You can expose the service in two different endpoints.
the SOAP one can use the binding that support SOAP e.g. basicHttpBinding, the RESTful one can use the webHttpBinding. I assume your REST service will be in JSON, in that case, you need to configure the two endpoints with the following behaviour configuration
<endpointBehaviors>
<behavior name="jsonBehavior">
<enableWebScript/>
</behavior>
</endpointBehaviors>
An example of endpoint configuration in your scenario is
<services>
<service name="TestService">
<endpoint address="soap" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="ITestService"/>
<endpoint address="json" binding="webHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="jsonBehavior" contract="ITestService"/>
</service>
</services>
so, the service will be available at
Apply [WebGet] to the operation contract to make it RESTful.
e.g.
public interface ITestService
{
[OperationContract]
[WebGet]
string HelloWorld(string text)
}
Note, if the REST service is not in JSON, parameters of the operations can not contain complex type.
Reply to the post for SOAP and RESTful POX(XML)
For plain old XML as return format, this is an example that would work both for SOAP and XML.
[ServiceContract(Namespace = "http://test")]
public interface ITestService
{
[OperationContract]
[WebGet(UriTemplate = "accounts/{id}")]
Account[] GetAccount(string id);
}
POX behavior for REST Plain Old XML
<behavior name="poxBehavior">
<webHttp/>
</behavior>
Endpoints
<services>
<service name="TestService">
<endpoint address="soap" binding="basicHttpBinding" contract="ITestService"/>
<endpoint address="xml" binding="webHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="poxBehavior" contract="ITestService"/>
</service>
</services>
Service will be available at
REST request
try it in browser,
http://www.example.com/xml/accounts/A123
SOAP request
client endpoint configuration for SOAP service after adding the service reference,
<client>
<endpoint address="http://www.example.com/soap" binding="basicHttpBinding"
contract="ITestService" name="BasicHttpBinding_ITestService" />
</client>
in C#
TestServiceClient client = new TestServiceClient();
client.GetAccount("A123");
Another way of doing it is to expose two different service contract and each one with specific configuration. This may generate some duplicates at code level, however at the end of the day, you want to make it working.
Simple explanation about SOAP and REST
SOAP - "Simple Object Access Protocol"
SOAP is a method of transferring messages, or small amounts of information, over the Internet. SOAP messages are formatted in XML and are typically sent using HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol).
Rest - Representational state transfer
Rest is a simple way of sending and receiving data between client and server and it doesn't have very many standards defined. You can send and receive data as JSON, XML or even plain text. It's light weighted compared to SOAP.
Best Answer
This is a problem with WCF not following the standards.
SOAP 1.1 uses the SOAPAction header to decide what method to call, but this was a bit messy as the method name was embedded elsewhere in the message. SOAP 1.2 resolved this and added the action to content-type header, and deprecated the SOAPAction header (though its now an optional for those clients that still want to send it).
See an o'reilly blog page for some details.