Develop Reference

Cannot use r.net within a wcf service

I am trying to set up an R.net WCF service as a server to run R commands on.
I have set up a test WinForms application where everything works.
This is how I use it:
void init()
{
SetupPath()
engine = REngine.GetInstanceFromID("test");
if (engine == null) engine = REngine.CreateInstance("test");
engine.Initialize();
}
...
results.Add(engine.Evaluate(command).AsCharacter().ToArray());
I created an equivalent WCF service which should work exactly the same;
REngine.CreateInstance() returns a valid REngine object,
engine.Initialize() silently crashes my service. Try-Catch section is ignored so I cannot see what exactly is happening.
What is the correct way to use R.net within a WCF service?
What could be the reason of different behaviours?
Where can I see detailed logs of the crash?
Service calls which don't use R.net complete successfully.
Both winforms test application and WCF service are 64 bit (i need them to be). (I did not manage to set up a 64-bit IIS express application, so am using IIS instead).

I did not manage to find the reason of the problem, however, switching to R.NET.Community package did the trick.

WCF service hosted in Windows service - not working

I've created the WCF service and some simple WPF application consuming it. When I'm running the project from within Visual Studio, the WCF Test Client opens and the application works just fine, method defined in service work.
But I need to host this WCF service in a Windows Service. I've followed this, installed the services using Installutil.exe and the ran the service. Everything went fine, it's working.
Yet, when I'm trying to open the executable file with WPF application directly from the debug folder of the app, I'm getting this error:
zad8. has stopped working
After choosing the option to debug it with new instance of VS I get
XamlParseException occured in PresentationFramework.dll
The stack trace shows something like:
connection can't be started, because the target computer is actively refusing it
Do you have any idea what could go wrong?

Fortunately, I've managed to come up with solution. I think I should post it, maybe one day it will help somebody:)
I actually did two mistakes, but one of them was unfortunately caused by the mentioned tutorial (here) in connection with my temporary blackout.
In step 5, point 8 of this tutorial, there's an example of overriding OnStart() method:
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
if (myServiceHost != null)
{
myServiceHost.Close();
}
myServiceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(Service1));
myServiceHost.Open();
}
Beware, that Service1 is ambiguous in this context, because it's name of the Windows Service project class as well as the name of WCF Service class. It should be written with fully qualified name (here it is WcfServiceLibrary1.Service1). In my case, the service name was different, and I just put the Service1 in there in a hurry. Anyway..
In case, someone has it all behind and still encounters the same problem (with app stopped working), I think that you should try open the project in Visual Studio and try to debug the client consuming application as a new instance (right click on the project-> Debug -> Start as new instance...).
It might seem trivial, but when u hit F5 or Ctrl+F5 then even if u have only those project set as startup project, VS will host it's client anyway. In my case it did matter, because I needed to use isolation storage file. And as it was kept on the service side, then I had this file created in IIS server created by VS. Somehow, my method of creating such file had set FileMode.Open() and it was causing the crush, because in Windows Service it didn't exist and the new one couldn't be created and that was neccessary to run it correctly.
What's more it just showed me that this question couldn't be answered properly, cause the data I've provided was not enough and it was delicate.
Cheers:)

Remote unit testin of a WebService in Visual Studio 2010

I need to change my unit test from local to remote tests and so far I thought that all I had to do is change UrlToTest to point to another server... But VS keeps on insisting to create a Development Web Server instead of using the one that is already running.
So after reading some docs my question actually is do I have install Test Controller and Test Agent on both remote and local computer or what? What if the WebService is on Linux...
Note that I don't want to debug the application that I'm testing. I simply want tests to be executed for a WebService that is already running, that is deployed.
I probably should mention that all my tests consists of WebService calls and some checks like this:
[TestMethod()]
[HostType("ASP.NET")]
[AspNetDevelopmentServerHost("MainProjectName", "/")]
[UrlToTest("http://servername:port/websitename/TestingOnlyWebForm.aspx")]
public void LoginEmptyDataTest()
{
IUserService userService = CreateIUserService();
string email = "";
string password = "";
ReturnMessage<User> actual;
actual = userService.Login(email, password);
Assert.AreNotEqual(true, actual.Status);
Assert.AreNotEqual("db_error", actual.Info);
}
But I have also more complicated tests in which I change some data and send it to another WebService and so on.
Note that UrlToTest previously was pointing to localhost at which point it works but starts a developer server which is not what I want.

What you are trying to is not possible. All that generated unit test is trying to do is to run the test locally on the machine either using the development server by specifying AspNetDevelopmentServerHost or by using local IIS, when AspNetDevelopmentServerHost is not present.
If you want to test remote services right click your unit test project and add a service reference. Point to your service give it a namespace, say Services, and generate the proxies. Once you have the proxies generated just instantiate them and call the methods. Also remove all the unneeded attributes from your test. Your test should roughly look like this:
[TestMethod]
public void LoginEmptyDataTest()
{
using (var userServiceClient = new Services.UserServiceClient(
"BasicHttpBinding_IUserService",
"http://someremotehost/userservice.svc"))
{
var result = userServiceClient.Login("user", "password");
// asserts go here
}
}
This may solve your immediate problem however you should re-think what you are doing as #eglasius said. what happens if the code you call changes state internally? Next test might fail because of that so you need clean-up strategies otherwise your tests will be very brittle and you'll end up ignoring them.
Update: passing an address at run-time. Change the first parameter to whatever enpoint configuration name you have in your config file.

