Can WCF WebHttp endpoints coexist with MVC and Web API?

Question

I have a widely distributed legacy web forms asp.net application with some WCF services exposed as webHttp endpoints. I'm in the process of reengineering the application to introduce functionality that is best implemented as MVC and web API controllers.

Since introducing MVC and web API to the application none of the webHTTP endpoints are accessible. For example Printing.svc implemented an interface with:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IPrinting
{
    [WebGet(UriTemplate = "Printers")]
    List<string> Printers(string profile);
}

I can successfully navigate to printing.svc and printing.svc/metadata, however, the printing.svc/help or printing.svc/Printers all return a 400 error (blank page). All the Web API and MVC routes work, and the wsdl for the soap bindings also work. Just not the "REST" WCF endpoints.

I have already added ignore values for the .svc routes:

routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.svc");
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.svc/{*pathInfo}");

Still no dice. I have reproduced all this functionality in Web API, but would have liked to keep the old services active for legacy deployments.

So, can these two technologies coexist?

Are there any work arounds, or is it time to drop the "REST" WCF endpoints and move on?

EDIT

The solution: As suggested, I disabled routing in Web API and MVC, and ended up having to change from:

<endpointBehaviors>
  <behavior name="restBehaviour">
    <webHttp />
  </behavior>
  <behavior name="wsBehaviour" />
</endpointBehaviors>

to:

<endpointBehaviors>
  <behavior name=""><!-- Added -->
    <webHttp />
  </behavior>
  <behavior name="restBehaviour">
    <webHttp />
  </behavior>
  <behavior name="wsBehaviour" />
</endpointBehaviors>

even though my service is:

<service name="K3.Reports.Web.Printing">
  <endpoint address="" binding="webHttpBinding" contract="K3.Reports.Contracts.IPrinting" behaviorConfiguration="restBehaviour" />
</service>

Julien Jacobs Julien Jacobs · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-26T09:42:31

Those technologies can coexist as far as I can tell. Our application is a WebForms application that includes both some WCF "rest" end points for RSS feeds as well as a REST WebApi.

It could therefore be that the default API route is taking over the WCF ones in some cases. Did you try to deactivate the default route?

If yes you may want to add more details in your question as how your routes are configured and versions you are running.

Can WCF WebHttp endpoints coexist with MVC and Web API?

2 Answers