WCF

What is WCF?
WCF is a programming platform introduced by microsoft to create distributed application services. It is a latest service oriented technology which consist combined web service, remoting, msmq and com+.

Advantage of WCF
  • Better reliability and security in compared to ASMX web services.
  • No need to change too much code to change binding.(change in configuration)
  • Integrated logging mechanism. (change in configuration)
  • It can be hosted on IIS, WAS, Self hosting, Windows services
  • Easy serialization.

What is ABC?
Without ABC there is no WCF. ABC means Address, Binding and Contract.

What are ends, contract, address, and bindings?
  • Address: Its define the unique address of services based on transport protocol.
  • Binding:It specify how to define these address based on transport protocols.
    • like:-
    • Basic binding
    • TCP binding
    • Peer network binding
    • Web Service (WS) binding
    • Duplex WS binding
    • MSMQ integration binding
  • Contract:  In WCF, all services expose contracts. The contract is a platform-neutral and standard way of describing what the service does.
    • WCF defines four types of contracts.
      • Service contracts: Describe which operations the client can perform on the service.
[ServiceContract]
interface IFirstContract
{
[OperationContract]
string MyAdd( );
}

  • Data contracts:
Define which data types are passed to and from the service. WCF defines implicit contracts for built-in types such as int and string, but you can easily define explicit opt-in data contracts for custom types.
[DataContract]
struct Contact
{
[DataMember]
public string FirstName;
[DataMember]
public string LastName;
}