WCF is a technology that enables you to create services that you can access from other applications across process, machine, and network boundaries. You can use these services to share functionality across multiple applications, to expose data sources, or to abstract complicated processes. As with Web services, the functionality that WCF services offer is encapsulated as individual methods that are exposed by the service. Each method — or, in WCF terminology, each operation — has an endpoint that you exchange data with in order to use it. At this point, WCF differs from Web services. With Web services, you can only communicate with an endpoint with SOAP over HTTP. With CF services, you have a choice of protocols that you can use. You can even have endpoints that communicate through more than one protocol, depending on the network that you connect to the service through and your specific requirements.
In WCF, an endpoint can have multiple bindings , each of which specifies a means of communication. Bindings can also specify additional information, such as what security requirements must be met to communicate with the endpoint. A binding might require username and password authentication or a Windows user account token, for example. When you connect to an endpoint, the protocol that the binding uses affects the address that you use, as you will see shortly. Once you have connected to an endpoint, you can communicate with it by using SOAP messages. The form of the messages that you use depends on the operation that you are using, and the data structures that are required to send messages to and receive messages from that operation. WCF uses contracts to specify all of this. You can discover contracts through metadata exchange with a service. This is analogous to the way Web services use WSDL to describe their functionality. In fact, you can get information about a WCF service in WSDL format, although WCF services can also be described in other ways.
When you have identified a service and endpoint that you want to use, and after you know what binding you use and what contracts to adhere to, you can communicate with a WCF service as easily as with an object that you have defined locally. Communications with WCF services can be simple, one - way transactions, request/response messages, or full - duplex communications that can be initiated from either end of the communication channel. You can also use message payload optimization techniques, such as Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) to package data if required.
The WCF service itself may be running in one of a number of different processes on the computer where it is hosted. Unlike Web services, which always run in IIS, you can choose a host process that is appropriate to your situation. You can use IIS to host WCF services, but you can also use Windows services or executables. If you are using TCP to communicate with a WCF service over a local network, there is no need even to have IIS installed on the PC that is hosting the service.
The WCF framework has been designed to enable you to customize nearly everything you have read about in this section. Now that you have covered the basics about WCF services, you will look in more detail at these concepts
in the following sections.
Source of Information : Wrox Beginning Microsoft Visual C Sharp 2008
In WCF, an endpoint can have multiple bindings , each of which specifies a means of communication. Bindings can also specify additional information, such as what security requirements must be met to communicate with the endpoint. A binding might require username and password authentication or a Windows user account token, for example. When you connect to an endpoint, the protocol that the binding uses affects the address that you use, as you will see shortly. Once you have connected to an endpoint, you can communicate with it by using SOAP messages. The form of the messages that you use depends on the operation that you are using, and the data structures that are required to send messages to and receive messages from that operation. WCF uses contracts to specify all of this. You can discover contracts through metadata exchange with a service. This is analogous to the way Web services use WSDL to describe their functionality. In fact, you can get information about a WCF service in WSDL format, although WCF services can also be described in other ways.
When you have identified a service and endpoint that you want to use, and after you know what binding you use and what contracts to adhere to, you can communicate with a WCF service as easily as with an object that you have defined locally. Communications with WCF services can be simple, one - way transactions, request/response messages, or full - duplex communications that can be initiated from either end of the communication channel. You can also use message payload optimization techniques, such as Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) to package data if required.
The WCF service itself may be running in one of a number of different processes on the computer where it is hosted. Unlike Web services, which always run in IIS, you can choose a host process that is appropriate to your situation. You can use IIS to host WCF services, but you can also use Windows services or executables. If you are using TCP to communicate with a WCF service over a local network, there is no need even to have IIS installed on the PC that is hosting the service.
The WCF framework has been designed to enable you to customize nearly everything you have read about in this section. Now that you have covered the basics about WCF services, you will look in more detail at these concepts
in the following sections.
Source of Information : Wrox Beginning Microsoft Visual C Sharp 2008
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