WCF stands for Windows Communication Foundation. It is basically used to create a distributed and interoperable Application.
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Message is the communication unit, as it is in the form of an envelop. The transmission of the data from the client to Service and Service to client is being done by envelop. The envelop or message has the sections, given below-
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Distributed Application
It means those Applications, which do not run only on single system but can run on multiple systems, which are connected over the network. For example, a Web Service that can consume by different clients.
Interoperable
It means those Applications, which do not run only on single system but can run on multiple systems, which are connected over the network. For example, a Web Service that can consume by different clients.
Interoperable
It means that an Application can consume or connect with another Application but it does not matter in which platform it is developed.
Why we need WCF Applications
In this, I am explaining why we need WCF Application, if we already have Web Service.
Suppose, you have two clients- one wants to use a Web Service, which sends data over the network, using Http protocol and want reply in XML format, so we will create a Web Service.
The other wants to send the data, using Web Service over the network, using TCP protocol and replying in binary format, then we need to implement a remote Web service with TCP protocol.
Problem
The problem is in the example, shown above, we need to create two different Services for two different clients .WCF is solving this problem and one single service can be consumed by two different clients- either they want same protocol or a different protocol. We specify the protocol name in an endpoint attribute of the Web Service.
Message
Message is the communication unit, as it is in the form of an envelop. The transmission of the data from the client to Service and Service to client is being done by envelop. The envelop or message has the sections, given below-
- Header
- Body
By default Header and fault are disabled but Body is responsible for the data transmission or data exchanging.
Header is useful to send some data from client to Server. Suppose we want to send user name from each request but don’t want to send it by an argument, we can easily add it into message header.
Endpoint
Endpoint is a very essential part of WCF Application, as it describes the address of Web Service from where a user can receive and send the message. It also specifies the communication mechanism of how the message will be sent or received.
End point consists of three things, which are A,B,C and each of them have a question mark.- Address (Where?)
- Binding (how?)
- Contract (What?)
Endpoint = A + B+ C
Address is the address of WCF Service, where the Service is hosted? It gives the exact URL of Web Service, where the Service hosts the pattern of URL, which is-
Address is the address of WCF Service, where the Service is hosted? It gives the exact URL of Web Service, where the Service hosts the pattern of URL, which is-
