WCF: Cannot find my custom validator specified in web.config - customUserNamePasswordValidatorType - - Could not load file or assembly ... - help?

Question

So I've basically got everything up and running with wsHttpBindings and my WCF service using custom authentication over HTTPS.

The issue I'm having is with the customUserNamePasswordValidatorType:

  <serviceCredentials>
    <!-- Use our own custom validation -->
    <userNameAuthentication userNamePasswordValidationMode="Custom"
                            customUserNamePasswordValidatorType="CustomValidator.CustomUserNameValidator, CustomValidator"/>
  </serviceCredentials>

Following directions found here I've created my custom class as well:

namespace CustomValidator
{
    public class CustomUserNameValidator : UserNamePasswordValidator
    {
        public override void Validate(string userName, string password)
        {
            if (null == userName || null == password)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException();
            }


            if (!AuthenticateUser(userName, password))
                throw new SecurityTokenValidationException("Invalid Credentials");

The error is "Could not load file or assembly 'CustomValidator' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.", and refers to the tail end of customUserNamePasswordValidatorType - "..., CustomValidator".

I didn't think it was a problem having my custom validator in its own namespace and class, but I can't see what else to do to make this work.

I've tried with/without the namespace at the beginning, swapping, etc - nothing.

Hoping another pair of eyes can pick this out.

Thanks.

EDIT system.serviceModel

  <system.serviceModel>
    <bindings>

      <!-- wsHttpBinding -->
      <wsHttpBinding>
        <binding name="wsHttpEndpointBinding">
          <security mode="TransportWithMessageCredential">
            <transport clientCredentialType="None" />
            <message clientCredentialType="UserName" />
          </security>
        </binding>
      </wsHttpBinding>

      <!-- webHttpBinding -->
      <webHttpBinding>
        <binding name="wsHttps" >
          <security mode="Transport"/>
        </binding>
      </webHttpBinding>

      <!-- Basic binding -->
      <basicHttpBinding>
        <binding name="TransportSecurity">
          <security mode="Transport">
            <message clientCredentialType="UserName"/>
            <!-- transport clientCredentialType="None"/-->
          </security>
        </binding>
      </basicHttpBinding>

      <!-- customBinding>
        <binding name="WebHttpBinding_IService">
          textMessageEncoding maxReadPoolSize="64" maxWritePoolSize="16"
              messageVersion="Soap12" writeEncoding="utf-8">
            <readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" maxArrayLength="16384"
                maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
          </textMessageEncoding>
          <httpsTransport manualAddressing="false"/>
        </binding>
      </customBinding -->
      <!-- Another custom binding -->
      <customBinding>
        <binding name="CustomMapper">
          <webMessageEncoding  webContentTypeMapperType=
                 "IndexingService.CustomContentTypeMapper, IndexingService" />
          <httpTransport manualAddressing="true" />
        </binding>
      </customBinding>
    </bindings>
    <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="false" />
    <services>
      <service behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehavior" name="Service">




        <!-- Service Endpoints -->
        <!-- since we're hosting in IIS, baseAddress is not required 
        <host>
          <baseAddresses>
            <add baseAddress="https://mysslserver.com/Service.svc"/>
          </baseAddresses>
        </host>
        -->
        <endpoint address="https://mysslserver.com/Service.svc"
                  binding="wsHttpBinding"
                  bindingConfiguration="wsHttpEndpointBinding" 
                  contract="IService"
                  name="wsHttpEndpoint">
          <!-- 
              Upon deployment, the following identity element should be removed or replaced to reflect the 
              identity under which the deployed service runs.  If removed, WCF will infer an appropriate identity 
              automatically.
          -->
          <!--identity>
            <dns value="https://mysslserver.com"/>
          </identity-->
        </endpoint>

        <!-- endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange"/ -->
      </service>
    </services>
    <behaviors>

      <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior name="webBehavior">
          <webHttp />
        </behavior>
      </endpointBehaviors>

      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="ServiceBehavior">
          <!-- Setup Security/Error Auditing -->
          <serviceSecurityAudit auditLogLocation="Application"
                suppressAuditFailure="false"
                serviceAuthorizationAuditLevel="Failure"
                messageAuthenticationAuditLevel="Failure" />

          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="false" httpsGetEnabled="true"
                           httpsGetUrl="https://mysslserver.com/Service.svc"/>
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
          <serviceCredentials>
            <!-- Use our own custom validation -->
            <userNameAuthentication userNamePasswordValidationMode="Custom"
                                    customUserNamePasswordValidatorType="CustomValidator.CustomUserNameValidator, CustomValidator"/>
          </serviceCredentials>
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>

      <!-- serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="ServiceBehavior">
        <serviceMetadata httpsGetEnabled="true" 
                           httpsGetUrl="https://mysslserver.com/Service.svc" />
          To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true.  Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information 
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/>
        </behavior-->
    </behaviors>
  </system.serviceModel>

Answer 1

I decided to give it another stab, and didn't like having my custom validator in another lib.

So I created a new class in App_Code, and went at it...

The following is what actually fixed it,

="CustomValidator.CustomUserNameValidator, App_Code"