Could not find default endpoint element

Question

I've added a proxy to a webservice to a VS2008/.NET 3.5 solution. When constructing the client .NET throws this error:

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'IMySOAPWebService' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuaration file was found for your application or because no endpoint element matching this contract could be found in the client element.

Searching for this error tells me to use the full namespace in the contract. Here's my app.config with full namespace:

<client>
  <endpoint address="http://192.168.100.87:7001/soap/IMySOAPWebService"
            binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="IMySOAPWebServicebinding"
            contract="Fusion.DataExchange.Workflows.IMySOAPWebService" name="IMySOAPWebServicePort" />
</client>

I'm running XP local (I mention this because a number of Google hits mention win2k3) The app.config is copied to app.exe.config, so that is also not the problem.

Any clues?

Answer 1

"This error can arise if you are calling the service in a class library and calling the class library from another project."

In this case you will need to include the WS configuration settings into the main projects app.config if its a winapp or web.config if its a web app. This is the way to go even with PRISM and WPF/Silverlight.

Answer 2

I solved this (I think as others may have suggested) by creating the binding and endpoint address instances myself - because I did not want to add new settings to the config files (this is a replacement for some existing library code which is used widely, and previously used an older Web Service Reference etc.), and so I wanted to be able to drop this in without having add new config settings everywhere.

var remoteAddress = new System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress(_webServiceUrl);

using (var productService = new ProductClient(new System.ServiceModel.BasicHttpBinding(), remoteAddress))
{
    //set timeout
    productService.Endpoint.Binding.SendTimeout = new TimeSpan(0,0,0,_webServiceTimeout);

    //call web service method
    productResponse = productService.GetProducts();
} 

Edit

If you are using https then you need to use BasicHttpsBinding rather than BasicHttpBinding.

Answer 3

Having tested several options, I finally solved this by using

contract="IMySOAPWebService"

i.e. without the full namespace in the config. For some reason the full name didn't resolve properly

Answer 4

I've had this same issue. It turns out that for a web REFERENCE, you have to supply the URL as the first parameter to the constructor:

new WebService.WebServiceSoapClient("http://myservice.com/moo.aspx");

For a new style web SERVICE REFERENCE, you have to supply a name that refers to an endpoint entry in the configuration:

new WebService.WebServiceSoapClient("WebServiceEndpoint");

With a corresponding entry in Web.config or App.config:

<client>
      <endpoint address="http://myservice.com/moo.aspx"
        binding="basicHttpBinding" 
        bindingConfiguration="WebService"
        contract="WebService.WebServiceSoap"
        name="WebServiceEndpoint" />
    </client>
  </system.serviceModel>

Pretty damn hard to remove the tunnel vision on "it worked in an older program"...

Answer 5

I had a situation like this, where i had

• WCF Service Hosted somewhere
• Main Project
• Consumer Project of type 'class Library' which has Service reference to a WCF Service
• Main project calls methods from consumer project

Now the Consumer project had all the related configuration setting in <system.serviceModel> Tag of my app.config, its was still throwing the same error as the above.

All i did is added the same tag <system.serviceModel> to my main project's app.config file, and finally we were good to go.

The Real problem, as far as in my case was, it was reading the wrong configuration file. Instead of consumer's app.config, it was referring main proj's config. it took me two hours to figure that out.

Answer 6

"This error can arise if you are calling the service in a class library and calling the class library from another project."

"In this case you will need to include the WS configuration settings into the main projects app.config if its a winapp or web.config if its a web app. This is the way to go even with PRISM and WPF/Silverlight."

Yes, but if you can't change main project (Orchard CMS for example), you can keep WCF service config in your project.

You need to create a service helper with client generation method:

public static class ServiceClientHelper
{
    public static T GetClient<T>(string moduleName) where T : IClientChannel
    {
        var channelType = typeof(T);
        var contractType = channelType.GetInterfaces().First(i => i.Namespace == channelType.Namespace);
        var contractAttribute = contractType.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ServiceContractAttribute), false).First() as ServiceContractAttribute;

        if (contractAttribute == null)
            throw new Exception("contractAttribute not configured");

        //path to your lib app.config (mark as "Copy Always" in properties)
        var configPath = HostingEnvironment.MapPath(String.Format("~/Modules/{0}/bin/{0}.dll.config", moduleName)); 

        var configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(new ExeConfigurationFileMap { ExeConfigFilename = configPath }, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
        var serviceModelSectionGroup = ServiceModelSectionGroup.GetSectionGroup(configuration);

        if (serviceModelSectionGroup == null)
            throw new Exception("serviceModelSectionGroup not configured");

        var endpoint = serviceModelSectionGroup.Client.Endpoints.OfType<ChannelEndpointElement>().First(e => e.Contract == contractAttribute.ConfigurationName);
        var channelFactory = new ConfigurationChannelFactory<T>(endpoint.Name, configuration, null);
        var client = channelFactory.CreateChannel();
        return client;
    }
}

and use it:

using (var client = ServiceClientHelper.GetClient<IDefaultNameServiceChannel>(yourLibName)) {
                ... get data from service ...
            }

See details in this article.

