What is WCF?

Chapter 2: WCF basics this chapter mainly introduces the basic concepts, construction modules, and architecture of WCF, to guide readers to build a simple WCF Service. From the content in this chapter, we can understand the basic terms of WCF, including address, binding, contract, and endpoint ); learn how to host services, how to write client code, and how to understand topics related to WCF, such as in-process hosting and reliability implementation. Even if you are familiar with the basic concept of WCF, you are advised to quickly browse the content in this chapter. It not only reinforces your existing knowledge, some auxiliary classes and technical terms introduced in this chapter will also help you read the book. What is wcfwindows Communication Foundation (Windows Communication Foundation, WCF) is a software development kit (SDK) developed and deployed based on the Windows platform ). WCF provides a runtime environment for services, allowing developers to publish the CLR type as a service and use the service in the CLR type. In theory, creating a service does not necessarily require WCF, but actually using WCF can make the task of creating a service get twice the result with half the effort. WCF is the implementation of Microsoft's definition of a series of industrial standards, including service interaction, type conversion, envelope aling, and management of various protocols. Therefore, WCF can provide interoperability between services. WCF also provides developers with basic functional modules required by most applications, improving developers' efficiency. The first version of WCF provides many useful functions for service development, including hosting and service instance management) asynchronous call, reliability, transaction management, offline queue call, and security. At the same time, WCF also provides an elegant and scalable model that allows developers to enrich their basic functions. In fact, the implementation of WCF uses such a scalable model. The remaining chapters of this book focus on the content and features of these many aspects. Most of the functions of WCF are included in a separate assembly system. servicemodel. dll. The namespace is system. servicemodel. WCF is part of. Net 3.0 and must be supported by. NET 2.0. Therefore, it can only run on the operating system that supports it. Currently, these operating systems include Windows Vista (client and server), Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and updated versions.