Accessing HttpContext.Current from WCF Service

By default, when you create an new WCF Service in a web site, they live side-by-side and the WCF service cannot access the HttpContext.Current-object (and the other ASP.NET-features like File/URL-authorization, HttpModules and ASP.NET impersonation), and in some Ajax-scenarios, we really need it.

There are two simple steps for enabling it.

First, you need to turn it on in the web config, look for "system.serviceModel" and add the "serviceHostingEnvironment"-tag like this:

  <system.serviceModel>

    <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" />

Second, add the attribute "[AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Required)]" to your service-class (it can't be in the interface):

using System.ServiceModel.Activation;

namespace Alaz.DotNetDiscoveries.JSONWithWCF

{

    // NOTE: If you change the class name "TrueJSON" here, you must also update the reference to "TrueJSON" in Web.config.

    [AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Required)]

    public class TrueJSON : ITrueJSON

    {

        public MyClass DoWork()

        {

            var returnObject = new MyClass 

                {

                    Id = 1, 

                    IHaveNoDataMemberAttribute = "Meaningless", 

                    Name = "Satchmo",

                    NoPublicGet = "Hello world!",

                    InternalProperty = 155

                };

            return returnObject;

        }

    }

}

And you are done!

MSDN documentation here.