WCF/WF - regarding WCF

Asked By Tridip Bhattacharjee on 04-Jan-10 07:21 AM

hi,

very soon i will start learning VS 2008. so can any one please tell me what is WCF. in what type of situation WCF
will be used. what is the advantages of WCF. please tell me in detail.

thanks in advance.

WCF

Sakshi a replied to Tridip Bhattacharjee on 04-Jan-10 07:29 AM

What Is Windows Communication Foundation?

The global acceptance of Web services, which includes standard protocols for application-to-application communication, has changed software development. For example, the functions that Web services now provide include security, distributed transaction coordination, and reliable communication. The benefits of the changes in Web services should be reflected in the tools and technologies that developers use. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is designed to offer a manageable approach to distributed computing, broad interoperability, and direct support for service orientation.

When it is used:

1. when we want to integrate older systems with WCF Provider newly created.

advantages

Its made of a lot of different components, so you can create new components for security, transport, authentication
Its faster than ASMX
Supports Scaling/Load Balancing
Its Interoperability, for java, and more..

Thanks and Regards,
www.CodeCollege.NET
www.InterviewsGuru.info

WCF

Sakshi a replied to Tridip Bhattacharjee on 04-Jan-10 07:30 AM

What Is Windows Communication Foundation?


The global acceptance of Web services, which includes standard protocols for application-to-application communication, has changed software development. For example, the functions that Web services now provide include security, distributed transaction coordination, and reliable communication. The benefits of the changes in Web services should be reflected in the tools and technologies that developers use. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is designed to offer a manageable approach to distributed computing, broad interoperability, and direct support for service orientation. 
When it is used:
1. when we want to integrate older systems with WCF Provider newly created.
2. The advantages can be added.
advantages


Its made of a lot of different components, so you can create new components for security, transport, authentication 
Its faster than ASMX 
Supports Scaling/Load Balancing 
Its Interoperability, for java, and more.. 

Thanks and Regards,
www.CodeCollege.NET
www.InterviewsGuru.info

WCF

Sagar P replied to Tridip Bhattacharjee on 04-Jan-10 07:36 AM

WCF is a evolutionary technology that brings all the formerly distinct and separate Microsoft connectivity technologies together under a single umbrella within the System.ServiceModel namespace. Included in WCF are Web services (ASMX), the Web service Extensions (WS*), Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ), Enterprise Services, COM+, and .NET Remoting.

Having a single namespace that subsumes all of these into a coherent package is enormously useful, and makes designing, developing, and deploying applications that require connectivity far simpler. With WCF you won't have to choose between implementations in a variety of different namespaces and coding types to create a connected application. Whether your application connects via loosely coupled Web services, or tightly coupled Enterprise Services, the coding model will be consistent and the transition between different communication types will be much smoother—because they will all be using the same programming namespace.

AS you are beginner for WCF you should start with this link;

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/first-steps-with-wcf.aspx

See this link as well;

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/29414

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms734712.aspx

Here's my thought.

[)ia6l0 iii replied to Tridip Bhattacharjee on 04-Jan-10 01:00 PM

Let us first answer your first part of the question: "Learning Visual Studio 2008". You are probably talking about the extended support that is available in the new Visual Studio (2008) version that makes life easier when compared to the older version , and with the 3.0 version of framework.

Yes, there is a pretty good number of extensibility features that Visual Studio 2008 offers in terms of WCF. Let me outline them for you:

a) Support for "Updation of WCF Proxy References"

b) Support for "Project templates" for WCF.

c) Support for Adding WCF references through the "Service Reference" dialog.

d) Support for WCF Host projects

I am talking about the "WCFSVCHost" executable , the Service host , that can be found under X:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE folder. Search on your search engine for syntax of the parameters that you would need to follow to use this executable.

e) Support for testing Clients

I am talking about the "WCFTestClient" executabke that is also found in the same folder as above, i.e. X:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE. Again search on Search on your search engine for syntax of the parameters that you would need to follow to use this executable

Replace "X:" with the drive, where you have the Visual Studio installed.

Now back to the second part of the question: What is WCF?

Code named Indigo, in its simplest term, can be classified as an Communication API or methodology, replacing Webservices, Remoting, Message Queues and Distributed Transactions.

Third part of the question: "What type of situation WCF will be used"?

WCF or any communication technology similar to it, will be used when you would need to isolate the business logic in a certain layer or server, and provide access to it only through other suitable channels such as windows applications. Imagine a ticket reservation system , a Kiosk ..or any other media that would talk to another server that can interpret the given input , apply the business rules, share the output back. The middle tier is what is going to be replaced by WCF or similar.

And the last part : Advantages of WCF: Let me leave it to you to figure out. Since it does not make sense, if you don't know what gave birth to WCF.

The goal of this whole exercise is to make you excited about WCF only. Hope you are excited about wcf.

That's all what I can think of right now.

And please do not forget to go thru this MSDN article on WCF. It pretty much covers in detail all that you need.

Hope it helps.