How can I dynamically switch web service addresses in NET without a recompile

Question

I have code that references a web service  and I d like the address of that web service to be dynamic  read from a database  config file  etc   so that it is easily changed   One major use of this will be to deploy to multiple environments where machine names and IP addresses are different   The web service signature will be the same across all deployments  just located elsewhere   Maybe I ve just been spoiled by the Visual Studio  Add Web Reference  wizard - seems like this should be something relatively easy  though

User · Answer

open solition explorer

right click the webservice change URL Behavior to Dynamic

click the 'show all files' icon in solution explorer

in the web reference edit the Reference.cs file

change constructer

public Service1() {
        this.Url = "URL"; // etc. string  variable this.Url = ConfigClass.myURL
      }

User · Answer

I ve struggled with this issue for a few days and finally the light bulb clicked   The KEY to being able to change the URL of a webservice at runtime is overriding the constructor  which I did with a partial class declaration   The above  setting the URL behavior to Dynamic must also be done     This basically creates a web-service wrapper where if you have to reload web service at some point  via add service reference  you don t loose your work   The Microsoft help for Partial classes specially states that part of the reason for this construct is to create web service wrappers   http   msdn microsoft com en-us library wa80x488 v vs 100  aspx       Web Service Wrapper to override constructor to use custom ConfigSection     app config values for URL User Pass namespace myprogram webservice       public partial class MyWebService               public MyWebService string szURL                        this Url   szURL              if   this IsLocalFileSystemWebService this Url     true                                 this UseDefaultCredentials   true                  this useDefaultCredentialsSetExplicitly   false                            else                               this useDefaultCredentialsSetExplicitly   true

User · Answer

If you are fetching the URL from a database you can manually assign it to the web service proxy class URL property  This should be done before calling the web method   If you would like to use the config file  you can set the proxy classes URL behavior to dynamic

User · Answer

For me a Reference to a WebService is a      SERVICE REFERENCE      Anyway it s very easy  As someone said  you just have to change the URL in the web config file    lt system serviceModel gt       lt bindings gt         lt basicHttpBinding gt           lt binding name  YourServiceSoap    gt         lt  basicHttpBinding gt       lt  bindings gt       lt client gt               CHANGE THE LINE BELOW TO CHANGE THE URL                lt endpoint address  http   10 10 10 100 8080 services YourService asmx            binding  basicHttpBinding  bindingConfiguration  YourServiceSoap            contract  YourServiceRef YourServiceSoap  name  YourServiceSoap    gt       lt  client gt

User · Answer

Definitely using the Url property is the way to go   Whether to set it in the app config  the database  or a third location sort of depends on your configuration needs   Sometimes you don t want the app to restart when you change the web service location   You might not have a load balancer scaling the backend   You might be hot-patching a web service bug   Your implementation might have security configuration issues as well   Whether it s production db usernames and passwords or even the ws security auth info   The proper separation of duties can get you into some more involved configuration setups   If you add a wrapper class around the proxy generated classes  you can set the Url property in some unified fashion every time you create the wrapper class to call a web method

User · Answer

If you are truly dynamically setting this  you should set the  Url field of instance of the proxy class you are calling     Setting the value in the  config file from within your program    Is a mess  Might not be read until the next application start    If it is only something that needs to be done once per installation  I d agree with the other posters and use the  config file and the dynamic setting

User · Answer

Just a note about difference beetween static and dynamic    Static  you must set URL property every time you call web service  This because base URL if web service is in the proxy class constructor  Dynamic  a special configuration key will be created for you in your web config file  By default proxy class will read URL from this key

User · Answer

Change URL behavior to  Dynamic

User · Answer

When you generate a web reference and click on the web reference in the Solution Explorer   In the properties pane you should see something like this     Changing the value to dynamic will put an entry in your app config   Here is the CodePlex article that has more information

User · Answer

I know this is an old question  but our solution is much simpler than what I see here   We use it for WCF calls with VS2010 and up  The string url can come from app settings or another source  In my case it is a drop down list where the user picks the server  TheService was configured through VS add service reference     private void CallTheService  string url        TheService TheServiceClient client   new TheService TheServiceClient       client Endpoint Address   new System ServiceModel EndpointAddress url      var results   client AMethodFromTheService

User · Answer

As long as the web service methods and underlying exposed classes do not change  it s fairly trivial  With Visual Studio 2005  and newer   adding a web reference creates an app config  or web config  for web apps  section that has this URL  All you have to do is edit the app config file to reflect the desired URL   In our project  our simple approach was to just have the app config entries commented per environment type  development  testing  production   So we just uncomment the entry for the desired environment type  No special coding needed there

[c#] How can I dynamically switch web service addresses in .NET without a recompile?

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