How to Create WCF REST Service For Mobile App

Introduction

Create WCF REST service

1. In Visual Studio 2013 we create a new web project.
   
   
   
   
2. Then add a new item to the project and select WCF Service Item.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Delete the default generated code by Visual Studio and add two methods PostMessage, GetMessage as in the following.
   
   1. namespace Tungnt.NET.WCFRestDemo
   2. {
   3. [ServiceContract]
   4. public interface IWCFRestDemo
   5. {
   6. [OperationContract]
   7. string GetMessage();
   9. [OperationContract]
   10. string PostMessage(string userName);
   11. }
   12. }
       
4. To use the WCF service as REST return JSON data we need to change the service interface's methods that has attributes to use WebGet (GET data only) or WebInvoke (for GET/POST/PUT/DELETE data) as in the following. (Note: These attributes are members of System.ServiceModel.Web.dll so we need to add this reference before use).
   
   
   
   
   
   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Runtime.Serialization;
   5. using System.ServiceModel;
   6. using System.ServiceModel.Web;
   7. using System.Text;
   9. namespace Tungnt.NET.WCFRestDemo
   10. {
   11. [ServiceContract]
   12. public interface IWCFRestDemo
   13. {
   14. [OperationContract]
   15. [WebGet(RequestFormat=WebMessageFormat.Json, ResponseFormat=WebMessageFormat.Json)]
   16. //Like this: [WebInvoke(Method="GET", RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
   17. string GetMessage();
   19. [OperationContract]
   20. [WebInvoke(Method="POST", RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
   21. string PostMessage(string userName);
   22. }
   23. }
       
5. In the final step we will implement the interface's functions GetMessage/Post Message as in the following:
   
   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Runtime.Serialization;
   5. using System.ServiceModel;
   6. using System.Text;
   8. namespace Tungnt.NET.WCFRestDemo
   9. {
   10. public class WCFRestDemo : IWCFRestDemo
   11. {
   12. public string GetMessage()
   13. {
   14. return "Welcome to tungnt.net from GetMessage() WCF REST Service";
   15. }
   17. public string PostMessage(string userName)
   18. {
   19. return string.Format("Welcome {0} to tungnt.net from PostMessage() WCF REST Service", userName);
   20. }
   21. }
   22. }