Answer 7

This one drove me crazy.

I'm using Silverlight 3 Prism (CAB) with WCF

When I call a WCF service in a Prism module, I get the same error:

Could not find default endpoint element that references contract 'IMyService' in the service model client configuaration section. This might be because no configuaration file was found for your application or because no end point element matching this contract could be found in the client element

It turns out that its looking in the Shell's .xap file for a ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file, not in the module's ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file. I added my endpoint and binding to the existing ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file in my Silverlight Shell application (it calls it's own WCF services).

Then I had to rebuild the Shell app to generate the new .xap file for my Web project's ClientBin folder.

Now this line of code finally works:

MyServiceClient myService = new MyServiceClient();

Answer 8

Several responses here hit upon the correct solution when you're facing the mind-numbingly obscure error of referencing the service from a class file: copy service config info into your app.config web.config of your console or windows app. None of those answers seem to show you what to copy though. Let's try and correct that.

Here's what I copied out of my class library's config file, into my console app's config file, in order to get around this crazy error for a service I write called "TranslationServiceOutbound".

You basically want everything inside the system.serviceModel section:

  <system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
  <basicHttpBinding>
    <binding name="BasicHttpBinding_ITranslationServiceOutbound" />
  </basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<client>
  <endpoint address="http://MyHostName/TranslationServiceOutbound/TranslationServiceOutbound.svc"
    binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_ITranslationServiceOutbound"
    contract="TranslationService.ITranslationServiceOutbound" name="BasicHttpBinding_ITranslationServiceOutbound" />
</client>

Answer 9

I was getting this error within an ASP.NET application where the WCF service had been added to a class library which is being added to the ASP.NET application as a referenced .dll file in the bin folder. To resolve the error, the config settings in the app.config file within the class library referencing the WCF service needed to be copied into the web.config settings for the ASP.NET site/app.

Answer 10

I had the same problem, but changing the contract namespace didn't work for me. So I tried a .Net 2 style web reference instead of a .Net 3.5 service reference. That worked.

To use a Web reference in Visual Studio 2008, click on 'Add Service Reference', then click 'Advanced' when the dialog box appears. In that you will find an option that will let you use a Web reference instead of a Service reference.

Answer 11

I found (as well as copying to the client UI's App.config as I was using a Class Library interface) I had to prefix the name of the binding with the name of the Service Reference (mine is ServiceReference in the below).

e.g.:

<endpoint address="http://localhost:4000/ServiceName" binding="basicHttpBinding"
      bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_ISchedulerService"
      contract="ServiceReference.ISchedulerService" 
      name="BasicHttpBinding_ISchedulerService" />

instead of the default generated:

<endpoint address="http://localhost:4000/ServiceName" binding="basicHttpBinding"
      bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_ISchedulerService"
      contract="ISchedulerService" 
      name="BasicHttpBinding_ISchedulerService" />

Answer 12

Unit testing a non-library application that consumes a service can cause this problem.

The information that others have entered addresses the root cause of this. If you are trying to write automated test cases and the unit you are testing will actually invoke the service interface, you need to add the service reference to the test project. This is a flavor of the application using library type of error. I did not immediately realize this though because my code that consumes the interface is not in a library. However, when the test actually runs it will be running from the test assembly, not the assembly under test.

Adding a service reference to the unit test project resolved my issue.

Answer 13

I have a situation which in the Unit test. I copied the app.config file to the unit test project. So the unit test project also contains endpoint information.

Answer 14

I faced this problem once. It was because i was still developing the interface that uses WCF service. I configured test application and continued development. Then in development, i changed some of the services' namespaces. So i double checked "system.serviceModel -> client -> endpoint -> contract" in web.config to match WCF class. Then problem is solved.

Answer 15

The namespace in your config should reflect the rest of the namespace path after your client's default namespace (as configured in the project properties). Based on your posted answer, my guess is that your client is configured to be in the "Fusion.DataExchange.Workflows" namespace. If you moved the client code to another namespace you would need to update the config to match the remaining namespace path.

Answer 16

This error can arise if you are calling the service in a class library and calling the class library from another project.

Answer 17

I Have a same Problem.I'm Used the WCF Service in class library and calling the class library from windows Application project.but I'm Forget Change <system.serviceModel> In Config File of windows application Project same the <system.serviceModel> of Class Library's app.Config file.
solution: change Configuration of outer project same the class library's wcf configuration.

