WCF Service Testing Tools

Visual Studio 2008 introduced two tools for testing WCF services:

• WCF Service Host (WcfSvcHost.exe)
• WCF Test Client (Wcf TestClient.exe)

The WCF Service Host executable provides a host process for the WCF services in a specific assembly, using the configuration settings provided by a specific application configuration file. One example of the command line to launch the test host is:

wcfsvchost /service:pathtoserviceassembly /config:pathtoserviceconfig

 

When you create a new project using the WCF Service Library template, the project is configured so that you can launch the resulting class library in debug mode (F5) and host all services in the assembly, using the configuration supplied by the app.config file created in the project. In addition, the project settings launch the WCF Test Client so that you can also test the services in the project without creating a test client application.

The WCF Test Client executable provides a dynamically generated user interface to test services described by a specific metadata endpoint. Thus, the command line instruction to do this is:

wcftestclient metadataexchangeaddress

 

These tools are useful for very simple and rapid testing scenarios however in most development environments it is necessary to generate richer test scenarios that include configurations for both client and service host that will be applicable in production. In fact, I recommend you create your WCF service libraries using the standard Class Library template rather than the WCF Service Library template to avoid cluttering your projects with configuration files and project settings that will not be useful in production.

For more information about the test tools visit the following links:

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb552363.aspx and

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb552364.aspx.