Format for Configuring HTTP and TCP Activation

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IIS uses some inscrutable strings to configure the activatable bindings of a web site. Here's the minimum you need to interpret a binding and get started working with activation. Activation is controlled by the activationHost.config file. In the list of web sites, each site has a binding section that contains the list of supported protocols.

 <site name="Default Web Site" id="1">
  <bindings>
    <binding protocol="HTTP" bindingInformation="*:80:" />
    <binding protocol="net.tcp" bindingInformation="808:*" />
  </bindings>
</site>

The format for the HTTP binding information comes from IIS. It has three parts separated by colons. The three parts are

  1. List of IP addresses to listen on (or a wildcard symbol)
  2. Port number
  3. List of host headers (or blank)

The format for TCP was picked to be as similar as possible to what already existed for HTTP. We have two parts to configure, again separated by colons. There is no equivalent for the list of addresses. The two parts are

  1. Port number
  2. Host name comparison mode (blank or a wildcard symbol)

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