Create WCF REST Service in C#

In this article, you will learn how to create a WCF Rest service in C# ASP.Net step-by-step with an example. REST stands for Representational state transfer which is a technique to communicate on cross-platform application and exchange the data in JSON & XML format.

• Keep reading on How to create Web API in ASP.NET C#, Consume WCF REST Service in C#

Let’s understand the HTTP methods which is most commonly used to create a WCF REST service:

• GET: Get the records from a particular source such as SQL Server database.
• POST: It is used to insert the records into a particular source such as SQL Server/Oracle database.
• PUT: It is used to modify the resource or records.
• DELETE: Used to delete the specific resource or record from a particular source.

I hope you got an idea of the REST concept. For more in detail refer to HTTP Request Methods

How to Create a WCF REST Service in C#

Now let’s get started with creating a rest wcf service in the c# asp.net application. Follow the below steps:-

Step 1: Create New Project and select WCF Service Application as shown below in the screenshot:-

• Save

Now add a new class to the newly created project. Name it to Customers. cs. This class will contain two things. The first one is Data Contract and the second one is a singleton implemented class that gets Customers data from a database and returns a list of Customers.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Web;

namespace WcfRestService
{
    [DataContract]
    public class Customer
    {
        [DataMember]
        public int CustomerId { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string CustomerName { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string CustomerAddress { get; set; }
    }

    public partial class Customers
    {
        private static readonly Customers _obj = new Customers();
        private Customers() { }

        public static Customers Instance
        {
            get
            {
                return _obj;
            }
        }

        public List<Customer> CustomerList
        {
            get
            {
                return customers;
            }
        }

        private List<Customer> customers = new List<Customer>()
        {
         new Customer() { CustomerId = 1, CustomerName = "Dell", CustomerAddress = "Banglore"},
         new Customer() { CustomerId = 2, CustomerName = "Sony", CustomerAddress = "New Delhi"},
         new Customer() { CustomerId = 1, CustomerName = "Apple", CustomerAddress = "USA"},
         new Customer() { CustomerId = 1, CustomerName = "Samsung", CustomerAddress = "China"},
         new Customer() { CustomerId = 1, CustomerName = "Micromax", CustomerAddress = "New Delhi"}
         };
    }
}

Step 3: Add a Service Contract

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.Text;

namespace WcfRestService
{
    // NOTE: You can use the "Rename" command on the "Refactor" menu to change the interface name "IService1" in both the code and config file together.
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface IService1
    {
        // XML format only
        [OperationContract]
        [WebInvoke(Method = "GET", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare, UriTemplate = "GetCustomerListXML")]
        List<Customer> GetCustomerListXML();

        // JSON format only
        [OperationContract]
        [WebInvoke(Method = "GET", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare, UriTemplate = "GetCustomerListJSON")]
        List<Customer> GetCustomerListJSON();
    }
}

• Method = “GET”, represents an HTTP GET request.
• ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, response format will be XML here but we can return JSON as well by changing its value to WebMessageFormat.Json.
• BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Wrapped, indicates both the request and response are wrapped.
• UriTemplate = “GetCustomerList/”, it has two parts, URL path and query.

Note: Don’t forget to add using System.ServiceModel.Web namespace.

Step 4: Implementing REST Service

Here, we are going to implement the service. Only two methods GetCustomerListXML, GetCustomerListJSON are defined in the contract, so implementing service class will be as follows:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.Text;

namespace WcfRestService
{
    // NOTE: You can use the "Rename" command on the "Refactor" menu to change the class name "Service1" in code, svc and config file together.
    // NOTE: In order to launch WCF Test Client for testing this service, please select Service1.svc or Service1.svc.cs at the Solution Explorer and start debugging.
    public class Service1 : IService1
    {
        public List<Customer> GetCustomerListXML()
        {
            return Customers.Instance.CustomerList;
        }

        public List<Customer> GetCustomerListJSON()
        {
            return Customers.Instance.CustomerList;
        }
    }
}

Step 5: Configure Service and Behavior

The last step is to configure the service and its behaviors using the configuration file. Following are the complete ServiceModel configuration settings.

<system.serviceModel>
    <services>
      <service name="WcfRestService.Service1" behaviorConfiguration="serviceBehavior">
        <endpoint address="" binding="webHttpBinding" contract="WcfRestService.IService1" behaviorConfiguration="web"></endpoint>
        <endpoint address="soap" contract="WcfRestService.IService1" binding="basicHttpBinding" ></endpoint>
      </service>
    </services>

    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="serviceBehavior">
          <!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information, set the values below to false before deployment -->
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
          <!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true.  Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information -->
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false"/>
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>

      <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior name="web">
          <webHttp/>
        </behavior>
      </endpointBehaviors>
    </behaviors>    
    <serviceHostingEnvironment  multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
  </system.serviceModel>

webHTTPBinding is the binding used for RESTful services. Now our Restful service is done. Run the WCF Service Application and test it.

Output with JSON format

• Save

• Save

Download Source Code

Conclusion

I hope you liked this article on creating wcf rest service – c# example. I would like to have feedback from my blog readers. Your valuable feedback, question, or comments about this article are always welcome.