Visual Studio/SOAP - 'Add Service Reference' vs 'Add Web Service Reference'

Question

I've found that I can import a SOAP/WSDL service that I plan on using into my solution either as a "Web Service Reference" (System.Web.Services) or as a "Service Reference" (System.ServiceModel / WCF).

I was wondering if what the differences were. I understand that 'Add Service Reference'/WCF is newer, are there any disadvantages to using it over System.Web.Services or is it now the preferred way of consuming SOAP services in .Net?

Answer 1

The preferred and most useful way is indeed to use Add Service Reference. This will add your service as WCF client side proxy.

Add Web Reference is the "old-style" ASMX/ASP.NET webservice way of doing things.

WCF is the much better choice than ASMX, because:

• it's newer and will be supported in the future (ASMX is on the way out); if you learn it now, you won't have to learn it later when ASMX is definitely gone
• it offers much more flexibility in every aspect
• you can only ever host an ASMX service is IIS, using HTTP as your protocol; WCF can be hosted in IIS; self-hosted in a Windows NT Service; WCF can use HTTP, NetTCP, MSMQ and many more protocols
• WCF offers a lot more security and other settings, making it much more powerful to use

Yes, WCF has a bad rap about being really hard to learn - I don't really find that to be true. Check out those beginner's resources - very useful indeed!

• MSDN WCF Developer Center which has everything from beginner's tutorials to articles and sample code
• Endpoint.TV screen cast series by Aaron Skonnard on WCF (at Channel9) - it's an excellent series going from "Creating your first WCF service" and "Creating your first WCF client" all the way to rather advanced topics. Aaron Skonnard very nicely explains everything in 10-15 minutes screencasts - highly recommended!
• DotNet Rocks TV Show #122: Miguel Castro on Extreme WCF
• DotNet Rocks TV Show #135: Keith Elder Demystifies WCF