How to read HTTP request headers in a WCF web service?

Question

In a WCF web service, how does one read an HTTP/HTTPS request header? In this case, i'm trying to determine the original URL host the client used. This might be in the X-Forwarded-Host header from a load balancer, or in the Host header if it's direct-box.

I've tried OperationContext.Current.IncomingMessageHeaders.FindHeader but i think this is looking at SOAP headers rather than HTTP headers.

So, how to read HTTP headers? Surely this is a simple question and i'm missing something obvious.

EDIT - @sinfere's answer was almost exactly what i needed. For completeness, here's what i ended up with:

IncomingWebRequestContext request = WebOperationContext.Current.IncomingRequest;
WebHeaderCollection headers = request.Headers;
string host = null;

if (headers["X-Forwarded-Host"] != null)
    host = headers["X-Forwarded-Host"];
else if (headers["Host"] != null)
    host = headers["Host"];
else 
    host = defaulthost; // set from a config value

While technically not a header, WCF disposes the content from the original HTTP Request so you will not be able to access the content of a Request inside your service. You can however, grab this before a service method is invoked inside a OperationsHandler — Itanex, Sep 18 '13 at 16:53

score 51 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '18 at 13:53

51

Try WebOperationContext.Current.IncomingRequest.Headers

I use following codes to see all headers :

IncomingWebRequestContext request = WebOperationContext.Current.IncomingRequest;
WebHeaderCollection headers = request.Headers;

Console.WriteLine("-------------------------------------------------------");
Console.WriteLine(request.Method + " " + request.UriTemplateMatch.RequestUri.AbsolutePath);
foreach (string headerName in headers.AllKeys)
{
  Console.WriteLine(headerName + ": " + headers[headerName]);
}
Console.WriteLine("-------------------------------------------------------");

edited May 04 '18 at 13:53

GGO

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answered Sep 18 '13 at 16:45

sinfere

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Not all of this worked (the second `Consol.WriteLine` line) but the rest got me there. Thanks. +1 – b w Sep 19 '13 at 15:08

Slack Shot · Answer 2 · 2014-01-16T00:47:42.790

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This is how I read them in one of my Azure WCF web services.

IncomingWebRequestContext woc = WebOperationContext.Current.IncomingRequest;

string applicationheader = woc.Headers["HeaderName"];

edited Jan 16 '14 at 00:47

answered Sep 18 '13 at 16:43

Slack Shot

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How to read HTTP request headers in a WCF web service?

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