4253.  Introduction to WCF Using Visual Basic (VS2008)

Rev. 2.0

 

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is Microsoft’s new framework for building distributed systems. It unifies and builds on the diverse set of existing distribution mechanisms, which include ASP.NET Web services and .NET Remoting. WCF enables developers to produce highly configurable, secure, reliable and transactional services using a single simplified programming model. And since WCF supports the WS-* series of Web service standards, it enables simple interoperation with other platforms and technologies. This course covers the essentials of the technology and includes a large number of working examples and lab exercises.

 

The course uses .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. An earlier version of the course, Rev. 1.1, uses Visual Studio 2005 and is still available.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 

·         Learn what WCF is, and how it unites existing distribution mechanisms

·         Gain an understanding of what ABC (Address, Binding, Contract) means for WCF services

·         Learn how to implement WCF services and clients

 

Course Duration: 3 days

 

Prerequisite: Students should have a good working knowledge of building .NET applications with Visual Basic. Knowledge of building distributed systems and Web services will also be an advantage.

 

1.      Introduction to WCF

What is WCF?

Address, Binding and Contract

WCF Services and Clients

IIS Hosting

WCF Architecture

 

2.      Addresses and Bindings

Addresses

Bindings

Message Exchange Patterns

Configuring Bindings

Interoperating with ASMX Web Services

Hosting in a Console Application

Channel Factories

Multiple Endpoints

 

3.      Service Contracts

Defining Service Contracts

Defining Operation Contracts

Services With Multiple Contracts

Contract Inheritance

Operation Overloading

 

4.      Instance Management

Using Per-Call Services

Using Per-Session Services

Using Singleton Services

Configuring Behaviors

 

5.      Data Contracts

Implementing Data Contracts

Mapping Data Contracts to XSD Schema

Serialization

Arrays and Generic Collections

Enums

Versioning Data Contracts

 

6.      More about Service Contracts

Versioning Service Contracts

Implementing Message Exchange Patterns

Oneway Contracts

Duplex Contracts

Asynchronous Proxies

 

7.      Handling Errors

Faults and Exceptions

Generating and Handling Faults

Fault Contracts

Faults and Sessions

 

System Requirements

 

Course exercises require Microsoft .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition or higher. The preferred operating system is Windows XP Professional with Internet Information Services. See the appropriate course Setup Guide for details.

 

A good minimal hardware profile for this course consists of a 2 GHz or better CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and at least 4 GB of free disk space for tools installation and courseware.