Does WCF raise the bar or just the complexity level? [closed]

Question

I understand the value of the three-part service/host/client model offered by WCF. But is it just me or does it seem like WCF took something pretty direct and straightforward (the ASMX model) and made a mess out of it?

Is there an alternative to using SvcUtil's command line step back in time to generate the proxy? With ASMX services a test harness was automatically provided; is there a good alternative today with WCF?

I appreciate that the WS* stuff is more tightly integrated with WCF and hope to find some payoff for WCF there, but geeze, otherwise I'm perplexed.

Also, the state of books available for WCF is abysmal at best. Juval Lowy, a superb author, has written a good O'Reilly reference book "Programming WCF Services" but it doesn't do that much (for me anyway) for learning now to use WCF. That book's precursor (and a little better organized, but not much, as a tutorial) is Michele Leroux Bustamante's Learning WCF. It has good spots but is outdated in place and its corresponding Web site is gone.

Do you have good WCF learning references besides just continuing to Google the bejebus out of things?

Answer 1

Okay, here we go. First, Michele Leroux Bustamante's book has been updated for VS2008. The website for the book is not gone. It's up right now, and it has tons of great WCF info. On that website she provides updated code compatible with VS2008 for all the examples in her book. If you order from Amazon, you will get the reprint which is updated.

WCF is not only a replacement for ASMX. Sure it can (and does quite well) replace ASMX, but the real benefit is that it allows your services to be self-hosted. Most of the functionality from WSE has been baked in from the start. The framework is highly configurable, and the ability to serve multiple endpoints over multiple protocols is amazing, IMO.

While you can still generate proxy classes from the "Add Service Reference" option, it's not necessary. All you really have to do is copy your ServiceContract interface and tell your code where to find the endpoint for the service, and that's it. You can call methods from the service with very little code. Using this method, you have complete control over the implementation. Regardless of the method you choose to generate a proxy class, Michele shows both and uses both in her excellent series of webcasts on the subject.

Michele has tons of great material out there, and I recommend you check out her website(s). Here's some links that were incredibly helpful for me as I was learning WCF. I hope that you'll come to realize how strong WCF really is, and how easy it is to implement. The learning curve is a little bit steep, but the rewards for your time investment are well worth it:

• Michele's webcasts: http://www.dasblonde.net/2007/06/24/WCFWebcastSeries.aspx
• Michele's book website (alive and updated for VS2008): http://www.thatindigogirl.com/

I recommend you watch at least 1 of Michele's webcasts. She is a very effective presenter, and she's obviously incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to WCF. She does a great job of demystifying the inner workings of WCF from the ground up.

Answer 2

I typically use Google to find my WCF answers and commonly find myself on the following blogs:

Blogs with valuable WCF articles

• http://blogs.msdn.com/drnick/default.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/wenlong/default.aspx
• http://blogs.thinktecture.com/buddhike/
• http://www.dasblonde.net/default.aspx

Other valuable articles I've found

• http://blogs.conchango.com/pauloreichert/archive/2007/02/22/WCF-Reliable-Sessions-Puzzle.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/salvapatuel/archive/2007/04/25/why-using-is-bad-for-your-wcf-service-host.aspx