Publishing Metadata
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services publish metadata by publishing one or more metadata endpoints. Publishing service metadata makes the metadata available using standardized protocols, such as WS-MetadataExchange (MEX) and HTTP/GET requests. Metadata endpoints are similar to other service endpoints in that they have an address, a binding, and a contract, and they can be added to a service host through configuration or imperative code.
Publishing Metadata Endpoints
To publish metadata endpoints for a WCF service, you first must add the ServiceMetadataBehavior service behavior to the service. Adding a System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior instance allows your service to expose metadata endpoints. Once you add the System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior service behavior, you can then expose metadata endpoints that support the MEX protocol or that respond to HTTP/GET requests.
The System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior uses a WsdlExporter to export metadata for all service endpoints in your service. For more information about exporting metadata from a service, see Exporting and Importing Metadata.
The System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior adds a ServiceMetadataExtension instance as an extension to your service host. The System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension provides the implementation for the metadata publishing protocols. You can also use the System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension to get the service's metadata at run time by accessing the ServiceMetadataExtension.Metadata property.
MEX Metadata Endpoints
To add metadata endpoints that use the MEX protocol, add service endpoints to your service host that use the IMetadataExchange service contract. WCF includes an IMetadataExchange interface with this service contract name that you can use as part of the WCF programming model. WS-MetadataExchange endpoints, or MEX endpoints, can use one of the four default bindings that the static factory methods expose on the MetadataExchangeBindings class to match the default bindings used by WCF tools such as Svcutil.exe. You can also configure MEX metadata endpoints using your own custom binding.
HTTP GET Metadata Endpoints
To add a metadata endpoint to your service that responds to HTTP/GET requests, set the HttpGetEnabled property on the System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior to true. You can also configure a metadata endpoint that uses HTTPS by setting the HttpsGetEnabled property on the System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior to true.
In This Section
How to: Publish Metadata for a Service Using a Configuration File
Demonstrates how to configure a WCF service to publish metadata so that clients can retrieve the metadata using a WS-MetadataExchange or an HTTP/GET request using the ?wsdl query string.
How to: Publish Metadata for a Service Using Code
Demonstrates how to enable metadata publishing for a WCF service in code so that clients can retrieve the metadata using a WS-MetadataExchange or an HTTP/GET request using the ?wsdl query string.