Answer 18

Hi I've encountered the same problem but the best solution is to let the .NET to configure your client side configuration. What I discover is this when I add a service reference with a query string of http:/namespace/service.svc?wsdl=wsdl0 it does NOT create a configuration endpoints at the client side. But when I remove the ?wsdl-wsdl0 and only use the url http:/namespace/service.svc, it create the endpoint configuration at the client configuration file. for short remoe the " ?WSDL=WSDL0" .

Answer 19

Do not put service client declaration line as class field, instead of this, create instance at each method that used in. So problem will be fixed. If you create service client instance as class field, then design time error occurs !

Answer 20

In case if you are using WPF application using PRISM framework then configuration should exist in your start up project (i.e. in the project where your bootstrapper resides.)

Answer 21

There seem to be several ways to create/fix this issue. For me, the CRM product I am using was written in native code and is able to call my .NET dll, but I run into the configuration information needing to be at/above the main application. For me, the CRM application isn't .NET, so I ended up having to put it in my machine.config file (not where I want it). In addition, since my company uses Websense I had a hard time even adding the Service Reference due to a 407 Proxy Authentication Required issue, that to required a modification to the machine.cong.

Proxy solution:

To get the WCF Service Reference to work I had to copy the information from the app.config of my DLL to the main application config (but for me that was machine.config). And I also had to copy the endpoint information to that same file. Once I did that it starting working for me.

Answer 22

Ok. My case was a little diffrent but finally i have found the fix for it: I have a Console.EXE -> DLL -> Invoking WS1 -> DLL -> Invoking WS2

I have had both the configurations of the service model of WS1, and WS2 in the Console.EXE.config as recommended. - didnt solve the issue.

But it still didn't work, until i have added the WebReference of WS2 to WS1 also and not only to the DLL that actually creating and invoking the proxy of WS2.

Answer 23

If you reference the web service in your class library then you have to copy app.config to your windows application or console application

solution: change Configuration of outer project same the class library's wcf configuration.

Worked for me

Answer 24

I had the same Issue
I was using desktop app and using Global Weather Web service

I deleted the service reference and added the web reference and problem solved Thanks

Answer 25

Solution for me was to remove the endpoint name from the Endpoint Name attribute in client web.config this allowed the proxy to use

ChannelFactory<TService> _channelFactory = new ChannelFactory<TService>("");

only took all day to work out. Also the contract name was wrong once this fix was in place although it had been wrong when the initial error appear. Double then triple check for contract name strings people !! attrib: Ian

Answer 26

Allow me to add one more thing to look for. (Tom Haigh's answer already alludes to it, but I want to be explicit)

My web.config file had the following defined:

<protocolMapping>
    <add binding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https" />
</protocolMapping>

I was already using basicHttpsBinding for one reference, but then I added a new reference which required basicHttpBinding (no s). All I had to do was add that to my protocolMapping as follows:

<protocolMapping>
    <add binding="basicHttpBinding" scheme="http" />
    <add binding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https" />
</protocolMapping>

As L.R. correctly points out, this needs to be defined in the right places. For me, that meant one in my Unit Test project's app.config as well as one in the main service project's web.config.

Answer 27

I had this error when I was referencing the Contract in the configuration file element without the global scope operator.

i.e.

<endpoint contract="global::MyNamepsace.IMyContract" .../>

works, but

<endpoint contract="MyNamepsace.IMyContract" .../>

gives the "Could not find default endpoint element that references contract" error.

The assembly containing MyNamepsace.IMyContract is in a different assembly to the main application, so this may explain the need to use the global scope resolution.

Answer 28

When you are adding a service reference

beware of namespace you are typing in:

You should append it to the name of your interface:

<client>
  <endpoint address="http://192.168.100.87:7001/soap/IMySOAPWebService"
            binding="basicHttpBinding" 
            contract="MyNamespace.IMySOAPWebService" />
</client>

Answer 29

I got same error and I have tried many things but didn't work, than I noticed that my "contract" was not same at all projects, I changed the contract as would be same for all projects inside solution and than it worked. This is project A

<client>
    <endpoint address="https://xxxxxxxx" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="basic" contract="ServiceReference.IIntegrationService" name="basic" />
</client>

Project B :

<client>
    <endpoint address="xxxxxxxxxxxxx" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="basic" contract="ServiceReference1.IIntegrationService" name="basic" />
</client>

Finally I changed for both as :

<client>
    <endpoint address="https://xxxxxxxxxxx" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="basic" contract="MyServiceReferrence.IIntegrationService" name="basic" />
</client>

Answer 30

I had the same issue and it was solved only when the host application and the dll that used that endpoint had the same service reference name.