Can I prevent Web Reference Auto-Generation?

Can I prevent Web Reference Auto-Generation?

• bong2x

  I struggled with this at first, as well.
  I was using some web service extensions, and turning them on and off at the method level which would get overwritten with each new generation of the proxy file.
  
  It is wizard generated code after all, and does warn you that it will result in loss of code upon regeneration.
  
  I just wrote a tool that would parse through the proxy file and insert my code back at the appropriate places.  I know it is not the answer you want, but it is probably your only option.
  
  Good Luck.
  --MikeH 
  

• flynng

  I tried something that I thought/hoped would work, but its giving me issues.
  
  I generated the web reference, and made my changes to reference.vb (tried running the project like this to ensure it worked - it does).  Then I copied the code from reference.vb into another vb file in my project.  Deleted the web reference, then added back the project setting that identifies the web service address (this is in VS 2005 btw).
  
  But this gives me a WebException saying the web server can't be reached, and its actively denying my connection.  What am I missing here, shouldn't this work   Isn't it doing the exact same thing as a web reference   What piece of the puzzle am I missing

  
  

• mrbopalop1

  Yeah, it looks like there is some port magic happening when you run uner a file system instead of IIS.
  
  I think there is a way to set the port for this case.
  

  1. In Visual Studio, go to the Properties window (by pressing F4) of the Web project to get the port number. Note that this is not the project's Property Pages dialog box, but rather a docked window within Visual Studio 2005. The Use Dynamic Ports value defaults to True.

  2. To prevent Visual Studio from selecting a different port number, change the Use Dynamic Ports option to False.

  
  

• quicksun

  Resoved my issues too.:)
  
  

• HelenZHOU

  This sounds about right.  The truth is, you shouldnt need a web reference at all if you just generate the proxy file (reference.vb).
  
  I dont actually use a web reference, but use the WSDL tool to generate the proxy file and then just reference this .vb or .cs class like you would any other class file in your project.
  
  If you run
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\WSDL" /l:vb http://localhost/MyProject/MyProject.asmx wsdl
  at the command line it will generate a file named MyProject.vb
  
  You can then include this vb file in your project just like any other vb file.
  This would actually help solve your problem of auto-regeneration, because there is no webreference anymore.  However, any time you make a change to the webservice (new methods or something like that) you will need to re-run this command to generate a new .vb file.
  
  Let me know if I am barking up the right tree for your question.
  
  --MikeH
  

• M. Hassan Raza

  Alrighty, I think I figured out where the problem is.  Doing the wsdl command-line tool worked.  However, it hardcodes the url of the web service in there.  Right now the web service is hosted within the VS web server (file system).  When you create a web reference, it puts the URL as a project setting.  So I modified the .vb file generated from the wsdl tool to do the same thing and grab the url from a project setting.
  
  But I believe that visual studio can change the port used by the web service whenever it feels like it.  When you use a Web Reference I believe VS automagically takes care of keeping the project setting updated to point to the proper port (the web service is in the same solution if that has anything to do with this).  Is there any way to do this without having to manually change the setting every time VS decides to switch ports
  
• Can I prevent Web Reference Auto-Generation?