Learning WCF: A Hands-on Guide [Paperback]

Michele Leroux Bustamante (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0596101627 | ISBN-13: 978-0596101626 | Edition: 1st

This easy-to-use introduction to Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is ideal for developers who want to learn to build services on a company network or as part of an enterprise system. Built into Windows Vista and Longhorn, and available for Windows XP and Windows 2003, WCF provides a platform for service-oriented architecture (SOA) that enables secure and reliable communication among systems within an organization or across the Internet. With WCF, software developers can focus on their business applications and not the plumbing required to connect them. Furthermore, with WCF developers can learn a single programming API to achieve results previously provided by ASMX, Enterprise Services and .NET Remoting. Learning WCF removes the complexity of using this platform by providing detailed answers, explanations and code samples for the most common questions asked by software developers.

Windows Communication Foundation (or WCF, formerly code name "Indigo") provides a set of programming APIs that make it easy to build and consume secure, reliable, and transacted services. This platform removes the need for developers to learn different technologies such as ASMX, Enterprise Services and .NET Remoting, to distribute system functionality on a corporate network or over the Internet. The first truly service-oriented platform, WCF provides innovations that decouple service design and development from deployment and distribution - creating a more flexible and agile environment. WCF also encapsulates all of the latest web service standards for addressing, security, reliability and more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michele Leroux Bustamante is Chief Architect of IDesign Inc., Microsoft Regional Director for San Diego, Microsoft MVP for Connected Systems and a BEA Technical Director. At IDesign Michele provides training, mentoring and high-end architecture consulting services focusing on Web services, scalable and secure architecture design for .NET, interoperability and globalization architecture. She is a member of the International .NET Speakers Association (INETA), a frequent conference presenter, conference chair for SD West, and is frequently published in several major technology journals. Michele is also on the board of directors for IASA (International Association of Software Architects), and a Program Advisor to UCSD Extension. Her latest book is Learning WCF (O'Reilly 2007) - see her book blog here: http://www.thatindigogirl.com. Reach her [e-mail], or visit http://www.idesign.net and her main blog at http://www.dasblonde.net.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (May 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596101627
• ISBN-13: 978-0596101626
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Networking
  • #73 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development > Web Services
  • #81 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Windows OS

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This should be the first WCF book you get, November 14, 2007

By 

Billy Hollis (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Learning WCF: A Hands-on Guide (Paperback)

You may want to acquire various other WCF books for depth, but if you're just getting started with WCF, this is the book you want. There isn't another book out there that compares to it. It's cleanly written and nicely balances conceptual material on service orientation with the practicalities of Windows Communication Foundation.

Many other books on WCF take the form of a "brain dump" on WCF features, or get bogged down in conceptual discussion of Service Oriented Architecture. Instead, Ms. Bustamante has a very clear, logical path from simple WCF features to more complex. You won't be overwhelmed early, but you will eventually get to most of the advanced features you'll likely need. Other books, such as Juval Lowy's Programming WCF Services (Programming), can pick up at that point for the really advanced topics.

Many of the chapters contain step-by-step labs, and you can get working end results from the author's web site. They start easy and build nicely through more complex concepts.

The sample code in the book is in C#, but if you happen to be a Visual Basic developer (as I am), you're not left out. Many of the labs and samples are also available in VB on the author's web site.

The book was unfortunately published too early to include definite coverage of the Visual Studio 2008 features for automatically generating some of the code you need to use WCF. Those capabilities are in the Visual Studio 2008 beta now and will be released in the next few months. Some of the labs could have been simplified by using those Visual Studio features. But, on the positive side, working through the labs in more detail will give you a more in-depth understanding of the subject and enable you to use the Visual Studio features more effectively.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Be Sure To Get The Correct Printing, November 23, 2009

By 

Larry W. Clement (Chiang Mai, Thailand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Learning WCF: A Hands-on Guide (Paperback)

There were two printings of the first edition. The 2nd printing has all the labs and examples in VS2008. The first printing uses VS2005. I ordered this book from Amazon well after the 2nd printing was out (I ordered the book in late April 2009...the 2nd printing was in Aug 2008)...BUT...Amazon still sent me the first printing which is less than helpful given that our office has moved to VS2008.

You can get an update of Chapter 1 from the author's blog site. But you will not be able to see updates to the remainder of the book. You should insist that Amazon tell you which print version you're getting before having this book shipped.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'must buy' for WCF, June 18, 2007

By 

P. D. Besly (Edinburgh) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Learning WCF: A Hands-on Guide (Paperback)

I have trawled round quite few books, articles, samples etc which all promised instant knowledge of WCF. Fortunately I came across Michele's book before I gave up in despair. I found the style just refreshing; it talked you through the concepts in bite-sized chunks and never tried to swamp you in technology.
Not just that, but Hands-On-Labs as well; yes, labs that work out of the box and demonstrate the principal at issue. Not just labs but solutions too that actually work. It does exactly what it says on the tin.
I've found this "tell it how it is and provide working samples" to be a real novelty in the WCF space.
If you want to get WCF-competent, then get this book. If you want to trash around in the dark for a few more weeks, then there's plenty of others I could suggest.