MyServiceHostFactory could not be loaded during host compilation
Last Friday and this morning I had been trying to deploy the latest changes to my WCF application. As I started doing this the manual way (e.g. copying all DLLs, configs, and service endpoints into a directory to zip and send up to my web server), I took a step back and realized I needed a NAnt build target because I’m going to be doing this over-and-over again. However, after creating the build target and deploying the resulting Zip to my web server, I received a strange error message when trying to invoke my services. The specific error message can be seen below. In a nutshell, rather than relying on the standard WCF ServiceHost to invoke my service contracts, I have custom defined a factory (dubbed MyServiceHostFactory) for building out my ServiceHost. However, WCF was unable to find the factory. I checked the bin/ directory and the assembly was present (Coa.Accounts.Services.Host.dll). I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out why this error message was being caused. The various recommendations from Google didn’t work, and recompiling half a dozen times also didn’t fix the problem.Server Error in '/2010/05/631' Application.
Parser Error
Description: An error occurred during the parsing of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific parse error details and modify your source file appropriately.
Parser Error Message: The CLR Type 'Coa.Accounts.Services.Host.Infrastructure.MyServiceHostFactory' could not be loaded during service compilation. Verify that this type is either defined in a source file located in the application's \App_Code directory, contained in a compiled assembly located in the application's \bin directory, or present in an assembly installed in the Global Assembly Cache. Note that the type name is case-sensitive and that the directories such as \App_Code and \bin must be located in the application's root directory and cannot be nested in subdirectories.
Source Error:
Line 1: <%@ ServiceHost
Line 2: Service="Coa.Accounts.Services.ServiceImplementation.ProfileService"
Line 3: Factory="Coa.Accounts.Services.Host.Infrastructure.MyServiceHostFactory" %>
Source File: /2010/05/631/ProfileService.svc Line: 3
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.4200; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.4016
This is when I tried using my setup project and noticed something interesting. Although I was copying the same files to the bin/ directory as the Setup project in Visual Studio was, the Setup project would work and not throw the error message. This is when I started paying attention to my build process. It should compile all *.cs files in my project directory. This is where the discrepancy showed up:compile.sil.host:
[csc] Compiling 2 files to 'C:\development\carc-accountctrl\build\bin\Coa.Accounts.Services.Host.dll'.
BUILD SUCCEEDED
Total time: 5.2 seconds.
There are a lot more than just 2 files in my project folder. There’s actually 6 files, plus 1 commonly linked file (GlobalAssemblyInfo.cs). Sure enough, when I looked at my NAnt csc target, the sources referenced my build destination instead of the sources. A quick fix results in a fix to the problem:compile.sil.host:
[csc] Compiling 7 files to 'C:\development\carc-accountctrl\build\bin\Coa.Accounts.Services.Host.dll'.
BUILD SUCCEEDED
Total time: 5.2 seconds.
So, in a nutshell, if you receive the error listed above and are using NAnt to automate your deployment, pay attention to the fact that your build sources are correct. Thankfully this wasn’t a weeklong ordeal like it could have potentially become.
