Advantages
- Better reliability and security compared to ASMX Web Services
- Integrated logging mechanism
- New components for security, transport and authentication can be created
- Enables integration across platforms and interoperability with existing components
- Supports deployment in IIS or as a service hosted in an application.
- Supports many messaging (SOAP, JSON, plain text) and transport protocols (HTTP, TCP, MSMQ)
Disadvantages
- Learning to work with WCF takes time, as this is a more complex technology
- Can be deployed only in a Microsoft environment
Components
- Service class
- Hosting environment
- End point
Development tools
- Microsoft Visual Studio
