Configure WCF WebSite to support RESTful access from a browser

Question

I have used VS2012 to create a new WCF website (Add->New Web Site->WCF Service).

'Out of the box' this gives me the following web.config file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="aspnet:UseTaskFriendlySynchronizationContext" value="true"/>
  </appSettings>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5"/>
    <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5"/>
  </system.web>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior>
          <!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information, set the values below to false before deployment -->
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="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>
    </behaviors>
    <protocolMapping>
      <add binding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https"/>
    </protocolMapping>
    <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true"/>
  </system.serviceModel>
  <system.webServer>
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
    <!--
        To browse web app root directory during debugging, set the value below to true.
        Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing web app folder information.
      -->
    <directoryBrowse enabled="true"/>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

It also gives me an initial Service class as follows:

public class Service : IService
{
    public string GetData(int value)
    {
        return string.Format("You entered: {0}", value);
    }

    public CompositeType GetDataUsingDataContract(CompositeType composite)
    {
        if (composite == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("composite");
        }
        if (composite.BoolValue)
        {
            composite.StringValue += "Suffix";
        }
        return composite;
    }
}

I then F5 to start the project and it fires up a browser window listing the dir contents, including Service.svc.

I want to type in a URL to call the GetData method. What do I type into the browser address bar, and how to I configure and/or decorate the service so I can type a URL into the browser and see a JSON format string being returned?

Answer 1

Mark the Operation in your contract (IService interface) with following attribute - [WebInvoke(Method = "GET", BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, UriTemplate="GetData/{id}")] And then try invoking your service from browser by adding GetData/[any number]