What is the best way to learn WCF? [closed]

Question

Are there good books for learning WCF in C#? What do you recommend and why?

Answer 1

There's the MSDN WCF Developer Center which has everything from beginner's tutorials to articles and sample code.

Also, check out the screen cast library up on MSDN for some really useful, 10-15 minute chunks of information on just about any topic related to WCF you might be interested in.

The book I always recommend to get up and running in WCF quickly is Learning WCF by Michele Leroux Bustamante. She covers all the necessary topics, and in a very understandable and approachable way. This will teach you everything - basics, intermediate topics, security, transaction control and so forth - that you need to know to write high quality, useful WCF services.

The more advanced topics and more in-depth look at WCF will be covered by Programming WCF Services by Juval Lowy. He really dives into all technical details and topics and presents "the bible" for WCF programming.

Answer 2

I completely agree with Marc. I have both of those books and highly recommend them.

In addition, Juval Lowy has a website that has a lot of WCF example code that is available for free. I have found that examining, even debugging, existing WCF code is a great way to learn the technology. His website is called IDesign.net.

Finally, dnrTV! has a couple of excellent WCF-related videos that are free to watch. Watch the Keith Elder Demystifies WCF presentation first. It is an easy-to-follow tutorial on the basics of WCF. When you get comfortable with the concepts and have programmed some WCF code yourself, watch Miguel Castro: Extreme WCF. This will give you some insight on how to circumvent of the difficulties introduced by using the service reference feature in Visual Studio 2008 (I can't speak to Visual Studio 2010 yet).

Answer 3

I agree with previous comments. Learning WCF and Programming WCF Services are the best books to use. Btw. both authors work together in IDesign. If you like web cast you should check 15 parts series from Michele Leroux Bustamante (the series follows content of Learning WCF book).

Best regards, Ladislav