Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is a framework for building service-oriented applications. Using WCF, you can send data as asynchronous messages from one service endpoint to another.
Web Services: A Web Service is programmable application logic accessible via standard web protocols. One of these web protocols is the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). SOAP is a W3C submitted note (as of May 2000) that uses standards based technologies (XML for data description and HTTP for transport) to encode and transmit application data.
| 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 |
