One of the really cool features of WCF is the possibility to be able to change binding in the config… Of course the transport need to be supported by the host. For example you can’t use TCP/IP transport in a web-site hosted service.

So - you’ll have to create the host by yourself - selfhosting. However there are some nasty configuration to be done in order to get the service to work. Otherwise you’ll get this error message:

HTTP could not register URL http://+:[yourport]

Here is an article from Microsoft describing how to get it to work. And here is another article describing how to solve it

In my last post I mentioned the great WCF service/client configuration editor that ships with Visual Studio 2008. I haven’t used it much but rather done “it” by hand - which has been quite painful from time to time.

Here is a great introduction to the editor that shows off some of the great capabilities of it.

Another “tip”, if you like, that I found on my way through the configuration jungle is that the binding part is complete separated from the other part of the configuration. Also, the client and server binding should be configured the same way (at least for a single endpoint). This means, and is actually quite effective, that you can copy the binding part from one .config-file to another to get the same configuration. An easy but very helpful tip.

This area is (in the words of Juwal Löwy) “truly vast”. And as I read somewhere else most of the properties doesn’t make sense to the common programmer. We (yeah, I’m one of the common ones) just want it to work.

Also, when it comes to configuring WCF services Microsoft has gone the complete opposite way from their normal way of doing things; normally Microsoft hides everything you don’t need to know from you and you’ll have to dig to get to the advanced things. When it comes to WCF all the possible values are shown right off - scared the living daylights of of me. Just add a reference to a WCF-service and check your client .config-file.

So what to do - well I’m sorry but you’ll need to know quite a bit of information, here are some resources that I have found useful:

• The book Read More

Yes - I know that this is quite rare but if you want something really easy in place then this is how to use wsHttpBinding with no security:

<service name=”FaktureringsTjanst” <endpoint address=”” binding=”wsHttpBinding” bindingConfiguration=”myBindingConfigurationWsHttp” contract=”IContract” behaviorConfiguration=”FaktureringsTjanstBehavior” /> </service> </services>

<!– Bindings –> <bindings> <wsHttpBinding> <binding name=”myBindingConfigurationWsHttp” maxReceivedMessageSize=”500000” sendTimeout=”00:05:00” receiveTimeout=”00:05:00”> <security mode=”None”> <message clientCredentialType=”None” /> </security> </binding> </wsHttpBinding> </bindings>

I found a very niffty little feature of MSBuild, that is really helpful when it comes to structuring your build file.

In MSBuild the “sub-routines” are called targets and works just like expected, that is you can call the targets and invoke them in the order you like. BUT, there are no way of sending parameters to them - which at first are very hard to understand.

From this article I learned how to do it. And it’s not to hard. But it’s a bit of a hack… in my opinion.

Actually it’s easier to describe it as it’s intended from the outset, to call targets in other files. Imagine that you create a MSBuild-file called DeployScript.proj with a target called DeployIt. In order to deploy to different environments we use some variables that instructs MSBuild to deploy to different paths for example. Like the $(PublishWebSitePath) in the example...

My current project has been crazy intensive with some really really tight time-schedules but they are coming to a close soon. This has made me down-priorities the blogging to a minimum.

I’ll try to do some write up to get some of my “findings” in here.

The last week marked a significant step in this year for the Vasa Band. We released our brand new CD Priority (as I wrote about here) and also embarked on a small tour of the western part of Sweden.

The tour was great - and the greatest part about it was the way we felt that our message was received and understood. It’s always good to be on a tour, especially with this band, but this was something else; we had really worked hard on getting the message about Jesus across and crystal clear and it seems as it worked.

I am right now editing some of the recorded music and it doesn’t sound to bad either. Hopefully some of it will be posted on the Vasa Band homepage in a while.

Oh yeah - I became sick on the last day, and the journey home was...

I have just updated the operating system for my IRiver to the latest (3.0) version of RockBox.

One big gottcha jumped up and bit me; you have to manually change a setting that enables RockBox to charge via USB… Here is how its done.

Really annoying for me since a H320 IRiver only charges through the USB-port… Well now it’s fixed.

The blogging has been down to a minimum for the last couple of weeks. This has to do with the current project being rushed to say the least.

But I am still alive and kicking! I’ll try to do some work related updates during the day. In my private life I can say that things are really interesting:

• Yesterday was release-party for the Priority-CD of the Vasa Band. Very rewarding to finally see the great looking CD.
• Tomorrow we’ll be going on tour to the eastern part of Sweden
• I (and Elin) took the leap and disassembled my IRiver to change battery. That was as scary as I feared but now it’s done.

I’ll try to post some finding on MSBuild, PIAB and more as the day goes along

When my battery for my H320 arrives, I of course must replace the old one. I am dreading this moment!

Yes, I know - you all are saying: come on, how hard can it be? Well, I’ll tell you how hard:

You see! “Use some force. Lift up the motherboard” - these things scare me.