The WebGetAttribute attribute is used to mark a service operation as one that responds to HTTP GET requests. It is a passive operation behavior (the IOperationBehavior methods do nothing) that adds metadata to the operation description. Applying the WebGetAttribute has no effect unless a behavior that looks for this metadata in the operation description (specifically, the WebHttpBehavior) is added to the service's behavior collection. The WebGetAttribute attribute takes the optional parameters in the following table.

The WebHttpBinding incorporates support for XML, JSON, and raw binary data using the WebMessageEncodingBindingElement. It is composed of an HttpsTransportBindingElement, an HttpTransportBindingElement and a WebHttpSecurity object. The WebHttpBinding is designed to be used in conjunction with the WebHttpBehavior.

The WebInvokeAttribute attribute is similar to the WebGetAttribute, but it is used to mark a service operation as one that responds to HTTP requests other than GET. It is a passive operation behavior (the IOperationBehavior methods do nothing) that adds metadata to the operation description. Applying the WebInvokeAttribute has no effect unless a behavior that looks for this metadata in the operation description (specifically, the WebHttpBehavior) is added to the service's behavior collection.

The WebInvokeAttribute attribute takes the optional parameters on the following table.

The UriTemplate class allows you to define a set of structurally similar URIs. Templates are composed of two parts, a path and a query. A path consists of a series of segments delimited by a slash (/). Each segment can have a literal value, a variable value (written within curly braces [{ }], constrained to match the contents of exactly one segment), or a wildcard (written as an asterisk [*], which matches "the rest of the path"), which must appear at the end of the path. The query expression can be omitted entirely. If present, it specifies an unordered series of name/value pairs. Elements of the query expression can be either literal pairs (?x=2) or variable pairs (?x={value}). Unpaired values are not permitted. UriTemplate is used internally by the WCF REST Programming Model to map specific URIs or groups of URIs to service operations.

The UriTemplateTable class represents an associative set of UriTemplate objects bound to an object of the developer's choosing. It lets you match candidate Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) against the templates in the set and retrieve the data associated with the matching templates. UriTemplateTable is used internally by the WCF REST Programming Model to map specific URIs or groups of URIs to service operations.

WebServiceHost extends the ServiceHost to make it easier to host a non-SOAP Web-style service. If WebServiceHost finds no endpoints in the service description, it automatically creates a default endpoint at the service's base address. When creating a default HTTP endpoint, the WebServiceHost also disables the HTTP Help page and the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) GET functionality so the metadata endpoint does not interfere with the default HTTP endpoint. WebServiceHost also ensures that all endpoints that use WebHttpBinding have the required WebHttpBehavior attached. Finally, WebServiceHost automatically configures the endpoint's binding to work with the associated Internet Information Services (IIS) security settings when used in a secure virtual directory.

The WebServiceHostFactory class is used to dynamically create a WebServiceHost when a service is hosted under Internet Information Services (IIS) or Windows Process Activation Service (WAS). Unlike a self-hosted service where the hosting application instantiates the WebServiceHost, services hosted under IIS or WAS use this class to create the WebServiceHost for the service. The CreateServiceHost method is called when a incoming request for the service is received.

The WebHttpBehavior supplies the necessary formatters, operation selectors, and so on, required for Web-style service support at the Service Model layer. This is implemented as an endpoint behavior (used in conjunction with the WebHttpBinding) and allows formatters and operation selectors to be specified for each endpoint, which enables the same service implementation to expose both SOAP and POX endpoints.

Extending WebHttpBehavior

The WebHttpDispatchOperationSelector uses UriTemplate and UriTemplateTable classes to dispatch calls to service operations.

The WCF REST Programming Model does not use SOAP-based messages and therefore does not support the WS-* protocols. You can however, expose the same contract by two different endpoints, one using SOAP and the other not using SOAP. See How to: Expose a Contract to SOAP and Web Clients for an example.

Because the WCF REST Programming Model does not support the WS-* protocols the only way to secure a web service built on the WCF REST Programming Model is to expose your service using SSL. For more information about on setting up SSL with IIS 7.0 see How to implement SSL in IIS

Reference

Concepts