Open Source Alternatives to WCF [closed]

Question

Could you tell me the open source alternatives to WCF?? I'm a newbie and just started using WCF. I wanted to know about the alternatives that are open source too. Also, what makes them better options/not so good compared to WCF.

Thanks, Thothathri

Answer 1

There are open source projects for REST services - for example Open Rasta Perhaps you will also find some open source projects for basic SOAP services but I doubt that there is an open source project implementing all WS-* related stuff implemented in WCF. WS-* protocols are mostly implemented only in API from big companies - MS, IBM, Oracle, SAP, etc. Reasons are:

• Complexity - implementing WS-* protocols means diving deep into tons of specifications. You must also implement them very carefully to be really interoperable and to do not reduce performance too much.
• Support - WS-* protocols are usually used in B2B solutions where enterprises demands some guarantees and support.
• Costs - developing such API takes really long time.

Even WCF implements only subset of WS-* protocols. But WCF is highly extensible so anybody can try to implement some of these missing protocols himself.

WCF doesn't states only for REST and SOAP services. It is also replacement of .NET Remoting and Enterprise services from older .NET versions. You will not find a .NET API which will also offer all this functionality.

Answer 2

I also highly recommend checking out ServiceStack, it's a config-free web service framework I started that lets you easily and rapidly develop web services with very little friction.

It provides an expressive friction-less environment as you're able to develop web services by using you're own POCO C# DTO's which also encourages best-practices web service development since you're easily able to create more batch-full, coarse-grained APIs.

It's aims to be more productive by closely fusing C# with HTTP where all C# objects returned get automatically serialized to the requested format with (XML, JSON, JSV, CSV, SOAP 1.1/1.2, HTML) supported out-of-the-box. C# Exceptions also get automatically serialized for you making the tedious things effortless.

One of the major benefits is not needing to be concerned with external formats and endpoints (which are taken care by the framework) and you're left with developing your logic in a clean-room, auto-wired and highly testable, DDD-like IService class.