Emil's Wicked Cool Blog

Implementing Spring.NET WCF services is fairly straightforward.

Implementing MS Ajax WCF services is also straightforward, if you pick the right New Item to add from Visual Studio.

The complication comes in when you want a Spring.NET WCF service that handles calls from Microsoft Ajax controls.  This method will let you add them. 

Step 1. Add new "Ajax-Enabled WCF Service"









Step 3. Introduce an interface to use for the methods.  Spring.Net requires an interface, and this is the crux of the problem.  Here I've created IMyAjaxService.




Step 6. Change web.config endpoint contract (xpath = /configuration/system.serviceModel/services/service/endpoint) to reference the interface



Step 7: Test. The test should work, without dependency injection from Spring.Net.  Now we have a WCF service that responds to Ajax, but has the interface definitions just the way Spring likes them.


For Spring.NET to handle WCF, you need .NET 3.0 or higher, and you need Spring.Net 1.3.0 or higher.  You'll need the following DLLs available for binding (either your bin directory or the GAC):

• Spring.Core.dll from the 2.0 folder
• Spring.Web.dll from the 2.0 folder
• Spring.Services.dll from the 3.0 folder

In the Service you've created, edit the markup and add Factory="Spring.ServiceModel.Activation.ServiceHostFactory" onto the end, like so:

This will get Spring.Net into the activation pipeline for the service.

Lastly, you'll add the new object to spring configuration.  It is CRITICAL that the OBJECT ID MATCH THE SERVICE NAME FROM WEB.CONFIG.  The Spring.Net documentation mentions this, but I don't think they mention it very loudly.  The type information is exactly as you'd expect: the type for the WCF service class.


Also CRITICAL:  Add singleton="false" to the object definition for Spring for your new object