Publishing Metadata Endpoints

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services publish metadata by publishing one or more metadata endpoints. Publishing service metadata makes the metadata available using standardized protocols, such as WS-MetadataExchange (MEX) and HTTP/GET requests. Metadata endpoints are similar to other service endpoints in that they have an address, a binding, and a contract, and they can be added to a service host through configuration or in code. To enable publishing metadata endpoints, you must add the ServiceMetadataBehavior service behavior to the service.

In This Section

How to: Publish Metadata for a Service Using a Configuration File
Demonstrates how to configure a WCF service to publish metadata so that clients can retrieve the metadata using a WS-MetadataExchange or an HTTP/GET request using the ?wsdl query string.

How to: Publish Metadata for a Service Using Code
Demonstrates how to enable metadata publishing for a WCF service in code so that clients can retrieve the metadata using a WS-MetadataExchange or an HTTP/GET request using the ?wsdl query string.

See also