Service Reference Error: Failed to generate code for the service reference

Question

I have a Windows Service Solution and am trying to add a service reference to a Hermes(Opensource ebms message server) Web Service in VS2010.

I can find the Web Service using it's URL, but when I try and populate the Service reference I get the following errors in Visual Studio:

Error 8 Custom tool error: Failed to generate code for the service reference 'testService'.  Please check other error and warning messages for details. C:\Users\Admin\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\MyProject\MyProject.MessageHandler\Service References\testService\Reference.svcmap 1 1 MyProject.MessageHandler


Warning 6 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:binding
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:portType that the wsdl:binding is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:portType: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://service.ebms.edi.cecid.hku.hk/']/wsdl:portType[@name='EbmsStatusQuery']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://service.ebms.edi.cecid.hku.hk/']/wsdl:binding[@name='EbmsSoapHttpStatusQuery'] C:\Users\Admin\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\MyProject\MyProject.MessageHandler\Service References\testService\Reference.svcmap 1 1 MyProject.MessageHandler

Warning 7 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:port
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:binding that the wsdl:port is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:binding: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://service.ebms.edi.cecid.hku.hk/']/wsdl:binding[@name='EbmsSoapHttpStatusQuery']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://service.ebms.edi.cecid.hku.hk/']/wsdl:service[@name='EbmsMessageStatusQuery']/wsdl:port[@name='EbmsStatusQuery'] C:\Users\Admin\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\MyProject\MyProject.MessageHandler\Service References\testService\Reference.svcmap 1 1 MyProject.MessageHandler

Warning 5 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType
Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.XmlSerializerMessageContractImporter
Error: Schema with target namespace 'http://service.ebms.edi.cecid.hku.hk/' could not be found.
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://service.ebms.edi.cecid.hku.hk/']/wsdl:portType[@name='EbmsStatusQuery'] C:\Users\Admin\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\MyProject\MyProject.MessageHandler\Service References\testService\Reference.svcmap 1 1 MyProject.MessageHandler

Some investigation seemed to suggest it is due to svcutil.exe not been able to build the proxys due to not having permissions to a directory (possibly c:\windows\temp). I have tried assigning various access permissions, but I am not really sure which user needs the permission, or if it is just a red herring.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Gert

Answer 1

Have to uncheck the Reuse types in all referenced assemblies from Configure service reference option

Check this for details

Lindo

Alternatively, when "Reuse types in referenced assemblies" is actually needed, you can add the service reference from a Class Library project specifically created for that purpose. Check my reply for additional info. – Tuinenga

I wanted a solution without unchecking "reuse types", and I managed to find one that worked, see my answer here. – Straw

Instead of doing something like this, use the assemblies that the WCF client depends on instead of using all of the referenced ones blindly, It can be tricky and more timeconsuming than unchecking the checkbox in question, but I find this solution more suitable than the one marked as answer. – Attenborough

Also make sure your Project is not Read Only..This was my problem.. – Cooee

Answer 2

Right click on your service reference and choose Configure Service Reference...

Then uncheck Reuse types in referenced assemblies

Click OK, clean and rebuild your solution.

Angara

What if I need to Reuse the referenced assemblies? I have a project and that checkbox is checked. Update works in my machine, but on a workmate's machine it doesn't... any clues? – Acquirement

This happened when I upgraded from v4.6.1 to v4.7 with my project. This fixed it. – Elodea

Answer 3

I also encountered a similar error when trying to generate the client for a web service from an ASP .Net MVC 4.0 project using Visual Studio 2012.

The root of the problem seems to be that fact that the project from where I was trying to generate the client was referencing an assembly which in turn was dependent on another assembly that was not being referenced as well.

When "Reuse types in referenced assemblies" is enabled in the service configuration, the service generator is probably inspecting all the referenced assemblies to get a list of types that can be reused. The fact that one of the referenced assemblies is referencing another assembly which is not available is probably causing the generator to fail.

Unchecking "Reuse types in referenced assemblies" from the service configurations will solve the above problem, but there is a side effect to it. The reuse types option is there for a reason and in some cases it avoids unnecessary casting in the code consuming the service.

For example, if the service itself is built using WCF and some methods parameters inside it are of type System.Guid, they will be translated to strings in the generated client if the reuse types option is disabled.

