Introduction:
Here I will explain what WCF (windows communication foundation) is, uses of windows communication foundation and how to create and use windows communication foundation in c#.Description:
In previous articles explained clearly what webservice is and how to create and consume webservice using asp.net . In another post I explained clearly what windows service is and how to create windows service and sample of windows service using c#.Now in this article I will explain about windows communication foundation. First we will see what a WCF (window communication foundation) is and uses of WCF (windows communication foundation) after that we will see how to create and use WCF in c#.net.
What is WCF (windows communication foundation) Service?
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 feature of Web Service, Remoting, MSMQ and COM+. WCF provides a common platform for all .NET communication. Advantages of WCF 1) WCF is interoperable with other services when compared to .Net Remoting where the client and service have to be .Net. 2) WCF services provide better reliability and security in compared to ASMX web services. 3) 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. 4) WCF has integrated logging mechanism, changing the configuration file settings will provide this functionality. In other technology developer has to write the code. 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 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 [ServiceContract] 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 A WCF Service is composed of three components parts viz, 1) Service Class - A WCF service class implements some service as a set of methods. 2) Host Environment - A Host environment can be a Console application or a Windows Service or a Windows Forms application or IIS as in case of the normal asmx web service in .NET. 3) Endpoints - All communications with the WCF service will happen via the endpoints. The endpoint is composed of 3 parts (collectively called as ABC's of endpoint) as defines below: Address: The endpoints specify an Address that defines where the endpoint is hosted. It’s basically url.
Ex:http://localhost/WCFServiceSample/Service.svc Binding: The endpoints also define a binding that specifies how a client will communicate with the service and the address where the endpoint is hosted.
Various components of the WCF are depicted in the figure below.
"A" stands for Address: Where is the service?
"B" stands for Binding: How can we talk to the service?
"C" stands for Contract: What can the service do for us?
Different bindings supported by WCF Binding Description BasicHttpBinding Basic Web service communication.
No security by default WSHttpBinding Web services with WS-* support. Supports transactions WSDualHttpBinding Web services with duplex contract and transaction support WSFederationHttpBinding Web services with federated security. Supports transactions MsmqIntegrationBinding Communication directly with MSMQ applications. Supports transactions NetMsmqBinding Communication between WCF applications by using queuing.
Supports transactions NetNamedPipeBinding Communication between WCF applications on same computer. Supports duplex contracts and transactions NetPeerTcpBinding Communication between computers across peer-to-peer services. Supports duplex contracts NetTcpBinding Communication between WCF applications across computers. Supports duplex contracts and transactions BasicHttpBinding Basic Web service communication.
No security by default WSHttpBinding Web services with WS-* support. Supports transactions Contract: The endpoints specify a Contract that defines which methods of the Service class will be accessible via the endpoint; each endpoint may expose a different set of methods.
