Frequently Asked Questions

What is this course about? In this course, you learn how to leverage Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to build secure, reliable and transactional Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications. You gain the skills to create interoperable standards-based and high performance .NET-only WCF services and clients, exchange a wide range of data formats between applications, including binary data and RSS, and ensure reliable message delivery using transaction and message queues. You also learn how to customise security, logging and error handling using administrative tools. What is WCF? Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is part of the .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 and is a unified network programming model that enables cross-application and cross-platform communication. With WCF, programmers can more easily and quickly build SOA applications. What are .NET and the .NET Framework? They are the same thing. The .NET Framework is a programming platform that allows you to build Windows and Web applications that run on Microsoft operating systems. The .NET Framework 3.0 added the following technologies to .NET 2.0: Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). The .NET Framework 3.5 added Language INtegrated Query (LINQ), which is used in this course. For courses that focus on technologies that were new with .NET 3.0, you may be interested in Course 514, Windows® Workflow Foundation (WF): Hands-On, or Course 975, Windows® Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight Introduction: Hands-On. For courses that focus on technologies that are new with .NET 3.5, you may be interested in Course 973, Programming C# Extended Features: Hands-On, or Course 974, Programming Visual Basic® Extended Features: Hands-On. What is SOA? Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) describes applications as a collection of loosely coupled software services. Their interactions are based on predefined contracts listing their available functions and message structures in a way that is independent of the underlying platform and programming language. What is the difference between WCF and ASMX Web services? Historically, various technologies such as ASMX Web services and .NET Remoting have been available to provide communication between applications. Microsoft's WCF makes development of distributed SOA applications more intuitive and allows the developer to implement all of these technologies with a single development framework. Also, WCF makes incorporation of distributed transactions and message queues easier. Who will benefit from this course? This course is valuable for programmers, system architects and those who are exploring development of SOA applications using WCF. What background do I need? Programming experience at the level of Course 503, Visual Basic® 2008 Programming: Hands-On, or Course 419, C# Programming: Hands-On, is assumed. For example, you should know how to: Develop applications in Visual Studio Write and understand language constructs, syntax and classes using VB or C# Create classes and use collections Define and implement an interface Apply attributes to classes Does WCF implement Web service standards? Yes. WCF allows developers to implement all or any of the existing standards (WS-*). Alternatively, in-house applications could be developed using high-performance binary communication. How does this course differ from Course 508, Building Web Services with .NET 2.0: Hands-On? Prior to WCF and the .NET Framework 3.0, Microsoft had a number of different approaches to developing distributed applications. Each of these approaches required different development libraries and techniques. Course 508, Building Web Services with .NET 2.0: Hands-On, details the development of Web services using these techniques as defined by the .NET Framework 2.0. This course covers the .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 support for WCF, which allow developers to build a variety of distributed systems such as Web services and binary remoting using a uniform, high-level approach. Furthermore, WCF allows development of Web services implementing the existing standards (WS-*) as well as a variety of other kinds of connected systems. For example, security, transaction and queues are more easily implemented in WCF. I already took Course 508, Building Web Services with .NET 2.0: Hands-On. Should I take this course? Yes. Windows Communication Foundation is a fundamentally different programming framework to the ASMX Web services, which are covered in Course 508, Building Web Services with .NET 2.0: Hands-On. The capabilities of WCF are much more sophisticated and going forward will be the only .NET distributed programming platform. How much time is spent on each topic? Content Hours Introduction 1.0 Developing and consuming a service 4.0 Passing data between applications 2.0 Guaranteeing message delivery 4.0 Building a secure service 2.0 Achieving two-way communication 2.0 Configuring WCF applications with administrative tools 2.0 Times, including the workshops, are estimates; exact times may vary according to the needs of each class. How much of this course is hands-on? You spend around 50 percent of class time performing hands-on exercises. Through an evolving case study, you gain hands-on experience building a system based on a Service-Oriented Architecture. Exercises, completed in either Visual Basic or C#, include: Building and deploying WCF services Ensuring interoperable services or high-performance .NET-only services using bindings Connecting Web and Windows clients to WCF services Establishing callbacks to allow the service to communicate back to connected clients Establishing asynchronous communication using a message queue Making secure connections to internal and external services Connecting to legacy and non-Microsoft services using WCF clients Applying post-deployment changes in security, message format and service address using administrative tools How is this course different from Course 424? Course 424, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, deals with the SOA at the architecture, analysis and design stages. Course 513 implements SOA using the Microsoft tools provided in WCF. How is this course different from Course 506? Course 506, Programming Scalable Web Applications with .NET and ASP.NET AJAX, covers the development of the business and data tiers of three-tier enterprise applications. Course 513 demonstrates distributing those tiers and making connections between them in a secure, reliable manner. In addition, this course expands on Service-Oriented Architectures to facilitate application communication both within and external to an organisation's domain. Will this course prepare me for any Microsoft Certification Exams? Yes. This course will prepare you towards Micosoft .NET Framework 3.5 - Windows Communication Foundation Exam (70-503) which is a credit towards the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): .NET Framework 3.5 Distributed Applications certification. How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses? The following .NET development courses may be of interest: In Course 511, .NET Best Practices and Design Patterns: Hands-On, you apply proven methods and best practices to build adaptable, secure and efficient .NET applications. The skills you gain in Course 511 can be applied when building SOA applications with WCF. In Course 975, Windows® Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight Introduction: Hands-On, you program applications that integrate the major components of WPF. In Course 424, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, you gain a foundation in the concepts, modeling, design and implementation of SOA. Course 506, Programming Scalable Web Applications with .NET and ASP.NET AJAX, provides the skills to design and create scalable enterprise applications with ASP.NET. Course 513 focuses on creating the communication between those applications. In Course 514, Windows® Workflow Foundation (WF): Hands-On, you gain the skills to build dynamic and flexible applications using Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). WF, also part of .NET 3.0, offers a programming tool kit and runtime engine to assemble workflow-enabled applications that model business processes. The following courses related to programming, system design and developing user requirements may also be of interest: 542, XML: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction  322, Systems Analysis and Design: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction  323, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design Using UML: Hands-On  218, User and System Requirements for Successful Software Development  315, Developing User Requirements: The Key to Project Success  This course is valuable for those who want to manage successful software development projects: 340, Project Management for Software Development

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