Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is a framework for building service-oriented applications. Using WCF, you can send data as asynchronous messages from one service endpoint to another.
Web Services
A Web Service is programmable application logic accessible via standard web protocols. One of these web protocols is the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). SOAP is a W3C submitted note (as of May 2000) that uses standards based technologies (XML for data description and HTTP for transport) to encode and transmit application data.
Difference between WCF and ASP.NET Web Service
Features
|
Web Service
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WCF
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Hosting
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It can be hosted in
IIS
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It can be hosted in
IIS, windows activation service, Self-hosting, Windows service
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Programming
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[WebService]
attribute has to be added to the class
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[ServiceContraact]
attribute has to be added to the class
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Model
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[WebMethod]
attribute represents the method exposed to client
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[OperationContract]
attribute represents the method exposed to client
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Operation
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One-way, Request-
Response are the different operations supported in web service
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One-Way,
Request-Response, Duplex are different type of operations supported in WCF
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XML
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System.Xml.serialization
name space is used for serialization
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System.Runtime.Serialization
namespace is used for serialization
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Encoding
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XML 1.0,
MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom
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XML 1.0, MTOM,
Binary, Custom
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Transports
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Can be accessed
through HTTP, TCP, Custom
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Can be accessed
through HTTP, TCP, Named pipes, MSMQ,P2P, Custom
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Protocols
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Security
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Security, Reliable
messaging, Transactions
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