Product Description<>Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is a new Microsoft technology for allowing software to communicate. Superseding earlier technologies, such as COM/DCOM, .NET Remoting, ASP.NET Web Services, and the Web Services Enhancements for .NET, WCF provides a single solution that is designed to always be the best way to exchange data among software entities. It also provides the infrastructure for developing the next generation of Web services, with support for the WS-* family of specifications, and a new serialization system for enhanced performance. For information technology professionals, WCF supplies an impressive array of administration tools that enterprises and software vendors can use to reduce the cost of ownership of their solutions without writing a single line of code. Most important, WCF finally delivers on the long-postponed promise of model-driven software development with the new software factory approach, by which one can iteratively design solutions in a modeling language and generate executables from lower-level class libraries.
Windows Communication Foundation Unleashed is designed to be the best resource for software developers and architects working with WCF. The book guides readers toward a conceptual understanding of all the facilities of WCF and provides step-by-step guides to applying the technology to practical problems.
Introduces you to WCF and then takes you deep inside the technology
Gives you nearly 100 best practices for programming with WCF
Provides detailed coverage on how to version services that you will not find anywhere else
Delves into using WCF together with Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows CardSpace
Provides detailed coverage of the new high-performance data contract serializer for .NET
Walks you through how to do secure, reliable, transacted messaging, and how to understand the options available
Introduces you to federated, claims-based security, and shows you how to incorporate SAML and WS-Trust security token services into your architecture
Provides step-by-step instructions for how to customize every aspect of WCF
Shows you how to add your own behaviors, communication channels, message encoders, and transports
Gives you options for implementing publish/subscribe solutions
Walks you through how to do peer-to-peer communications with WCF
As evangelists at Microsoft for WCF, Craig McMurtry, Marc Mercuri, Nigel Watling, and Matt Winkler are uniquely positioned to write this book. They had access to the product as it was being built and to the development team itself. Their work with enterprises and outside software vendors has given them insight into how others see the software, how they want to apply it, and the challenges they face in doing so.
Foreword
Introduction
Part I Introducing the Windows Communication Foundation
2 The Fundamentals
3 Data Representation
4 Sessions, Reliable Sessions, Queues, and Transactions
Part II Introducing the Windows Workflow Foundation
5 Fundamentals of the Windows Workflow Foundation
6 Using the Windows Communication Foundation and the Windows
Part III Security
7 Security Basics
8 Windows CardSpace, Information Cards, and the Identity Metasystem
9 Securing Applications with Information Cards
10 Advanced Security
Part IV Integration and Interoperability
11 Legacy Integration
12 Interoperability
Part V Extending the Windows Communication Foundation
13 Custom Behaviors
14 Custom Channels
15 Custom Transports
Part VI Special Cases
16 Publish/Subscribe Systems
17 Peer Communication
18 Representational State Transfer and Plain XML Services
Part VII The Lifecycle of Windows Communication Foundation Applications
19 Manageability 20 Versioning
Part VIII Guidance 21 Guidance
Index
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Overall a winner!
The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is the latest offering from Microsoft to address the need of passing messages from one software component to another. Using the .NET platform, Microsoft has built a single framework that can encapsulate any type of message passing (at least all the major one's of which I am aware). By abstracting the important pieces of the communication challenge (transport mechanism, security, reliability, etc.), Microsoft has made building components that communicate ... Read More
Rating: - All over the place and seldom where you want it to be.
This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for sometime collecting dust. When I finally had a need to familiarize myself with WCF, I dug it out and ended up finding myself more confused than anything. The code samples do not work. There is no online update (The 45 day "Free" version on Safari is also incorrect). Four authors, with four different goals. The intro sections were written way too technical, and the higher chapters didn't give enough detail. The only chapter I liked was Chapter 21 ... Read More
Rating: - Sample does not work
Code sample provided does not work. The author doesn't seem to know the difference between a client and host! No source code is provided in a cd or by download.
Rating: - In-depth, comprehensive and complete
I haven't finished the entire thing (about 200 pages to go), but so far it has covered up to the most obscure detail you might need to know. I must admit, however, WPF has an incredibly steep learning curve and some of its features are terribly counter-intuitve, but it is an amazing technology. The book shows you the power of the technology with great examples and explanations of the details you thought you knew.
Rating: - Excellent coverage of the technology!
Between the WPF Unleashed book and this one I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of this series. This book is easy to read with in depth information, very relevant. It covers a lot of useful techniques: in particular security, customization and integration with WF. A real step ahead of the other books. A Must have for all serious WCF programmer.
- Overall a winner!
- All over the place and seldom where you want it to be.
- Sample does not work