An alternative that I prefer to disabling reusing types is to add the service reference from Class Library project specifically created for that purpose. The one thing to keep in mind is to copy all the service related configurations from the class library's app.config to the configuration file of the startup project.

If there are types defined in local assemblies that need to be reused in the service client, those assemblies simply need to be referenced from the above mentioned class library project, along with all their dependencies.

Tuinenga

Weird. I changed my binding from HttpBinding to NetNamedPipeBinding (also added a mex endpoint) and encoutered this in my client assembly A. I created a new class libary B which referenced my WCF service. Then I added B as a reference to A and magically everything works again. Very strange. Thanks for the solution – Ranna

Answer 4

http://uliasz.com/2011/06/wcf-custom-tool-error-failed-to-generate-code-for-the-service-reference/#comment-1647

Thanks to the article above.

In my case, i have this issue with my WPF project in VS.Net 2008. After going through this article, i was realizing that the assembly used in the web service is different version of assembly used on client.

It works just fine after updating the assembly on the client.

Vacancy

Answer 5

It would be extremely difficult to guess the problem since it is due to a an error in the WSDL and without examining the WSDL, I cannot comment much more. So if you can share your WSDL, please do so.

All I can say is that there seems to be a missing schema in the WSDL (with the target namespace 'http://service.ebms.edi.cecid.hku.hk/'). I know about issues and different handling of the schema when include instructions are ignored.

Generally I have found Microsoft's implementation of web services pretty good so I think the web service is sending back dodgy WSDL.

Woodcock

Thanks Aliostad, I will try and share the WSDL when I get in from work. – Gert

Answer 6

Restarting Visual Studio did the trick for me. I am using VS 2015.

Curren

Answer 7

I get the same error in Silverlight 5 (VS2012)

You can also remove the references to:

• System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Client
• System.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Client.Web

After you've updated the service references, be sure to add them back in.

Foment

Answer 8

As stated above, there are a couple of different problems possible. What we found is that the .DLL for the WCF library had been added as a reference to the client project. This, in turn, created problems with resolving the objects and thus caused the files to be "emptied" by code generation steps. While unchecking the use "Reuse Types..." can seem like an answer, it creates extra definitions of object types, which are proxies to the real types, in a new name space, which then causes all kinds of "compatibility" issues with the use of those types. Only if you really want to "hide" a type should you check this option.

Hiding the type would be appropriate when you don't want a "DLL" type dependency to "leak" into a project that you are trying to keep segregated from another. If the DLL for the WCF library project creeps into the client project references, then you will have this problem with all kinds of strange side effects since the type definitions are also in the DLL.

Pizza

Answer 9

face same issue, resolved by running Visual Studio in Admin mode

Asseverate

Answer 10

I have encountered this problem when upgrading a VS2010 WCF+Silverlight solution in VS2015 Professional. Besides automatically upgrading from Silverlight 4 to Silverlight 5, the service reference reuse checkbox value was changed and generation failed.

Stith

Answer 11

"Reuse types" is not always the problem when this error occurs.

When adding a reference to an older service, click 'advanced' and there 'Add Web Reference'. Now link to your wsdl and everything should be working.

Rodenhouse

Answer 12

If you want to correct this without uncheking the assembly reuse checkbox this is what worked for me:

• Remove referenced assembly that you want to re-use
• Delete all the bin folder of the project
• Update service reference
  • Keep "Reuse types in specified referenced assemblies"
• Add reference to assembly again to fix the errors
• Update service reference again

Inflammatory

Answer 13

I had this problem when trying to update my service reference (The error only shows up when adding a service reference though) but didn't want to remove the assembly reuse checkbox.

What worked for me was the following:

• Remove referenced assembly that I wanted to re-use
• Update service reference
• Keep "Reuse types in specified referenced assemblies"
• Ignore the errors, it's because the reference is missing!
• Add reference to assembly again to fix the errors
• Update service reference again

Voila, now it actually updates and doesn't try to remove all of my generated code anymore.

I was almost ready to give up on the re-use types feature...

EDIT: Also make sure that the build config is AnyCPU or x86, since svcutil is buggy with x64.

To the downvoter: Sorry if it didn't work for you, I don't even know why it worked for me, but it did. I may have done something else that time that fixed the problem, but no way to know now.

Straw