Here’s a brief WCF overview I prepared recently for a development team.
What is Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)?
WCF is, in essence, a remote procedure call (RPC) framework for .NET.
Service Contracts and Operation Contracts
This is what your WCF service agrees to do for its callers.
Data Contracts
These are the data types that your WCF service expects its callers to understand.
The service will also advertise a service-definition endpoint that will provide these data type definitions to its callers.
Events (…or “Duplex Contracts”)
Out of scope for this article, but see How to: Create a Duplex Contract on MSDN for an explanation.
Hosting Your WCF Service
Note the endpoint address:
Adding a service reference to your project
The metadata exchange address is the equivalent of the old Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) address.
Calling the WCF Service
Call it just as you would your local methods.
For curiosity’s sake, this is what some of the generated code looks like:
