Difference between WCF 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. Still we are having more advantages over Web service, following table provides detailed difference between them.
| Features |
Web Service |
WCF |
| Hosting |
It can be hosted in IIS |
It can be hosted in IIS, windows activation service, Self-hosting, Windows service |
| Programming |
[WebService] attribute has to be added to the class |
[ServiceContraact] attribute has to be added to the class |
| Model |
[WebMethod] attribute represents the method exposed to client |
[OperationContract] attribute represents the method exposed to client |
| Operation |
One-way, Request- Response are the different operations supported in web service |
One-Way, Request-Response, Duplex are different type of operations supported in WCF |
| XML |
System.Xml.serialization name space is used for serialization |
System.Runtime.Serialization namespace is used for serialization |
| Encoding |
XML 1.0, MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom |
XML 1.0, MTOM, Binary, Custom |
| Transports |
Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Custom |
Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Named pipes, MSMQ,P2P, Custom |
| Protocols |
Security |
Security, Reliable messaging, Transactions |
Tips!
- Always create the service with Interface->Implementation format, mention the contract in Interface.
- Define the service in Class library and refer the class library in Host project. Don’t use service class in host project.
- Change the instance mode to per call as default.
- Always catch exception using try/catch block and throw exception using FaultException < T >.
- Logging and Include exception should be enable while compiling the project in debug mode. While in production deployment disable the logging and Include exception details.
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