Configure WCF client endpoint to use a relative address (for Azure)

Question

I have a Windows Azure Cloud Service project containing multiple Web Roles to host some services. I want to use ServiceX in ServiceY (each running on diffrent roles) using an relative URL.

Thats the way I host ServiceX:

<service name="ServiceX">
    <endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="ServiceX" />
    <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange"/>
</service>

Now I want to use that service in ServiceY. With an absolute URL it works fine:

<system.serviceModel>
    <client>
      <endpoint name="ServiceXProxy"
          address="http://mycloudservice.cloudapp.net:8080/ServiceX.svc"
          binding="basicHttpBinding"
          contract="ServiceX"/>
...

But how can I use the ServiceX in ServiceY with a relative address? Isn't that possible since they running on the same cloud service?

Answer 1

You could use relative addresses programmatically, but you still need to know the base address (or just use localhost:8080 as the base) - it's not possible to use relative addresses via the web.config unless you build a custom configuration or leverage AppSettings.

// create bindings & endpoints
var baseAddress = System.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["baseAddress"];
var binding = new System.ServiceModel.BasicHttpBinding();
var endpoint = new EndpointAddress(baseAddress + "/ServiceX.svc");

You could also load the client endpoint address from the web.config and override the base address using UriBuilder for similar means.