How To: Service Versioning
This topic outlines the basic steps required to create a routing configuration that routes messages to different versions of the same service. In this example, messages are routed to two different versions of a calculator service, roundingCalc (v1) and regularCalc (v2). Both implementations support the same operations; however the older service, roundingCalc, rounds all calculations to the nearest integer value before returning. A client application must be able to indicate whether to use the newer regularCalc service.
Warning
In order to route a message to a specific service version, the Routing Service must be able to determine the message destination based on the message content. In the method demonstrated below, the client will specify the version by inserting information into a message header. There are methods of service versioning that do not require clients to pass additional data. For example, a message could be routed to the most recent or most compatible version of a service or the router could use a part of the standard SOAP envelope.
The operations exposed by both services are:
- Add
- Subtract
- Multiply
- Divide
Because both service implementations handle the same operations, and are essentially identical other than the data that they return, the base data contained in messages sent from client applications is not unique enough to allow you to determine how to route the request. For example, Action filters cannot be used because the default actions for both services are the same.
This can be resolved in several ways, such as exposing a specific endpoint on the router for each version of the service or adding a custom header element to the message to indicate service version. Each of these approaches allows you to uniquely route incoming messages to a specific version of the service, but utilizing unique message content is the preferred method of differentiating between requests for different service versions.
In this example, the client application adds the ‘CalcVer’ custom header to the request message. This header will contain a value that indicates the version of the service that the message should be routed to. A value of ‘1’ indicates that the message must be processed by the roundingCalc service, while a value of ‘2’ indicates the regularCalc service. This allows the client application to directly control which version of the service will process the message. Since the custom header is a value contained within the message, you can use one endpoint to receive messages destined for both versions of the service. The following code can be used in the client application to add this custom header to the message:
messageHeadersElement.Add(MessageHeader.CreateHeader("CalcVer", "http://my.custom.namespace/", "2"));
Implement Service Versioning
Create the basic Routing Service configuration by specifying the service endpoint exposed by the service. The following example defines a single service endpoint, which will be used to receive messages. It also defines the client endpoints which will be used to send messages to the
roundingCalc(v1) and theregularCalc(v2) services.<services> <service behaviorConfiguration="routingConfiguration" name="System.ServiceModel.Routing.RoutingService"> <host> <baseAddresses> <add baseAddress="http://localhost/routingservice/router" /> </baseAddresses> </host> <!--Set up the inbound endpoint for the Routing Service--> <endpoint address="calculator" binding="wsHttpBinding" name="routerEndpoint" contract="System.ServiceModel.Routing.IRequestReplyRouter" /> </service> </services> <client> <!--set up the destination endpoints--> <endpoint name="regularCalcEndpoint" address="net.tcp://localhost:9090/servicemodelsamples/service/" binding="netTcpBinding" contract="*" /> <endpoint name="roundingCalcEndpoint" address="http://localhost:8080/servicemodelsamples/service/" binding="wsHttpBinding" contract="*" /> </client>Define the filters used to route messages to the destination endpoints. For this example, the XPath filter is used to detect the value of the "CalcVer" custom header to determine which version the message should be routed to. An XPath filter is also used to detect messages that do not contain the "CalcVer" header. The following example defines the required filters and namespace table.
<!-- use the namespace table element to define a prefix for our custom namespace--> <namespaceTable> <add prefix="custom" namespace="http://my.custom.namespace/"/> </namespaceTable> <filters> <!--define the different message filters--> <!--define an xpath message filter to look for the custom header containing a value of 2--> <filter name="XPathFilterRegular" filterType="XPath" filterData="sm:header()/custom:CalcVer = '2'"/> <!--define an xpath message filter to look for the custom header containing a value of 1--> <filter name="XPathFilterRounding" filterType="XPath" filterData="sm:header()/custom:CalcVer = '1'"/> <!--define an xpath message filter to look for messages that do not contain the custom header--> <filter name="XPathFilterNoHeader" filterType="XPath" filterData="count(sm:header()/custom:CalcVer)=0"/> </filters>Note
The s12 namespace prefix is defined by default in the namespace table, and represents the namespace
http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope.Define the filter table, which associates each filter with a client endpoint. If the message contains the "CalcVer" header with a value of 1, it will be sent to the regularCalc service. If the header contains a value of 2, it will be sent to the roundingCalc service. If no header is present, the message will be routed to the regularCalc.
The following defines the filter table and adds the filters defined earlier.
