WINDOWS COMMUNICATION FOUNDATION (WCF) is the unified programming model for writing distributed applications on the Microsoft platform. It subsumes the prior technologies of ASMX, .NET Remoting, DCOM, and MSMQ and provides an extensible API to meet a wide variety of distributed computing requirements. Prior to WCF, you needed to master each of those technologies to select the right approach for a particular distributed application requirement. WCF simplifies this considerably by providing a unified approach. XMLWeb Services is the most common technique for distributed computing in modern applications. They’re used to expose technical and business functions on private or public networks. Sometimes they use the SOAP specification, sometimes they don’t. They typically transmit information as text documents containing angle brackets, but not always. They generally use HTTP for the transport, but again, not always. WCF is a framework for working with XML Web Services and is compatible with most technology stacks.

Rich, Chris, and I have each developed code with .NET from the beginning (circa 1999). We work at Microsoft in the field, helping customers use WCF to solve real-world problems. Our customers range from large multinational corporations to ISVs to Web startups. Each has different challenges, needs, and priorities that we individually address. We show them what’s possible, recommend what works well, and steer clear of what doesn’t. We have experience building distributed applications and leverage that experience in teaching others about WCF. Our goal for this book is to present WCF in a way that can immediately be put to use by software developers. We cover the material in enough detail that you know how and why to use different features. We go a bit further in most cases, describing some of the subtleties in the framework, but not so far as to document the API. The Blogosphere is rich with WCF details. Much of it comes from the .NET product team and much of it comes from other developers learning it along the way. We made extensive use of blogs as source material. This book brings order to that repository by organizing it in a way that can be easily consumed from your desk, sofa, or wherever you do your best reading.