How can I make WCF talk to this web service?

Question

This is a follow up of this question.

As suggested by @Benjamin here, I am trying to add a service reference for my wsdl now (in stead of a web reference). Here is the url to the wsdl in question:

https://eu.link.fiatauto.com/tsi/DDUWsAut.php?wsdl

The problem is that Visual Studio generates an empty codefile:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//     Runtime Version:2.0.50727.3603
//
//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
//     the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

namespace test.ServiceReference1 {

}

When I try to manually generate the code using svcutil, I get the following:

C:\temp>svcutil https://eu.link.fiatauto.com/tsi/DDUWsAut.php?wsdl
Microsoft (R) Service Model Metadata Tool
[Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Communication Foundation, Version 3.0.4506.2152]
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Attempting to download metadata from 'https://eu.link.fiatauto.com/tsi/DDUWsAut.
php?wsdl' using WS-Metadata Exchange or DISCO.
Error: Cannot import wsdl:portType
Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.Se
rviceModel.Description.XmlSerializerMessageContractImporter
Error: The ' ' character, hexadecimal value 0x20, cannot be included in a name.
Parameter name: name
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='urn:ddu']/wsdl:portT
ype[@name='dduPortType']


Error: Cannot import wsdl:binding
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:portType that the wsdl:binding is de
pendent on.
XPath to wsdl:portType: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='urn:ddu']/wsdl:port
Type[@name='dduPortType']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='urn:ddu']/wsdl:bindi
ng[@name='dduBinding']


Error: Cannot import wsdl:port
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:binding that the wsdl:port is depend
ent on.
XPath to wsdl:binding: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='urn:ddu']/wsdl:bindi
ng[@name='dduBinding']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='urn:ddu']/wsdl:servi
ce[@name='ddu']/wsdl:port[@name='dduPort']


Generating files...
Warning: No code was generated.
If you were trying to generate a client, this could be because the metadata docu
ments did not contain any valid contracts or services
or because all contracts/services were discovered to exist in /reference assembl
ies. Verify that you passed all the metadata documents to the tool.

Warning: If you would like to generate data contracts from schemas make sure to
use the /dataContractOnly option.

Maybe this has also something to do with the fact that there are problems when trying to use the service by adding a web reference in stead of a service reference (see my other question)?

I guess there's something wrong with that wsdl, but I can't find what exactly.

As this is a third party service which is already used by others, I don't think they will be willing to change their service, so are there any workarounds to let .NET talk to that web service?

Answer 1

There's a bug in the WSDL. The final part in the dduAbortRequest message has a space at the end of the name. That's probably just a bug. Tell them about it, and they'll fix it, and they'll thank you for telling them.

The WSDL is just plain invalid as-is.

<message name="dduAbortRequest">
    <part name="Ticket" type="xsd:string"/>
    <part name="ServiceId" type="xsd:string"/>
    <part name="LoginId" type="xsd:string"/>
    <part name="DocId " type="xsd:string"/> <!-- Should be "DocId" -->
</message>

Answer 2

Disclaimer: This is probably not a direct answer to your question BUT I just wasted 3 hours trying to fix this same error message - so I want to post this here too.

---

This Warning: No code was generated error message can also be triggered by lack of permissions to the app pool user on the C:\Windows\Temp directory (yes really!).

If you're getting this error I first suggest you switch to the command line if you're trying to use the 'Add Service Reference' dialog. Run this command with Fiddler open for your service URL.

 svcutil.exe https://dev.example.com/ShoppingCartWS/WCF/ShoppingCartWCF.svc?wsdl

If you see any of the requests come back as 500 (in red) and the following response:

ReadResponse() failed: The server did not return a response for this request.                                                                            

Then check C:\Windows\Temp and just add whatever user your app pool is running at to have permissions.

This is where I found the solution - many thanks!.