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Source Code

The AutoLotService project is located under the Chapter 25 subdirectory.

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Figure 25-21.

Creating a web-centric WCF service

If you wish to build a custom client application, simply use the Add Service Reference dialog

box as you did for the MagicEightBallServiceClient and MathClient project examples earlier in this

chapter.

Summary

This chapter introduced you to the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) API, which has

been part of the base class libraries since .NET 3.0. As explained, the major motivation behind WCF

is to provide a unified object model that exposes a number of (previously unrelated) distributed

computing APIs under a single umbrella. Furthermore, as you saw at the onset of this chapter, a

WCF service is represented by specified addresses, bindings, and contracts (easily remembered by

the friendly abbreviation ABC).

As you have seen, a typical WCF application involves the use of three interrelated assemblies.

The first assembly defines the service contracts and service types that represent the services func-

tionality. This assembly is then hosted by a custom executable, an IIS virtual directory, or a Windows

service. Finally, the client assembly makes use of a generated code file defining a proxy type (and

settings within the application configuration file) to communicate with the remote type.

The chapter also examined using a number of WCF programming tools such as

SvcConfigEditor.exe (which allows you to modify *.config files), the WcfTestClient.exe applica-

tion (to quickly test a WCF service), and various Visual Studio 2008 WCF project templates. 

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