<filterTables> <filterTable name="filterTable1"> <!--add the filters to the message filter table--> <!--look for the custom header = 1, and if we find it, send the message to the rounding calc endpoint--> <add filterName="XPathFilterRounding" endpointName="roundingCalcEndpoint"/> <!--look for the custom header = 2, and if we find it, send the message to the rounding calc endpoint--> <add filterName="XPathFilterRegular" endpointName="regularCalcEndpoint"/> <!--look for the absence of the custom header, and if it is not present, assume the v1 endpoint--> <add filterName="XPathFilterNoHeader" endpointName="roundingCalcEndpoint"/> </filterTable> </filterTables>To evaluate incoming messages against the filters contained in the filter table, you must associate the filter table with the service endpoints by using the routing behavior. The following example demonstrates associating
filterTable1with the service endpoints:<behaviors> <!--default routing service behavior definition--> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="routingConfiguration"> <routing filterTableName="filterTable1" /> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors>
Example 1
The following is a complete listing of the configuration file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!-- Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved -->
<configuration>
<system.serviceModel>
<services>
<service behaviorConfiguration="routingConfiguration"
name="System.ServiceModel.Routing.RoutingService">
<host>
<baseAddresses>
<add baseAddress="http://localhost/routingservice/router" />
</baseAddresses>
</host>
<!--Set up the inbound endpoint for the Routing Service-->
<endpoint address="calculator"
binding="wsHttpBinding"
name="routerEndpoint"
contract="System.ServiceModel.Routing.IRequestReplyRouter" />
</service>
</services>
<behaviors>
<!--default routing service behavior definition-->
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior name="routingConfiguration">
<routing filterTableName="filterTable1" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<client>
<!--set up the destination endpoints-->
<endpoint name="regularCalcEndpoint"
address="net.tcp://localhost:9090/servicemodelsamples/service/"
binding="netTcpBinding"
contract="*" />
<endpoint name="roundingCalcEndpoint"
address="http://localhost:8080/servicemodelsamples/service/"
binding="wsHttpBinding"
contract="*" />
</client>
<routing>
<!-- use the namespace table element to define a prefix for our custom namespace-->
<namespaceTable>
<add prefix="custom" namespace="http://my.custom.namespace/"/>
</namespaceTable>
<filters>
<!--define the different message filters-->
<!--define an xpath message filter to look for the
custom header containing a value of 2-->
<filter name="XPathFilterRegular" filterType="XPath"
filterData="sm:header()/custom:CalcVer = '2'"/>
<!--define an xpath message filter to look for the
custom header containing a value of 1-->
<filter name="XPathFilterRounding" filterType="XPath"
filterData="sm:header()/custom:CalcVer = '1'"/>
<!--define an xpath message filter to look for
messages that do not contain the custom header-->
<filter name="XPathFilterNoHeader" filterType="XPath"
filterData="count(sm:header()/custom:CalcVer)=0"/>
</filters>
<filterTables>
<filterTable name="filterTable1">
<!--add the filters to the message filter table-->
<!--look for the custom header = 1, and if we find it,
send the message to the rounding calc endpoint-->
<add filterName="XPathFilterRounding" endpointName="roundingCalcEndpoint"/>
<!--look for the custom header = 2, and if we find it,
send the message to the rounding calc endpoint-->
<add filterName="XPathFilterRegular" endpointName="regularCalcEndpoint"/>
<!--look for the absence of the custom header, and if
it is not present, assume the v1 endpoint-->
<add filterName="XPathFilterNoHeader" endpointName="roundingCalcEndpoint"/>
</filterTable>
</filterTables>
</routing>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>
Example 2
The following is a complete listing of the client application.
using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Channels;
namespace Microsoft.Samples.AdvancedFilters
{
//The service contract is defined in generatedClient.cs, generated from the service by the svcutil tool.
//Client implementation code.
class Client
{
static void Main()
{
//Print out the welcome text
Console.WriteLine("This sample routes the Calculator Sample through the new WCF RoutingService");
Console.WriteLine("Wait for all the services to indicate that they've started, then press");
Console.WriteLine("<ENTER> to start the client.");
while (Console.ReadLine() != "quit")
{
//Offer the Address configuration for the client
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("Welcome to the Calculator Client!");
EndpointAddress epa;
//set the default address as the general router endpoint
epa = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost/routingservice/router/calculator");
//Set up the CalculatorClient with the EndpointAddress, the WSHttpBinding, and the ICalculator contract.
//We use the WSHttpBinding so that the outgoing has a message envelope.
CalculatorClient client = new CalculatorClient(new WSHttpBinding(), epa);
//client.Endpoint.Contract = ContractDescription.GetContract(typeof(ICalculator));
//Ask the customer if they want to add a custom header to the outgoing message.
//The Router will look for this header, and if so ignore the endpoint the message was
//received on, and instead direct the message to the RoundingCalcService.
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("Which calculator service should be used?");
Console.WriteLine("Enter 1 for the rounding calculator, 2 for the regular calculator.");
Console.WriteLine("[1] or [2]?");
string header = Console.ReadLine();
//get the current operationContextScope from the client's inner channel
using (OperationContextScope ocs = new OperationContextScope((client.InnerChannel)))
{
//get the outgoing message headers element (collection) from the context
MessageHeaders messageHeadersElement = OperationContext.Current.OutgoingMessageHeaders;
//if they wanted to create the header, go ahead and add it to the outgoing message
if (header != null && (header=="1" || header=="2"))
{
//create a new header "RoundingCalculator", no specific namespace, and set the value to
//the value of header.
//the Routing Service will look for this header in order to determine if the message
//should be routed to the RoundingCalculator
messageHeadersElement.Add(MessageHeader.CreateHeader("CalcVer", "http://my.custom.namespace/", header));
}
else //incorrect choice, no header added
{
Console.WriteLine("Incorrect value entered, not adding a header");
}
//call the client operations
CallClient(client);
}
//close the client to clean it up
client.Close();
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to run the client again or type 'quit' to quit.");
}
}
private static void CallClient(CalculatorClient client)
{
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("Sending!");
// Call the Add service operation.
double value1 = 100.00D;
double value2 = 15.99D;
double result = client.Add(value1, value2);
Console.WriteLine("Add({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result);
// Call the Subtract service operation.
value1 = 145.00D;
value2 = 76.54D;
result = client.Subtract(value1, value2);
Console.WriteLine("Subtract({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result);
// Call the Multiply service operation.
value1 = 9.00D;
value2 = 81.25D;
result = client.Multiply(value1, value2);
Console.WriteLine("Multiply({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result);
// Call the Divide service operation.
value1 = 22.00D;
value2 = 7.00D;
result = client.Divide(value1, value2);
Console.WriteLine("Divide({0},{1}) = {2}", value1, value2, result);
}
}
}