WCF
· Windows Communication Foundation is a programming platform and runtime system for building, configuring and deploying network-distributed services.
· It is the latest service oriented technology.
· WCF is a combined features of Web Service, Remoting, MSMQ and COM
WCF Advantaged:
- 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.
5. WCF services can be debugged now in Visual Studio 2008 /2010. Wcfsvchost.exe will do it for you because service will be self hosted when you start debugging.
WCF vs WebService:
Wcf and Webservice have some difference
| Features | Web Service | WCF |
| Hosting | It can be hosted in IIS | It can be hosted in IIS, windows activation service, Self-hosting, Windows service |
| Programming | [WebService] attribute has to be added to the class | [ServiceContraact] attribute has to be added to the class |
| Model | [WebMethod] attribute represents the method exposed to client | [OperationContract] attribute represents the method exposed to client |
| Operation | One-way, Request- Response are the different operations supported in web service | One-Way, Request-Response, Duplex are different type of operations supported in WCF |
| XML | System.Xml.serialization name space is used for serialization | System.Runtime.Serialization namespace is used for serialization |
| Encoding | XML 1.0, MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom | XML 1.0, MTOM, Binary, Custom |
| Transports | Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Custom | Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Named pipes, MSMQ,P2P, Custom |
| Protocols | Security | Security, Reliable messaging, Transactions |
