Beginning Web Development, Silverlight, and ASP.NET AJAX

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CHAPTER 7 ■ .NET 3.0: WINDOWS COMMUNICATION FOUNDATION
}
d.ReadXml(nRead);
nRead.Close();
GridView1.DataSource = d;
GridView1.DataBind();
}
This code first creates an instance of the address service client (called myAddress-
Service) and then uses it to get addresses for the ZIP code 6105. The rest of the code then
reads the results into an XML document, creates a DataSet from it, and binds the grid to
this DataSet. As you can see, from a coding point of view, you don’t do anything special to
communicate with the service—everything is handled by the autogenerated proxies,
which were built based on the defined contracts.
Now that you have a simple service that runs with WCF, you can start playing with
how to make it transactable, or add certificate-based security, or use WS-Reliability,
among other things.
A great resource for getting started on this is the Windows SDK. It contains a file
(WCFSamples.zip) that contains step-by-step instructions and code on how to achieve the
most common tasks. Check out the extensibility samples in particular.
Summary
This chapter has given you an introduction to WCF and how it can be used to navigate
the murky seas of different connectivity technologies and standards without needing to
write thousands of lines of code. WCF is a critical component of .NET 3.0, and is something
that you will find invaluable as you build the next Web. Your need to build
applications that use standards around security, reliability, transactions, and more is only
going to grow over time, and this framework is your best friend in empowering this.
You’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible in this chapter, but hopefully
you’ve gleaned enough to understand how it all works and hangs together. For further
resources, take a look through the SDK and more in-depth books like Pro WCF: Practical
Microsoft SOA Implementation (Apress, 2007).
In the next chapter, you’ll look at another of the new pillars of .NET 3.0—Windows
Presentation Foundation, a technology that can be used to bring your user experience to
the next level. It’s also the big brother of a technology that you’ll be seeing a lot of in the
future of the Web: Silverlight.