Programatically Update WSDL on Consumer Side

[Ben Crinion]

I am creating a web service which will be available on only one of two
servers at a time. Both servers will have exactly the same services running
but one will be a backup which just waits doing nothing. They will both have
WSDL files on with
the only difference being the <soap:address location="" /> value in the
<service> element.

The service consumer (ASP.NET pages) will get the current live server to use
from a function (call it GetServer()) which will return a hostname. I want
to update the Web Reference in the project with the WSDL from the host
returned by GetServer().

I figure my options are:
1. Make the project change the URL of the WSDL file it is using and then
recompile the proxy classes. (I dont yet know how to change the URL of the
reference.)
2. Store the WSDL files on the same web server as the ASP.NET pages and make
a seperate program which opens the WSDL file and physically changes the
value.

The problem is i dont know how to make the project update the web reference?
How can i do this?

Any suggestions would be greatfully received.

Thanks
Ben Crinion

[Peter Kelcey]

If all you want to do is point your client to the propery "live" server
at runtime, the all you need to use is the URL property of the proxy
class to programatically change point to the live server.

Example

Public Sub Example()

Dim newUrl as string
newUrl = GetServer()

Dim webProxy as new localhost.webservice 'replace this with you
actual proxy declaration
webProxy.Url = newUrl

webProxy.MyWebMethod() 'replace this with the call to your actual
web method.
End Sub

You don't need to worry about changing the WSDL.

I'd also suggest that you look at setting up a UDDI server. A UDDI
server would give you the proper tools to manage the locations of you
services. With UDDI you can upload a copy of your WSDL. All clients
that want to consume your service can retrieve this WSDL from the UDDI
server and can develop against it. Then, you can configure an access
point in the UDDI service that points to the current live location of
the service that matches your WSDL. The client applications can query
the UDDI server for this access point and can use the code I outlined
above to dynamically point to the live service.As an administrator, you
just need to change the access point in the UDDI server to redirect all
clients to the new location.

Hope that helps.

Peter Kelcey

[Ben Crinion]

Thanks, this is exactly the kind of thing i was looking for.

Do you know the location of any recent documentation on creating and using a
UDDI server?

Thanks
Ben

"Peter Kelcey" <Pe**********@telus.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...

If all you want to do is point your client to the propery "live" server
at runtime, the all you need to use is the URL property of the proxy
class to programatically change point to the live server.

Example

Public Sub Example()

Dim newUrl as string
newUrl = GetServer()

Dim webProxy as new localhost.webservice 'replace this with you
actual proxy declaration
webProxy.Url = newUrl

webProxy.MyWebMethod() 'replace this with the call to your actual
web method.
End Sub

You don't need to worry about changing the WSDL.

I'd also suggest that you look at setting up a UDDI server. A UDDI
server would give you the proper tools to manage the locations of you
services. With UDDI you can upload a copy of your WSDL. All clients
that want to consume your service can retrieve this WSDL from the UDDI
server and can develop against it. Then, you can configure an access
point in the UDDI service that points to the current live location of
the service that matches your WSDL. The client applications can query
the UDDI server for this access point and can use the code I outlined
above to dynamically point to the live service.As an administrator, you
just need to change the access point in the UDDI server to redirect all
clients to the new location.

Hope that helps.

Peter Kelcey

[Peter Kelcey]

Windows 2003 ships with a UDDI server component that is an optional add
in.

You can check out the FAQ at

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...t/uddifaq.mspx

and the UDDI developer center at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/nhp/Defaul...entid=28001204

Peter Kelcey