wcf .net
What Is Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
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.
- A service endpoint can be part of a continuously available service hosted by IIS,
or it can be a service hosted in an application.
An endpoint can be a client of a service that requests data from a service endpoint.
The messages can be as simple as a single character or word sent as XML,
or as complex as a stream of binary data. A few sample scenarios include:
- A secure service to process business transactions.
- A service that supplies current data to others, such as a traffic report or other monitoring service.
- A chat service that allows two people to communicate or exchange data in real time.
- A dashboard application that polls one or more services for data and presents it in a logical presentation.
Exposing a workflow implemented using Windows Workflow Foundation as a WCF service.
- A Silverlight application to poll a service for the latest data feeds.
Features of WCF
WCF includes the following set of features.
For more information, see WCF Feature Details.
> Service Orientation
> Interoperability
> Multiple Message Patterns
> Service Metadata
> Data Contracts
> Security
> Multiple Transports and Encodings
> Reliable and Queued Messages
> Durable Messages
> Transactions
> Extensibility