Windows Azure Dev Fabric, WCF Service for AJAX not working due to an HTTP 404.3 Error – and the easy solution;)

Recently at my home machine I ran into a strange issue while developing an application for our Windows Azure winning game with the development fabric.

I added a WCF AJAX Service and tried to use it. Everything compiled fine and when running the ASP.NET web application in the local ASP.NET development web server anything worked. Then I created a Azure Cloud Service and added the working web application as a web role to the project.

I then tried to debug it and suddenly the AJAX types were not recognized anymore in my client-side JavaScript as shown in the following screen-shot.

When I tried navigate to my AjaxService.svc hosted in the Azure development fabric in a browser, I got an error as shown in the following image – it was an HTTP 404.3 telling me, that the requested page cannot be found or maybe the MIME-type was not registered. Strange error message anyway.

The solution – Installing the WCF HTTP and TCP activation through the control panel as shown in the following screen-shot. I know it’s documented:) I just forgot about because anything for web development except these two options where installed on my home-machine, already…

Therefore I thought it’s useful posting this hint.

The installation of these two components within the control panel solved the whole problem. So if you run into the same problem, check first, if these are installed;)

Hope that helps…