Customize WCF Rest Help Page

Question

I want to customize the default help page we get for any WCF service. P.s. : I don't want a custom help page but just want to customize the default help page we get .

Vaikesh K P · Answer

Hi Tushar Panpaliya  I believe the httpHelpPageUrl lets you move the default WCF help page to another location. If you want to host your own help page at the base address you probably need to turn off httpGetEnabled and then at the service base address host your own http-GET WCF endpoint that serves up HTML content. httpGetEnabled = false /> Here is sample code: Code Snippet using System; using System.ServiceModel; using System.ServiceModel.Description; using System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher; using System.ServiceModel.Channels; using System.Xml; [ ServiceContract ] public interface IMyContract { [ OperationContract ] string echo( string s); } [ ServiceContract ] public interface IMyHelpPageContract { [ OperationContract (Action= *  ReplyAction= * )] Message Help(); } [ ServiceBehavior (ConfigurationName = foo )] public class MyService : IMyContract  IMyHelpPageContract { public string echo( string s) { return s; } public Message Help() { return new MyHelpPageMessage (); } } abstract class ContentOnlyMessage : Message { MessageHeaders headers; MessageProperties properties; protected ContentOnlyMessage() { this .headers = new MessageHeaders ( MessageVersion .None); } public override MessageHeaders Headers { get { if (IsDisposed) { throw new ObjectDisposedException ( blah ); } return this .headers; } } public override MessageProperties Properties { get { if (IsDisposed) { throw new ObjectDisposedException ( blah ); } if ( this .properties == null ) { this .properties = new MessageProperties (); } return this .properties; } } public override MessageVersion Version { get { return headers.MessageVersion; } } protected override void OnBodyToString( XmlDictionaryWriter writer) { OnWriteBodyContents(writer); } } class MyHelpPageMessage : ContentOnlyMessage { public MyHelpPageMessage() : base () { } protected override void OnWriteBodyContents( XmlDictionaryWriter writer) { // write the HTML you want on the help page here. could read from external file if you want writer.WriteStartElement( HTML ); writer.WriteStartElement( HEAD ); writer.WriteRaw(  ); writer.WriteEndElement(); //HEAD writer.WriteRaw( @ This is my own help page I can put whatever content I want here  ); writer.WriteEndElement(); //HTML } } public class Repro { public static void Main() { ServiceHost service = new ServiceHost ( typeof ( MyService )); service.Description.Behaviors.Remove ServiceDebugBehavior >(); // need to turn off default help page so as to get our own service.Open(); Console .WriteLine( Service open at {0} - press a key to continue  service.BaseAddresses[0]); Console .ReadKey(); ChannelFactory IMyContract > cf = new ChannelFactory IMyContract >( c1 ); IMyContract proxy = cf.CreateChannel(); Console .WriteLine(proxy.echo( Hello World )); (( IClientChannel )proxy).Close(); service.Close(); Console .WriteLine( Done press a key ); Console .ReadKey(); } } Here is the config: Code Snippet xml version =  1.0  encoding =  utf-8  ?> configuration > system.serviceModel > services > service name =  foo  > host > baseAddresses > add baseAddress =  http://localhost:8000/Service/  /> baseAddresses > host > endpoint address =  E1  binding =  basicHttpBinding  bindingConfiguration =  b  contract =  IMyContract  /> endpoint address =  binding =  customBinding  bindingConfiguration =  helpPage  contract =  IMyHelpPageContract  /> service > services > client > endpoint address =  http://localhost:8000/Service/E1  binding =  basicHttpBinding  bindingConfiguration =  b  contract =  IMyContract  name =  c1  /> client > bindings > customBinding > binding name =  helpPage  > textMessageEncoding messageVersion =  None  /> httpTransport /> binding > customBinding > basicHttpBinding > binding name =  b  /> basicHttpBinding > bindings > system.serviceModel > configuration > Run it and then hit the base address in a browser and you'll see the custom help page. See the sample http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa395208.aspx for some more details on sending back arbitrary responses over HTTP GET.