads the behavior named myBehavior from the config file, and not hard-coding the behavior options.

ServiceMetadataBehavior smb = new ServiceMetadataBehavior() { HttpGetEnabled = true };    
host.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb);   
// Enable exeption details
ServiceDebugBehavior sdb = host.Description.Behaviors.Find<ServiceDebugBehavior>();
sdb.IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true;

Then, I can open the host.

host.Open();

* EDIT *

Configuring Services Using Configuration Files

You shouldn't need this way, you should make the host takes its configuration automagically from the config file, and not giving them manually, read this article (Configuring Services Using Configuration Files), it will help you, I have hosted my service in a single line in C# and few ones in config.

This is a second article about (Configuring WCF Services in Code), my fault is that i was trying to mix the two ways!

I will add this as an answer.

There are legitimate reasons not to use a config file, i.e retrieving addresses and such from an external source. — Craig Brett, May 20 '14 at 07:39

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 25 '12 at 22:26

First, you need to open the configuration file by either using

var config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);

or

var map = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
map.ExeConfigFilename = "app.config";
var config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(map, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);

Then you read the behaviors:

var bindings = BindingsSection.GetSection(config);
var group = ServiceModelSectionGroup.GetSectionGroup(config);
foreach (var behavior in group.Behaviors.ServiceBehaviors)
{
    Console.WriteLine ("BEHAVIOR: {0}", behavior);
}

Note that these are of type System.ServiceModel.Configuration.ServiceBehaviorElement, so not quite what you want yet.

If you don't mind using a private APIs, you can call the protected method BehaviorExtensionElement.CreateBehavior() via reflection:

foreach (BehaviorExtensionElement bxe in behavior)
{
    var createBeh = typeof(BehaviorExtensionElement).GetMethod(
        "CreateBehavior", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
    IServiceBehavior b = (IServiceBehavior)createBeh.Invoke(bxe, new object[0]);
    Console.WriteLine("BEHAVIOR: {0}", b);
    host.Description.Behaviors.Add (b);
}

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 29 '12 at 16:43

Configuring Services Using Configuration Files

You shouldn't need this way, you should make the host takes its configuration automagically from the config file, and not giving them manually, read this article (Configuring Services Using Configuration Files), it will help you, I have hosted my service in a single line in C# and few ones in config.

This is a second article about (Configuring WCF Services in Code), my fault is that i was trying to mix the two ways!

Unless you don't want to use default config files – Random Dec 11 '14 at 07:41 — Random, Dec 11 '14 at 07:41

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 01 '16 at 16:23

While this is an old question, I had problems finding what I needed elsewhere, so for future reference here is my solution.

var behaviorSection = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.serviceModel/behaviors") as BehaviorsSection;
if (behaviorSection != null)
{
                // for each behavior, check for client and server certificates
    foreach (EndpointBehaviorElement behavior in behaviorSection.EndpointBehaviors)
    {
        foreach (PropertyInformation pi in behavior.ElementInformation.Properties)
        {
            if (pi.Type == typeof(ClientCredentialsElement))
            {
                var clientCredentials = pi.Value as ClientCredentialsElement;
                var clientCert = clientCredentials.ClientCertificate;
                            // TODO: Add code...
            }
        }
    }
}

ConfigurationManager.Open...Configuration() does not work well with web projects, so manually getting section and casting it is simpler.

If you are really insistent on letting the System.ServiceModel do the config reading for you it is possible to do something like this:

ExeConfigurationFileMap map = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
map.ExeConfigFilename = System.IO.Path.Combine(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~"), "web.config"); // the root web.config  
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(map, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
var group = ServiceModelSectionGroup.GetSectionGroup(config);

foreach (EndpointBehaviorElement item in group.Behaviors.EndpointBehaviors)
{
    // TODO: add code...
}

The 2nd method uses HttpContext.Current, and as we all know HttpContext.Current is horrible when doing unit tests.

Reading WCF behavior elements from config file programmticlally when exposing self-hosted service

3 Answers3

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