To understand the advantage of using WCF over other distributed programming models like Web Services(ASMX), .NET Remoting, Enterprise Services stack etc, let’s consider the following scenario. We have developed an application using web services. As we know web services use HTTP protocl and XML SOAP formatted messages, they are good for developing interoperable applications in a heterogeniuos environment. We have a new client. Our new client is using .NET and he wants binary formmatted messages over TCP protocol, because interoperability is not a concern and binary formmatted messages over TCP protocol are much faster than XML SOAP formmatted messages over HTTP. To satisfy the requirement of this client, now we cannot use our existing web service. So, we have to develop a brand new remoting application from the scratch. The business functionality is the same in web services and remoting application. Since our different clients have different requirements, we ended up creating the same business application using web services and remoting technologies. This approach has several disadvantages as listed below.
- Developers have to be familiar with two different technologies (Web Services and Remoting).
- We end up creating duplicate business applications with different technologies which also leads to maintainance overhead.
On the other hand WCF unifies Web Services, .NET Remoting, and Enterprise Services stacks under one roof. For the same requirement that we have seen untill now, we just create one application and expose multiple end points to satisfy the requirements of multiple clients. In WCF configuration drives protocol choices, messaging formats, process allocation, etc. WCF services are loosely coupled, meaning that a WCF service is not bound to a particular protocol, encoding format, or hosting environment. Everything is configurable.