Zulfiqar's weblog

WCF by default adds the listen address of the endpoints in the WSDL so in a scenario where the private address of the server is different from the public address you get incorrect endpoint address in WSDL.

For example if a service is listening on http://localhost:7721/ and you access its metadata using a virtual IP http://102.212.0.117/?wsdl, you get following:

Now this behavior might not work in certain scenarios and you want the metadata generation to dynamically pick the address from the request headers, similar to ASMX web services.

UseRequestHeadersForMetadataAddressBehavior enables exactly this. This opt-in behavior sets the address of endpoints dynamically, based on the request header.  

Like all other WCF behaviors, this behavior can be enabled either in the code or config.

sh.Description.Behaviors.Add(new UseRequestHeadersForMetadataAddressBehavior());

<system.serviceModel>

  <behaviors>

    <serviceBehaviors>

      <behavior>

        <useRequestHeadersForMetadataAddress/>

      </behavior>

    </serviceBehaviors>

  </behaviors>

</system.serviceModel>

This behavior is added in .NET 4.0 and there is a QFE available for 3.5 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971842