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Customize the WebHttp Help Output in WCF
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For a service with webHttpBinding and helpEnabled="true", the help information is getting generated properly. Was wondering if it is possible to control the output somehow. Below are the changes I would like to make.

  1. Remove the JSON help as the service doesn't support JSON output. Having it there might be confusing to users. At least, have a way to output a note saying JSON is not supported.
  2. For the example replies shown, use a better example than "String content" where actual value samples can be specified. Would be good if I can supply the object that is used for being serialized as example.
Roberts answered 10/8, 2011 at 2:17 Comment(0)
M
5

The help page for WCF WebHttp endpoints cannot be customized. You can, however, replace it with your own custom page. It's easy to be implemented, but it's a lot of code to write. The example below shows how this can be done for a simple service.

public class StackOverflow_7005187
{
    [DataContract]
    public class MyDC
    {
        [DataMember]
        public string str = "The string";
    }
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface ITest
    {
        [WebInvoke]
        string EchoString(string text);
        [WebGet]
        int Add(int x, int y);
        [WebInvoke]
        MyDC EchoDC(MyDC input);
        [WebGet(UriTemplate = "/help")]
        Message GetMainHelpPage();
        [WebGet(UriTemplate = "/help/operations/EchoDC")]
        Message GetOperationsEchoDCHelpPage();
        // help for other operations not implemented
    }
    public class Service : ITest
    {
        public string EchoString(string text)
        {
            return text;
        }

        public int Add(int x, int y)
        {
            return x + y;
        }

        public MyDC EchoDC(MyDC input)
        {
            return input;
        }

        public Message GetMainHelpPage()
        {
            string page = @"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC ""-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"" ""http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"">
<html xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
  <head>
    <title>Operations at http://localhost:8000/Service</title>
    <style>BODY { color: #000000; background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; } #content { margin-left: 30px; font-size: .70em; padding-bottom: 2em; } A:link { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:visited { color: #6699cc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:active { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .heading1 { background-color: #003366; border-bottom: #336699 6px solid; color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 26px; font-weight: normal;margin: 0em 0em 10px -20px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 30px;padding-top: 16px;} pre { font-size:small; background-color: #e5e5cc; padding: 5px; font-family: Courier New; margin-top: 0px; border: 1px #f0f0e0 solid; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word; } table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Verdana;} table th { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; font-weight: bold; background-color: #cecf9c;} table td { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; background-color: #e5e5cc;}</style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id=""content"">
      <p class=""heading1"">Operations at http://localhost:8000/Service</p>
      <p>This page describes the service operations at this endpoint.</p>
      <table>
        <tr>
          <th>Uri</th>
          <th>Method</th>
          <th>Description</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Add</td>
          <td title=""http://localhost:8000/Service/Add?x={X}&amp;y={Y}"">
            <a rel=""operation"" href=""help/operations/Add"">GET</a>
          </td>
          <td>Service at http://localhost:8000/Service/Add?x={X}&amp;y={Y}</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>EchoDC</td>
          <td title=""http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC"">
            <a rel=""operation"" href=""help/operations/EchoDC"">POST</a>
          </td>
          <td>Service at http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>EchoString</td>
          <td title=""http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoString"">
            <a rel=""operation"" href=""help/operations/EchoString"">POST</a>
          </td>
          <td>Service at http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoString</td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>";
            return WebOperationContext.Current.CreateStreamResponse(
                new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(page)),
                "text/html");
        }


        public Message GetOperationsEchoDCHelpPage()
        {
            string page = @"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC ""-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"" ""http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"">
<html xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
  <head>
    <title>Reference for  http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</title>
    <style>BODY { color: #000000; background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; } #content { margin-left: 30px; font-size: .70em; padding-bottom: 2em; } A:link { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:visited { color: #6699cc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } A:active { color: #336699; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .heading1 { background-color: #003366; border-bottom: #336699 6px solid; color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 26px; font-weight: normal;margin: 0em 0em 10px -20px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 30px;padding-top: 16px;} pre { font-size:small; background-color: #e5e5cc; padding: 5px; font-family: Courier New; margin-top: 0px; border: 1px #f0f0e0 solid; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: -pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word; } table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Verdana;} table th { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; font-weight: bold; background-color: #cecf9c;} table td { border-right: 2px white solid; border-bottom: 2px white solid; background-color: #e5e5cc;}</style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id=""content"">
      <p class=""heading1"">Reference for  http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</p>
      <p></p>
      <p xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
        <b>Url: </b>
        <span class=""uri-template"">http://localhost:8000/Service/EchoDC</span>
      </p>
      <p xmlns=""http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"">
        <b>HTTP Method: </b>
        <span class=""method"">POST</span>
      </p>
      <table>
        <tr>
          <th>Message direction</th>
          <th>Format</th>
          <th>Body</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Request</td>
          <td>Xml</td>
          <td>
            <a href=""#request-xml"">Example</a></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Request</td>
          <td>Json</td>
          <td>
            <a href=""#request-json"">Example</a>
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>Response</td>
          <td>Xml</td>
          <td>
            <a href=""#response-xml"">Example</a></td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <p>
        <a name=""#request-xml"">The following is an example request Xml body:</a>
        <pre class=""request-xml"">&lt;StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC xmlns=""http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/WcfForums""&gt;
  &lt;str&gt;This is a modified string content&lt;/str&gt;
&lt;/StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC&gt;</pre>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a name=""#request-json"">The following is an example request Json body:</a>
        <pre class=""request-json"">{
    ""str"":""Some content in JSON""
}</pre>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a name=""#response-xml"">The following is an example response Xml body:</a>
        <pre class=""response-xml"">&lt;StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC xmlns=""http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/WcfForums""&gt;
  &lt;str&gt;Another modified XML content&lt;/str&gt;
&lt;/StackOverflow_7005187.MyDC&gt;</pre>
      </p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>";
            return WebOperationContext.Current.CreateStreamResponse(
                new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(page)),
                "text/html");
        }
    }
    public static void Test()
    {
        string baseAddress = "http://" + Environment.MachineName + ":8000/Service";
        ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(Service), new Uri(baseAddress));
        host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(ITest), new WebHttpBinding(), "").Behaviors.Add(new WebHttpBehavior { HelpEnabled = false });
        host.Open();
        Console.WriteLine("Host opened");

        Console.Write("Press ENTER to close the host");
        Console.ReadLine();
        host.Close();
    }
}
Mckibben answered 10/8, 2011 at 14:48 Comment(2)
thank you for taking the time for this. doing it totally custom is not what i was looking for though. another approach i have seen is to inspect the reply message and alter, which too isn't ideal. was looking for a way where it can be controlled by attributes or configuration. looks like there is no such way. – Roberts
Hm, I'm not actually able to get WebGet(UriTemplate = "/help") to work in our service. Other URIs defined in my service work fine, but not that one. – Francoisefrancolin

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