Introduction to WCF
Windows Communication Foundation (Code named Indigo) is a programming platform and runtime system for building, configuring and deploying network-distributed services. It is the latest service oriented technology; Interoperability is the fundamental characteristics of WCF. It is unified programming model provided in .Net Framework 3.0. WCF is a combined features of Web Service, Remoting, MSMQ and COM+. WCF provides a common platform for all .NET communication.
Below figures shows the different technology combined to form WCF.
Advantage
- WCF is interoperable with other services when compared to .Net Remoting,where the client and service have to be .Net.
- WCF services provide better reliability and security in compared to ASMX web services.
- In WCF, there is no need to make much change in code for implementing the security model and changing the binding. Small changes in the configuration will make your requirements.
- WCF has integrated logging mechanism, changing the configuration file settings will provide this functionality. In other technology developer has to write the code.
Development Tools
WCF application can be developed by the Microsoft Visual Studio. Visual studio is available at different edition. You can use Visual Studio 2008 Expression edition for the development.
Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.1
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Microsoft Visual studio 2008 provides new features for WCF compared to Visual Studio 2005. These are the new features added to VS 2008.
1. Multi-targeting
You can create application in different framework like Framework 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5
2. Default template is available for WCF
3. WCF - Test Client tools for testing the WCF service.
Microsoft provides inbuilt application to test the WCF application. This can be done by opening the Visual Studio command prompt and type the wcfClient Serviceurl shows below. This will help the developer to test the service before creating the client application.
4. WCF services can be debugged now in Visual Studio 2008. Wcfsvchost.exe will do it for you because service will be self hosted when you start debugging.
Difference between WCF and Web service
Web service is a part of WCF. WCF offers much more flexibility and portability to develop a service when comparing to web service. Still we are having more advantages over Web service, following table provides detailed difference between them.
Features
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Web Service
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WCF
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Hosting
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It can be hosted in IIS
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It can be hosted in IIS, windows activation service, Self-hosting, Windows service
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Programming
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[WebService] attribute has to be added to the class
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[ServiceContraact] attribute has to be added to the class
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Model
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[WebMethod] attribute represents the method exposed to client
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[OperationContract] attribute represents the method exposed to client
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Operation
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One-way, Request- Response are the different operations supported in web service
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One-Way, Request-Response, Duplex are different type of operations supported in WCF
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XML
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System.Xml.serialization name space is used for serialization
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System.Runtime.Serialization namespace is used for serialization
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Encoding
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XML 1.0, MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom
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XML 1.0, MTOM, Binary, Custom
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Transports
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Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Custom
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Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Named pipes, MSMQ,P2P, Custom
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Protocols
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Security
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Security, Reliable messaging, Transactions
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