WCF 3.5 Vs WCF 4.0 Vs WCF 4.5

In this article, we will have a look into new and important features in major versions of Windows Communication Foundation starting from WCF 3.5 to WCF 4.5.

What’s new in WCF3.5?

 

• WCF support for REST Style Services by introducing Web programming model using rich features of HTTP instead of just a transport.
• In order to build Workflow Services, WCF 3.5 supports integration with WF (Windows Workflow Foundation).
• Using framework 3.5, now we can build AJAX-enabled WCF Services.
• It’s possible to build services using WCF 3.5 that can be easily persisted and reloaded again. Such services are called Durable Services.
• To make WCF Services Interoperable, v3.5 is align with standards like WS-Trust, WS-SecurityPolicy, Web Service Reliable Messaging and Web Service Atomic Transaction etc.
• In order to process Syndication feeds, WCF now supports a strongly typed object model.
• For applications those are configured with a trust level other than Full are called Partial Trust Applications. Such Partial trust applications can use limited features of WCF now

With WCF v3.5 SP1, more features introduced

• Scalability in web-hosted applications.
• Improvements with DataContract serializer.
• For Partial Trust application scenarios, further improved debugging support.
• Using ADO.NET Entity Framework entities in WCF Contracts.

What’s new in WCF 4.0?

• WCF Configuration has been simplified by introducing default endpoints, binding and behavior configuration. Now its not necessary to provide an endpoint while hosting a WCF service, it will be created automatically. And we can have configuration free services as well.
• REST Improvements like Help page and declarative HTTP caching.
• Discovery Alignment with standard like WS-Discovery protocol. A client can dynamically identify the service if a service endpoint address is changing.
• Routing A configurable routing service is introduced providing features like content-based routing, protocol bridging and error handling previously included with Dublin.
• Workflow v4.0 further enhances support for integrating WCF with WF. Now workflow service can be hosted from .xamlx file without .svc file.

What’s new in WCF v4.5?

• Simplified Generated Configuration files, generated configuration file on client will only have non-default binding configuration.
• Validating WCF Configuration is now part of v4.5. While compiling if there are some validation errors with configuration file, it will be displayed as warnings in Visual Studio.
• WCF 4.5 support for Task-based Asynchronous programming model.
• Contract First Development is now supported. Only contract will be generated in service.cs, if we use SvcUtil.exe with “/ServiceContract” switch while generating proxy.
• ASP.NET Compatibility Mode changed to enable WCF service to participate in ASP.NET Pipeline just like ASMX services.
• Tooltip and intellisense support in Configuration files.
• XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas default values has been changed.
• v4.5 allows to create an endpoint that supports Multiple Authentication Types.
• Automatic HTTPS endpoints in IIS.
• Improvements in Streaming, support for real asynchronous streaming, no blockage of one thread per client as with previous versions.
• Support for UDP transport, using UDP one way messages are very fast.
• BasicHttpsBinding, new security configuration option.
• In order to have bidirectional communication with better performance like TCP, WebSocket is the right choice.
• WCF v4.5 introduces NetHttpBinding and NetHttpsBinding bindings for supporting WebSockets.
• Single WSDL Document, now we can create WSDL information in one file.
•  IDN (Internationalized Domain Names) support means WCF Service can be called using IDN names by client.
• Compression support is now available for Binary Encoder in WCF 4.5 through CompressionFormat property.
• ChannelFactory Cache, WCF 4.5 now support for caching Channel Factories to reduce overhead associated while creating a ChannelFactory instance.
•  WCF Service can be configured using config file or through code. In v4.5, configuration through code has been simplified by defining a public static method (i.e. configure) instead of creating a ServiceHostFactory.

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