WCF Part 1 : Introduction

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) 

Chapter 1 : Introduction

Code Base Name : Indigo
WCF is a programming platform and run-time system for building, configuring and deploying network distributed system.

Advantage

• WCF is inter-operable 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. In other technology developer has to write the code. 

Disadvantage

Making right design for your requirement is little bit difficult.

Different between web service and WCF Service

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