Turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults (either from ServiceBehaviorAttribute or from the <serviceDebug> configuration behavior) on the server

Question

I have a WCF service that has been working perfectly, and something has changed and I don't know what.

I get this exception:

System.ServiceModel.FaultException: The server was unable to process the request due to an internal error. For more information about the error, either turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults (either from ServiceBehaviorAttribute or from the configuration behavior) on the server in order to send the exception information back to the client, or turn on tracing as per the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 SDK documentation and inspect the server trace logs.

This is confusing because I am running .NET 4.0.

Where do I turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults? I'm battling to find it.

Solution 1

Define a behavior in your .config file:

<configuration>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="debug">
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    ...
  </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

Then apply the behavior to your service along these lines:

<configuration>
  <system.serviceModel>
    ...
    <services>
      <service name="MyServiceName" behaviorConfiguration="debug" />
    </services>
  </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

You can also set it programmatically. See this question.

Solution 2

It's in the app.config file.

<configuration>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior>
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/>

Solution 3

If you want to do this by code, you can add the behavior like this:

serviceHost.Description.Behaviors.Remove(
    typeof(ServiceDebugBehavior));
serviceHost.Description.Behaviors.Add(
    new ServiceDebugBehavior { IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true });

Solution 4

You can also set it in the [ServiceBehavior] tag above your class declaration that inherits the interface

[ServiceBehavior(IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true)]
public class MyClass:IMyService
{
...
}

Immortal Blue is correct in not disclosing the exeption details to a publicly released version, but for testing purposes this is a handy tool. Always turn back off when releasing.

Solution 5

I was also getting the same error, the WCF was working properly for me when i was using it in the Dev Environment with my credentials, but when someone else was using it in TEST, it was throwing the same error. I did a lot of research, and then instead of doing config updates, handled an exception in the WCF method with the help of fault exception. Also the identity for the WCF needs to be set with the same credentials which are having access in the database, someone might have changed your authority. Please find below the code for the same:

 [ServiceContract]
public interface IService1
{
    [OperationContract]
    [FaultContract(typeof(ServiceData))]
    ForDataset GetCCDBdata();

    [OperationContract]
    [FaultContract(typeof(ServiceData))]
    string GetCCDBdataasXMLstring();


    //[OperationContract]
    //string GetData(int value);

    //[OperationContract]
    //CompositeType GetDataUsingDataContract(CompositeType composite);

    // TODO: Add your service operations here
}

  [DataContract]
public class ServiceData
{
    [DataMember]
    public bool Result { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public string ErrorMessage { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public string ErrorDetails { get; set; }
}

in your service1.svc.cs you can use this in the catch block:

 catch (Exception ex)
        {
            myServiceData.Result = false;
            myServiceData.ErrorMessage = "unforeseen error occured. Please try later.";
            myServiceData.ErrorDetails = ex.ToString();
            throw new FaultException<ServiceData>(myServiceData, ex.ToString());
        }

And use this in the Client application like below code:

  ConsoleApplicationWCFClient.CCDB_HIG_service.ForDataset ds = obj.GetCCDBdata();

            string str = obj.GetCCDBdataasXMLstring();

        }

        catch (FaultException<ConsoleApplicationWCFClient.CCDB_HIG_service.ServiceData> Fex)
      {
          Console.WriteLine("ErrorMessage::" + Fex.Detail.ErrorMessage + Environment.NewLine);
          Console.WriteLine("ErrorDetails::" + Environment.NewLine + Fex.Detail.ErrorDetails);
          Console.ReadLine();
      }

Just try this, it will help for sure to get the exact issue.

View more solutions

Comments

[MaxRecursion]

Hi Otivel, I my case there are nested folders containing different site and services. The folder where my service resides and I am getting error is at third degree of nesting relative to main web application and I have dedicated web.config for each service. I change my corresponding web.config accordingly to add <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />. But I am still getting the error. Do I need to change all the web.config in complete web application?

[Otiel]

@AkshayKulkarni: Not sure, I don't have experience with your case. Make sure your services have a reference to the serviceBehavior (check gagogra answer) first. If that doesn't solve the problem, please ask a question on SO.

[Matthew Lock]

Hi, could you put the entire tree so we know where to put these XML fragments?

[Otiel]

@MatthewLock: Updated answer. Also, check <behavior> and <service> if you need more details.

[andrewb]

Visual Studio tells me that serviceBehaviors can't be a direct child of system.serviceModel. Ended up going with rich.okelly's answer.

[Immortal Blue]

You should NOT be exposing the underlying exception details. The whole purpose for the separation of exceptions between client and server and the need for this flag at all, is to prevent exception information being made available to the client. A malicious user could use this information to manipulate your service! If you're developing, use the behavior IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults as described to propagate the whole exception, or in deployment, raise a faultexception giving a very basic error, such as "Unable to save file" rather than giving a stack trace and full details of the exception.

[Jeff]

Note: VS2013 puts the <serviceDebug> tag in the default Web.config with it set to false. If you don't notice like I didn't and add the XML above apparently what's in last in the file wins. Hope this is useful to someone out there.

[Jan Zahradník]

The error is still the same, but its type has changed. Now it's FaultException<ExceptionDetail> which has property Detail.InnerException where you find server exception.

[jayt.dev]

Where can I find the name of "MyServiceName" ?

[MajorInc]

There is an error if you copy and paste the second code block. There is no close tag, should be: <service name="MyServiceName" behaviorConfiguration="debug"/>

[Otiel]

@jayt.dev "MyServiceName" should be the fully qualified name (= with namespace) of the type that provides an implementation of a service contract. For instance, "MyNamespace.MyServiceType". (see documentation)

[Pashec]

Don't set name attribute of <behavior> (as in @Otiel answer) if you want it to apply to all your services.

[Daniel Bonetti]

Add this to your ServiceHost object instance: Example: ServiceHost serviceHost = new ServiceHost(Program.serviceInstance);

[pnet]

Debug information should not be used in production environments. In Production environment disable the tag, set to false like includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false"

[user3217843]

Hi .. in my case all other service function is getting called by the function which i m using to save the file is throwing that exception...to know the exact issue i used logging system but no log is created for that method...i m creating 3 logs 1) when the service hit 2) before saving any file and 3) exception log.

[AlbatrossCafe]

I used this in an application that runs on the backend and will never be publicly viewable, so this works perfectly