WCF stands for Windows Communication Foundation. It is a Software development kit for developing services on Windows. WCF is introduced in .NET 3.0. in the System.ServiceModel namespace. WCF is based on basic concepts of Service oriented architecture (SOA)
2. What is endpoint in WCF service?
The endpoint is an Interface which defines how a client will communicate with the service. It consists of three main points: Address,Binding and Contract.
3. Explain Address,Binding and contract for a WCF Service?
Address:Address defines where the service resides.
Binding:Binding defines how to communicate with the service.
Contract:Contract defines what is done by the service.
WCF Questions and Answers
4. What are the various address format in WCF?
a)HTTP Address Format:–> http://localhost:
b)TCP Address Format:–> net.tcp://localhost:
c)MSMQ Address Format:–> net.msmq://localhost:
5. What are the types of binding available in WCF?
A binding is identified by the transport it supports and the encoding it uses. Transport may be HTTP,TCP etc and encoding may be text,binary etc. The popular types of binding may be as below:
a)BasicHttpBinding
b)NetTcpBinding
c)WSHttpBinding
d)NetMsmqBinding
6. What are the types of contract available in WCF?
The main contracts are:
a)Service Contract:Describes what operations the client can perform.
b)Operation Contract : defines the method inside Interface of Service.
c)Data Contract:Defines what data types are passed
d)Message Contract:Defines wheather a service can interact directly with messages
7. What are the various ways of hosting a WCF Service?
a)IIS b)Self Hosting c)WAS (Windows Activation Service)
8. What is the proxy for WCF Service?
A proxy is a class by which a service client can Interact with the service.
By the use of proxy in the client application we are able to call the different methods exposed by the service
9. How can we create Proxy for the WCF Service?
We can create proxy using the tool svcutil.exe after creating the service.
We can use the following command at command line.
svcutil.exe *.wsdl *.xsd /language:C# /out:SampleProxy.cs /config:app.config
10.What is the difference between WCF Service and Web Service?
Web service is a part of WCF. WCF offers much more flexibility and portability to develop a service when comparing to web service. The following point provides the detailed differences between them :
1. Hosting : Webservices can be host in IIS, whereas WCF services can be hosted in IIS, Windows Activation Service, Self Hosting.
2. Encoding : Webservices uses XML 1.0, MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom. WCF uses XML 1.0, MTOM, Binary, Custom.
3. Transports : Webservices can be accessed using HTTP, TCP, Custom. WCF services can be accessed using HTTP, TCP, Named Pipes, MSMQ, P2P, Custom.
4. Protocols : Webservices uses Security porotocols only. Whereas WCF services uses Security, Reliable Messaging, Transactions protocols.
11.What is DataContract and ServiceContract?Explain
Data represented by creating DataContract which expose the data which will be transefered /consumend from the serive to its clients.
**Operations which is the functions provided by this service.
To write an operation on WCF,you have to write it as an interface,This interface contains the “Signature” of the methods tagged by ServiceContract attribute,and all methods signature will be impelemtned on this interface tagged with OperationContract attribute.and to implement these serivce contract you have to create a class which implement the interface and the actual implementation will be on that class.
Code Below show How to create a Service Contract:
Code:
[ServiceContract]
Public Interface IEmpOperations
{
[OperationContract]
Decimal Get EmpSal(int EmpId);
}
Class MyEmp: IEmpOperations
{
Decimal Get EmpSal()
{
// Implementation of this method.
}
}
12. What is Windows card space?
Windows card space is a central part of Microsoft’s effort to create an identify met system, or a unified, secure and interoperable identify layer for the internet.
13. What are the main components of WCF?
There are three main components of WCF:
Service class
Hosting environment
End point
14. What are the advantages of hosting WCF Services in IIS as compared to self hosting?
There are two main advantages of using IIS over self hosting.
Automatic activation
Process recycling
15. What is .NET 3.0?
In one simple equation .NET 3.0 = .NET 2.0 + Windows Communication Foundation + Windows Presentation Foundation + Windows Workflow Foundation + Windows Card Space.