Programming WCF Services (Paperback)

~ Juval Lowy (Author), Lowy Juval (Author), Clemens Vasters (Foreword)
Key Phrases: intranet application, callback operations, security auditing, Visual Studio, Windows Forms, Queued Services (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Written by Microsoft software legend Juval Lowy, Programming WCF Services is the authoritative introduction to Microsoft's new, and some say revolutionary, unified platform for developing service-oriented applications (SOA) on Windows. Relentlessly practical, the book delivers insight, not documentation, to teach developers what they need to know to build the next generation of SOAs.

After explaining the advantages of service-orientation for application design and teaching the basics of how to develop SOAs using WCF, the book shows how you can take advantage of built-in features such as service hosting, instance management, asynchronous calls, synchronization, reliability, transaction management, disconnected queued calls and security to build best in class applications. Programming WCF Services focuses on the rationale behind particular design decisions, often shedding light on poorly-documented and little-understood aspects of SOA development. Developers and architects will learn not only the "how" of WCF programming, but also relevant design guidelines, best practices, and pitfalls. Original techniques and utilities provided by the author throughout the book go well beyond anything that can be found in conventional sources.

Based on experience and insight gained while taking part in the strategic design of WCF and working with the team that implemented it, Programming WCF Services provides experienced working professionals with the definitive work on WCF. Not only will this book make you a WCF expert, it will make you a better software engineer. It's the Rosetta Stone of WCF.

About the Author

Lowy is a software architect and the principal of IDesign, a .Net-focused consulting and training company.

Product Details

• Paperback: 634 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596526997
• ISBN-13: 978-0596526993
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,481 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comments from another WCF author, May 10, 2007

By	J. Sharp (Tetbury, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read with interest some of the comments from other reviewers, and I feel that there is some slight clarification required on the positioning of this book. I don't normally comment on other authors' works, but I believe that one or two of the criticisms in other reviews are possibly a little misplaced.

Now, as author of WCF Step By Step, this might sound like I am blowing my own trumpet a little, but this is not the intention. Juval's book is quite superb, and if you are an experienced Web services (or even Remoting) developer who wants to know the ins and outs of how WCF works, then read this book. However, I would argue that this is not a book for someone who is new to the services arena no matter how experienced a developer they are.

In many ways I am very envious of Juval. This is the book that I would love to have written for MS Press, but they felt, quite rightly in my opinion, first that this would quickly become a crowded market, and secondly that there was a need for a book that covered the basics to get people jump started beyond the documentation available on MSDN.

Juval's book is an essential reference work that all WCF developers should have on their desk. However, to get up and running with WCF and to make sure that you fully understand the concepts, you might need to work through something more basic first.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well done, March 4, 2007

By	William G. Ryan "Uber Book Nerd" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just bought this book and have breezed through most of it. So far, AFAIK, I've picked up each WCF book out there and while all of them are quite good, I was very glad I got this one. Very glad indeed.

If there's one thing this book really brings to the table it's that it really explains architectural 'big picture' aspects of WCF. Reminiscent of how Rocky Lhotka used his Business Objects books to walk through the CSLA, Juval has a series of utilities wrapped into a framework and he walks through 'why' he made them like he did.

This approach is excellent.

AFAIK, this is the biggest of the WCF books I've read running around 600 Pages including the appendices.

The first three chapters discuss the basics of WCF. It covers Data Contracts, SErvice Contracts and WCF Essentials. He dedicates a whole chapter to the subject of Data Contracts and it's ostensibly the most detailed discusson of Data Contracts I've read.

He moves on to Instance Management (spends about 30 pages doing it) and it was insightful to say the least.

Next was Operations. I thought this was one of the weaker chapters of the book, but it's also comparitively short (and realize that I'm rating the book a 5 - so 'weak' is relative - it's still a great discussion)

THe discussion of Faults comes next. It's concise and to the point without getting tangential.

Next comes Transactions. It goes about 70 pages and leaves you wanting for nothing. Stated simply, it's excellent.

Concurrency Management comes next and again, it's power lies in the fact it's direct and to the point while covering the subject matter thoroughly.

Queued Services comes next. To be honest, I haven't given this chapter more than a cursory read so I won't comment on it. What I read I liked thought.

It concludes with Security and he dedicates roughly 100 pages to the subject. Superb!

He goes on to the appendices where he discusses "Service Orientation" . I suspect most people that read his book already understand this, but it's insightful and is still worth reading even if you are already thoroughly conversant in SO.

THe next piece is the Publish-Subscribe Service discussion. Pretty good overall

Finally it's WCF Coding Standards. Ok, let me start by saying that this is VERY useful. It's a great summary and serves as a very helpful reference. However, I wish he explained some of the points a little more b/c In a few cases, I don't remember seeing the points emphasized much and it's a little hard to fully grasp the "WHy"

For instance, under the Essentials section, #10 states "Do not use SvcUtil or Visual Studio 2005 to generate a config file." In the text, the only thing I saw mentioned on this note was that he's conflicted about the COnfigEditor b/c while it's helpful, it can serve as a crutch. This danger in his opinion offsets any convenience benefit. Ok, if that's why this rule is here, then great. But I really don't know for sure. Most of the other items he mentions are well documented in the text (and maybe this was too and I just missed it, but honestly, I've looked).

There aren't many items I was unsure of, but there were a few. Page references would fix this issue (b/c spelling out why would probably be overkill).

Ok, so my one gripe is that in a supplemental section, he could have done one thing better. By any standard, that qualifies a book for a 5 Rating ;-)

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, May 15, 2007

By	Steve Petrokubi (Pottstown, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is excellent. I find myself reading chapters over and over not because they are difficult to understand, but because they are chock-full of useful information. This is information not found in other WCF books and it really highlights the fact that Juval was very close to the WCF code and the WCF developers.

Keep in mind this book will not hold your hand through coding a WCF service. If you need that level of detail (I did), then I recommend an afternoon with the internet where you will find plenty of online 'HelloWorld' tutorials. However, once you become comfortable with writing a few simple services, this book becomes invaluable. By the end of Chapter 1, you will have refreshed your memory on writing a simple service, and you will have answered questions that you never thought to ask (things like, What is the default port of the TCP address? Can you have more than one service share a TCP port?). The rest of the chapters are just as informative, and as a result this book excells as not only a book on Programming WCF Services, but also as a reference book on WCF as well. I am constantly lending it out, and I am repeatedly refering to it when I get those 'how do I..' questions from coworkers.

In a company where we are constantly looking for programming Patterns and Best Practices, the Appendix on Coding Standards was icing on the cake for me. Highly recommended for intermediate to advanced WCF programming.