Create XML representation of WCF binding instance

Question

I'm trying to write code to convert a WCF wsHttpBinding to customBinding, using the method described on WSHttpBinding.CreateBindingElements Method .

Binding wsHttpBinding = ...
BindingElementCollection beCollection = originalBinding.CreateBindingElements();
foreach (var element in beCollection)
{
    customBinding.Elements.Add(element);
}

Once I have generated the custom binding, I want to generate an XML representation for that new custom binding. (The same XML representation that's found in an application's .config file).

Is there a way to do that?

(I'm aware of the tool referenced in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4217892/5688, but I need something I can call within an application and without depending on a service in the cloud)

Answer 1

The class I was looking for was System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceContractGenerator

Exemple to generate a configuration for an instance of any kind of Binding:

public static string SerializeBindingToXmlString(Binding binding)
{
    var tempConfig = Path.GetTempFileName();
    var tempExe = tempConfig + ".exe";
    var tempExeConfig = tempConfig + ".exe.config";
    // [... create empty .exe and empty .exe.config...]

    var configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(tempExe);
    var contractGenerator = new ServiceContractGenerator(configuration);
    string bindingSectionName;
    string configurationName;
    contractGenerator.GenerateBinding(binding, out bindingSectionName, out configurationName);

    BindingsSection bindingsSection = BindingsSection.GetSection(contractGenerator.Configuration);

    // this needs to be called in order for GetRawXml() to return the updated config
    // (otherwise it will return an empty string)
    contractGenerator.Configuration.Save(); 

    string xmlConfig = bindingsSection.SectionInformation.GetRawXml();

    // [... delete the temporary files ...]
    return xmlConfig;
}

This solution feels like a hack because of the need to generate empty temporary files, but it works.

Now I'll have to look for a way to have a fully in-memory instance of a System.Configuration.Configuration (maybe by writing my own implementation)