Endpoints Page

The Endpoints page is invoked by clicking on the Endpoints icon under AppFabric when using the Features View tab (as opposed to Content View tab) in Information Services (IIS) Manager. The Endpoints page is visible from the server, site, or application scope. If the current scope is at the service level, you can invoke the Endpoints page by clicking on the View Endpoints link within the Actions pane.

Within this page you can view system endpoints, default application endpoints, and application endpoints defined in a Web.config file. A system endpoint is an endpoint that the AppFabric system adds to the service automatically. A default application endpoint is the endpoint that is added to the application based on the protocols supported on the application. An application endpoint is the endpoint you define in a Web.config file. Any other endpoints that are created dynamically created at runtime using the code are not shown in this page.

System endpoint types are defined in the endpointExtensions section in the machine.config (for example, discoveryEndpoint). However there is an exception to this rule for workflowControlEndpoint and serviceMetadataEndpoint. The first endpoint is added to the service when you select the Enable instance control option in the Workflow Host Management tab of the Configure Service dialog box and the second endpoint is added when you select the Enable metadata over HTTP option in the General tab of the Configure Service dialog box.

.NET Framework 4 adds an application default endpoint for all tag-less services in a Web application for each protocol enabled on the application. For example, if the http protocol is enabled for an application, an endpoint with basicHttpBinding is added to the service and if the net.pipe protocol is enabled for an application, an endpoint with netNamedPipeBinding is added to the service. The binding to protocol mapping can also be configured in the protocolMapping section in Machine.config. To view protocols enabled for an application, right-click the name of the application, point to Manage Application, and then click Advanced Settings.

This page does not allow you to configure system endpoints and default application endpoints, but it does allow you to configure application endpoints specified in a Web.config file. To view and configure general, performance and authentication properties of an application endpoint, use the Configuration Dialog Box for an Endpoint. You can launch this dialog box by right-clicking a selected endpoint and by selecting Configure, or by clicking Configure in the Actions pane.

The following sections in this topic describe the fields in the Endpoints Page.

Endpoint List Options (displayed at the top of the list)

Field	Description
Filter:	Enter a filter value, click on the arrow next to Go to choose a column to filter on, and then click Go. This filters out the currently displayed endpoints based upon this filter criteria. If not used, all endpoints with be displayed. Important By default, the system endpoints such as workflowControlEndpoint and serviceMetadataEndpoint are not displayed in the endpoint list. Click Remove Filter at the top of the page to view system endpoints.
Show all	If used, all endpoints with be displayed.
Group by:	Left-click on the down-arrow and select one of the following criteria to group the endpoints. No Grouping - Endpoints are not grouped by any criteria. Service Virtual Path - Groups endpoints by the virtual path of the service that owns the endpoints. Address - Groups endpoints by address. Binding - Groups endpoints by binding. Contract - Groups endpoints by contract. Name - Groups endpoints by name. Type – Group endpoints by type. Site Name - Groups endpoints by site name.

Endpoint List

Field	Description
Service Virtual Path	The virtual path of the service.
Address	Address of the endpoint. This specifies the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the endpoint, which can be an absolute address or one that is given relative to the base address of the service. If set to an empty string, it indicates that the endpoint is available at the base address that is specified when creating the ServiceHost for the service.
Binding	System or user-defined binding used to access the endpoint. This determines the type of transport, security and encoding used, and whether reliable sessions, transactions, or streaming is supported or enabled.
Contract	.NET Framework 4 interface functionality exposed by the endpoint.
Name	Name of the endpoint.
Type	Type of the endpoint. There are three primary types of endpoints: System, Application (Default), and Application. See descriptions for these endpoints at the beginning of this topic.
Site Name	Name of the site hosting the service that exposes this endpoint.

Details Pane

The Details pane at the bottom of the Endpoints Page displays the following properties and their values.

Note

If any configuration values associated with these properties is either an empty string (“ “), or not present in the configuration file, an empty string values is displayed.

Overview Tab	If present in the configuration file, displays the following values.
Site Name	Name of the site hosting the service that exposes this endpoint.
Service Virtual Path	The virtual path of the service.
Address	Address of the endpoint. This specifies the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the endpoint, which can be an absolute address or one that is given relative to the base address of the service. If set to an empty string, it indicates that the endpoint is available at the base address that is specified when creating the ServiceHost for the service.
Binding	System or user-defined binding used to access the endpoint. This determines the type of transport, security and encoding used, and whether reliable sessions, transactions, or streaming is supported or enabled.
Contract	.NET Framework 4 interface functionality exposed by the endpoint.
Name	Name of the endpoint.
Type	Type of the endpoint. There are three primary types of endpoints: System, Application (Default), and Application. See descriptions for these endpoints at the beginning of this topic.
Security Mode:	Defines the security mode used for the endpoint. Within Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) there are two primary methods to implement transfer security. Transport security mode uses a transport-level protocol, such as HTTPS, to achieve transfer security. Transport mode has the advantage of being widely adopted, available on many platforms, and less computationally complex. However, it has the disadvantage of securing messages only from point-to-point. When using transport security, the user credentials and claims are passed by using the transport layer. Message security mode uses WS-Security to implement transfer security. Because the message security is applied directly to the SOAP messages and is contained inside the SOAP envelopes, together with the application data, it has the advantage of being transport protocol-independent, more extensible, and ensuring end-to-end security (versus point-to-point). It has the disadvantage of being several times slower than transport security mode because it has to deal with the XML nature of the SOAP messages. When using message security, the user credentials and claims are encapsulated in every message using the WS-Security specification to secure messages.
Transport Quotas:	A transport quota is a set limitation value used to determine if the binding is consuming excessive resources,. Its main purpose is to prevent unnecessary use of additional resources once the quota value has been exceeded. This can occur in a denial of service attack. For example, managing various timeouts, buffer/message/pool sizes, and number of connections are all candidates for establishing transport quotas. Transport quotas values are configured within the transport binding, policy of the host, or through the application’s configuration settings. For more information on WCF transport quotas, see Transport Quotas.

Actions Pane

Configure	Invokes the Configuration Dialog Box for an Endpoint dialog box to configure the endpoint. You get the following message when you try to configure a system endpoint or a default application endpoint. Only application (not default) endpoints can be configured. Warning System or default endpoints cannot be configured. Only application endpoints defined in configuration can be edited.
Services	Exits the Endpoint pane and take you to the Services Page. Scope of services displayed remains the same as was set with the originating Endpoints page.