Understanding WCF

Question

Could anyone point me to a resource that explains WCF with pictures and simple code snippets. I am tired of googling and finding the same "ABC" articles in all search results.

Answer 1

WCF is a very complex technology that in my opinion is very poorly documented. It is incredibly easy to get up and running with, but the performance tuning to run a large scale app can be incredibly complicated and a lot of trial and error. One day everything is working fine and then you find out that only a single Channel is kept waiting for a new connection and that there is a config setting that you need to adjust on a custom binding to allow more channels to be waiting so that calls don't fail inbetween when a channel is used and the next channel is spun up.

In general Nicholas Allen's blog is a gold mine of information. However Windbg has been my best friend in trying to explain some very bizarre behavior coming from WCF.

Answer 2

Here's a really simple example. It's specific to CE/Mobile devices, but the concept is no different PC to PC.

Answer 3

I found the following two books to be really good for getting up to speed on WCF:

• Programming WCF Services (Lowy - O'Reilly)
• Pro WCF (Peiris, Mulder - Apress)

They both start with more of a conceptual description of WCF, so you understand the concepts and terms. This is really useful, because it allows you to narrow any google searches to more specific concepts.

Answer 4

And this is an article that breaks down understanding WCF and why it was developed in a simple, bulleted list.