Using WCF on Localhost on Azure

Question

In summary
How do I acces a WCF service on localhost when hosted in IIS on Azure? Azure does not bind localhost or 127.0.0.1 to my website.

Answer 1

Okay, so this is how I solved it. IMHO it's a hack but at least it works.

Basically, I need to add a "*" binding, so I can do this in Powershell. The general recipe is here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tomholl/archive/2011/06/28/hosting-services-with-was-and-iis-on-windows-azure.aspx

That deals with adding Named Pipes support, but the principle is the same. I just changed the Powershell script to:

import-module WebAdministration
# Set up a binding to 8080 for the services 
Get-WebSite "*Web*" | Foreach-Object { 
  $site = $_;
  $siteref = "IIS:/Sites/" + $site.Name;
  New-ItemProperty $siteref -name bindings -value @{protocol="http";bindingInformation="*:8080:"}
}

This now allows me to use http://127.0.0.1:8080/service.svc to access my service.

Note: You do need to follow the rest of the recipe to set elevated execution context and change the powershell execution mode, so do follow it carefully

Answer 2

You have to build the endpoint address dynamically.

Step 1: In your ServiceDefinition.csdef you need to declare an Endpoint.

<ServiceDefinition name="MyFirstAzureWorkflow" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition">
  <WebRole name="WorkflowWeb" vmsize="ExtraSmall">
    <Sites>
      <Site name="Web">
        <Bindings>
          <Binding name="Endpoint1" endpointName="WorkflowService" />
        </Bindings>
      </Site>
    </Sites>
    <Endpoints>
      <InputEndpoint name="WorkflowService" protocol="http" port="80" />
    </Endpoints>
    <Imports>
      <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" />
    </Imports>
  </WebRole>
</ServiceDefinition>

Step 2: When you want to call the service

var endpoint = RoleEnvironment.CurrentRoleInstance.InstanceEndpoints["WorkflowService"].IPEndpoint;
var uri = new Uri(string.Format(
    "http://{0}:{1}/MyService.xamlx",
    endpoint.Address,
    endpoint.Port));
var proxy = new ServiceClient(
    new BasicHttpBinding(),
    new EndpointAddress(uri));