I'll take a stab in the dark at this one because I did something similar recently.
In my case my test project referenced the service project to provide visibility of the service and data contracts the Web Service implements and consumes.
To resolve this - though it can be ignored - move the contracts to a new project. Then have the service and test projects reference the new project, and remove the test projects' reference to the service.
Hope that makes sense!
Once the reference is removed, VS will no longer feel the need to start up your service when you run your tests.

You can disable the startup of the Service Host in the Project settings of your WCF Service Project. Right Click - WCF Options - Uncheck "Start WCF Service Host when debugging another project in the same solution".

You really have to consider the nature of what you're trying to achieve here.
It's hard to tell exactly what you're hitting of the code. I have the impression, you have is a website that calls a web service. You're testing the client code in that context, instead of just testing the service.
If that's the case, remove the attributes and point the url to the correct service like UrbaEsc guided you to. If you don't remove the attributes, you're running the calling code in the context of the site.
Even if the above is not the scenario, and based on what you replied to UrbanEsc in the comments, you'd then be testing an external call to the webservice initiated from the same site process.
You said:
"Found it, but VS still starts something on localhost and then trys to reach external server... Seems like VS is just not designed for real remote testing of webservices"
Read the above. I'd say you need to better understand what you're enabling. You can certainly test remote web services, like you can do pretty much anything you can code. You do that from client code that knows nothing different that what any other external client of the service would know. Support doesn't stop there, as you can do load testing of the service.
Note that what you're doing aren't unit tests, these are integration tests. Or depending on the scope of your system, full system tests.

Load SSRS Report from file in C# in a service

We are looking into replacing Crystal with SSRS.
I would like to know if it is at all possible to load the .rdl or .rdl.data file in C# and generate the report to a memory stream.
I have seen some examples using the LocalReport, but this seems to be part of either the WinForms or WebForms assemblies.
So what I would like to know is:
Is it possible to load the report from file as part of our service.
Can we then generate the report to a Stream (lets say a memory
stream)
Can I do this without using the WebForms/WinForms assemblies in my
service
Can we achieve this without using the webservice for SSRS

I'm not sure that this is an answer, but lets call it supporting material.
I have this code example from msdn that shows how you can do this by creating a service client and calling a given report as a PDF and saves it to file stream.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/reportexecution2005.reportexecutionservice.render.aspx
The problem I'm currently having is finding the correct client object to interact with after pointing VS to the SSRS service. The object I'm using to interact with the service is:
ReportExecutionServiceSoapClient rs = new ReportExecutionServiceSoapClient();
However, the interface doesn't match my code example. So this is a little closer, but not an answer.
UPDATE: The correct Proxy class generator
Here's the link to how to generate the proxy correctly. You'll need the windows sdk installed (current is 7.1). You can find that on microsoft.com, like I did. Execute the command line and it'll generate a file for you. Include in project:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155134%28v=SQL.110%29.aspx
UPDATE: Got the thing workin
I just had to generate the correct proxy. Ok, so for SSRS 2010, apparently they split report execution and management out into two services. The only one I needed to generate my report from a C# console app was the execution service. Maybe that's totally obvious to everyone but me :) ?
Ok so open up a Windows SDK command shell and put this stuff in it for the execution service:
wsdl /language:CS /n:"Microsoft.SqlServer.ReportExecution" http://<Server Name>/reportserver/reportexecution2010.asmx?wsdl /o:"ReportExecution.cs"
Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1 and pick up your ReportExecution.cs file. Copy and paste it in your project.
Then you just have to say this:
Microsoft.SqlServer.ReportExecution.ReportExecutionService rsExec =
new Microsoft.SqlServer.ReportExecution.ReportExecutionService();
rsExec.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
rsExec.Url = #"http://<ServerName>/reportserver/ReportExecution2005.asmx";
Follow along the example from this link, which is the same one as above, and you should be generating some pretty awesome reports from your handy C# app.

XML namespace problem in Visual Studio generated service reference

I'm connecting to a web service hosted by a third-party provider. I've added a service reference in my project to the web service, VS has generated all the references and classes needed.
I'm connecting with this piece of code (client name and methods anonymized):
using (var client = new Client())
{
try
{
client.Open();
var response = client.Method(...);
return response.Status;
}
catch (SoapException ex)
{
throw CreateServiceException(ex);
}
finally
{
client.Close();
}
}
When reaching the client.Open(), I get an exception with this message:
The top XML element '_return' from
namespace '' references distinct types
System.Boolean and
Service.Status.
Use XML attributes to specify another
XML name or namespace for the element
or types.
In reference.cs, I can see that the "_return" variable is decorated with
[System.ServiceModel.MessageBodyMemberAttribute(Namespace="", Order=0)]
Is there a problem with the wsdl, the generated service reference or in my code?
Update: Generating the service as an old school Web Service solves the problem. I've marked Sixto's answer as accepted for now, but I'm still curious what could've caused the problem and if any parameters to the service generator could solve the original problem.

If you were able to create a service reference then the WSDL is valid. The exception message is saying you have namespace/type ambiguity problem with _return. The generated code is probably using it in some context as a boolean and in another context as a Service.Status type.
I don’t call the ClientBase.Open method before invoking a service method because I’ve never seen the need for it. I do always call the Close & Abort methods as appropriate. The Open method basically just changes the state of the client to no longer be configurable. I’m not sure how that would trigger code in the generated class since it is an inherited method. I’d try just removing that line and see if you get the same exception. Otherwise, if you haven’t already done so, search the generated code for all the places _return is used and see if you can manually sort-out the appropriate type. You may need different names for each context.
Another way to troubleshoot the WSDL is to create a Web Reference (assuming it’s an HTTP based service) and see if the generate code works as expected. If it does work, go with the ASMX client unless you have a need for WCF proxy capabilities.