Service Reference: HTTP Status 404- Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved

I am trying to connect to the California tax rate public API in my C# console application and receiving the service reference error below. I have been using it successfully for about 9 months. I tried to recreate the reference in a new application but receive the same error. I am unsure what troubleshooting steps to take. Please let me know if I can provide any more useful information.

The service is located here and is public to test: http://services.gis.boe.ca.gov/api/taxrates/Rates.svc

There was an error downloading 'http://services.gis.boe.ca.gov/api/taxrates/Rates.svc/$metadata'. The request failed with HTTP status 404: Not Found. Metadata contains a reference that cannot be resolved: 'http://services.gis.boe.ca.gov/api/taxrates/Rates.svc'. The server did not provide a meaningful reply; this might be caused by a contract mismatch, a premature session shutdown or an internal server error. If the service is defined in the current solution, try building the solution and adding the service reference again.

Solution

the wsdl that you get from the endpoint is invalid.

<xs:element name="TestResponse">
  <xs:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" name="TestResult" type="xs:string"/>          
</xs:element>

should be

<xs:element name="TestResponse">
    <xs:complexType>
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" name="TestResult" type="xs:string"/>
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

and the same for

<xs:element name="GetRateResponse">
    <xs:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" name="GetRateResult" type="tns:CARateResponseCollection"/>
</xs:element>

also

<wsdl:message name="ISoapService_Test_OutputMessage">
    <wsdl:part name="parameters" element="tns:String"/>
</wsdl:message>

should be

<wsdl:message name="ISoapService_Test_OutputMessage">
  <wsdl:part name="parameters" element="tns:TestResponse"/>
</wsdl:message>

and last

<wsdl:message name="ISoapService_GetRate_OutputMessage">
    <wsdl:part name="parameters" element="tns:CARateResponseCollection"/>
</wsdl:message>

must be

<wsdl:message name="ISoapService_GetRate_OutputMessage">
        <wsdl:part name="parameters" element="tns:GetRateResponse/>
</wsdl:message>