Add Service Reference error "Cannot import wsdl:portType"

Question

I cannot get the Add Service Reference in VS 2010 or 2012 to work for web services built on ServiceStack . I have followed the guide on github, including adding the ContractNameSpace attribute to the AssemblyInfo.cs file and ensuring all my DTOs are in the same namespace but with no luck. Instead I receive a number of build warnings error messages that I have included below.

Does anybody have any suggestions about what is going wrong?

Warning 1 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType
Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerMessageContractImporter
Error: Schema with target namespace 'http://schemas.servicestack.net/types' could not be found.
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='ISyncReply']

Warning 2 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:binding
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:portType that the wsdl:binding is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:portType: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='ISyncReply']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_ISyncReply']

Warning 3 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:port
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:binding that the wsdl:port is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:binding: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_ISyncReply']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:service[@name='SyncReply']/wsdl:port[@name='WSHttpBinding_ISyncReply']

Warning 4 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType
Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.XmlSerializerMessageContractImporter
Error: Schema with target namespace 'http://schemas.servicestack.net/types' could not be found.
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='IOneWay']

Warning 5 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:binding
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:portType that the wsdl:binding is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:portType: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='IOneWay']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_IOneWay']

Warning 6 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:port
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:binding that the wsdl:port is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:binding: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_IOneWay']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:service[@name='AsyncOneWay']/wsdl:port[@name='WSHttpBinding_IOneWay']

Warning 1 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType
Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerMessageContractImporter
Error: Schema with target namespace 'http://schemas.servicestack.net/types' could not be found.
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='ISyncReply']

Warning 2 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:binding
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:portType that the wsdl:binding is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:portType: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='ISyncReply']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_ISyncReply']

Warning 3 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:port
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:binding that the wsdl:port is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:binding: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_ISyncReply']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:service[@name='SyncReply']/wsdl:port[@name='WSHttpBinding_ISyncReply']

Warning 4 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType
Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.XmlSerializerMessageContractImporter
Error: Schema with target namespace 'http://schemas.servicestack.net/types' could not be found.
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='IOneWay']

Warning 5 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:binding
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:portType that the wsdl:binding is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:portType: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:portType[@name='IOneWay']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_IOneWay']

Warning 6 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:port
Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:binding that the wsdl:port is dependent on.
XPath to wsdl:binding: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:binding[@name='WSHttpBinding_IOneWay']
XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://schemas.servicestack.net/types']/wsdl:service[@name='AsyncOneWay']/wsdl:port[@name='WSHttpBinding_IOneWay']

Answer 1

I discovered the root of my problem. One of my DTOs was not decorated with [DataContract] and [DataMember] attributes.

This meant the WSDL produced by ServiceStack didn't contain the type information for this DTO, so when one of the message sub-sections of the WSDL referred to this DTO type VS couldn't find it and threw the exception.

Hopefully this will help someone else. It took me quite a bit of time to figure out what I did wrong.