Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Example

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Example Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) â€" Essay Example > Windows Communication Foundation: The New Technology for Service Oriented ApplicationThe introduction of standard protocols for application-to-application communication specifically in web services has altered the way software are developed and used. Since these services are now capable of providing reliable and secured communication, software developers must be able to keep pace with the rapid transformation and ensure development tools and technologies are supporting service-oriented applications. WCF or Windows Communication Foundation is a new technology introduced by Microsoft as part of the WinFX platform in Windows Vista release. WCF is getting good reviews and gaining acceptance in the software development circle. This paper will going the discuss WCF’s functionality in relation with Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services including business benefits and future development. Service Oriented ArchitectureThe Service Oriented Architecture or SOA, a technology develop ed a few years ago, is a concept promoting software reusability, longer life span, and straightforward updating. Similar to Enterprise Architecture, SOA is also primarily giving emphasis to business process. However, SOA does require both business and IT transformation. This means not only replacing or installing IT infrastructure but also changing customary business management and organizational models with a new flexible methodology. The SOA system enables full control of business information and operational strategies to attain organizational objectives such as better product quality and enhanced customer satisfaction (Durvasala et. al. 12). The concept of SOA may vary from one organization to another but in general application; it is a solution independent of domain, technology, existing standards, and implementations. Its sovereignty over business aspects that are continuously changing and often problematic provides growth, reuse, and interoperability. This is the description of SOA’s Reference Model. A model that can be implemented modestly in general form to allow various changes in business services and architecture. The seven main concept of a reference model according to Shipe (2006) page 2, are service, visibility, interaction, real-world effect, service description, policies and contracts, and execution context, which are usually group according to their functionality helpful to SOA. To support these concepts, a simpler approach to support service-oriented architectures is vital for software developers and therefore Microsoft Corporation developed a technology specifically designed for SOA. WCF - Windows Communication FoundationWCF or Windows Communication Foundation, which is originally code named “Indigo” by Microsoft developers, is intended to be the groundwork for service-oriented application development on the Windows environment and it will serve as an extension of the Microsoft. NET Framework 2.0. A runtime and a set of Advance Prog rammers Interface (API) for building systems that can send messages between services and clients (MSDN-1 1). Since SOA is an architectural pattern that contains various styles, WCF provides a layered architecture that would expose a channel that will provide asynchronous and untyped messages. Right at the upper layer, are protocol facilities providing secured and reliable communication, data exchange, and variety of transport and encoding preference. WCF has two significant features: interoperability with other platforms and interoperability with other Microsoft technologies that were developed before WCF (Peiris and Mulder 18). To understand the real function of WCF, imagine a car rental firm requiring a new application for car reservations to run on the Windows environment. Since the company is already using Windows, they decided to create the application on a . NET version 2.0 Framework. Aware that this application should be accessible by other application in and out of the com pany, the developer decided to build it following SOA style; with the application logic visible to other application through a clear set of services. In order to implement these services and enable communication with other application, the new application will need to use WC (Chappell 3).