SOA through WCF in Dotnet

SOA came into picture in late 1990's and early 2000's. Microsoft also introduced this in their 1.1 dot net framework through webservices, which was released in 2001. Before this companies were using Vitria middle ware. Other ways of implementing SOA are Remoting, DCOM, MSMQ etc.,

After all this there is a need to write code irrespective of implementation details whether it is webservice, DCOM, MSMQ or Remoting. This requirement is the birth of WCF. Microsfot released WCF in Fall 2006 as part of Dotnet Framework 3.0.

WCF supposed to work interoperably irrespective of enterprise servers.

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/paytonbyrd/wcf-and-soa-getting-there-from-here-18438

you can find some nice tips here as well.http://weblogs.asp.net/socratees/archive/2007/11/03/wcf-and-soa-cool-tips.aspx

SOA gives us new option to refactor the existing architecture aliging to todays needs and promising tomorrow's scalability. Reusability makes the SOA great, it is one of the core pillar. The core factors of WCF are simple, secure, reliable, interoperable.

WCF with combination of WF (Workflow Foundation) promise to bridge the gap between technology and business. WF defines the business workflow while WCF promises scalable mode to the businss using the existing legacy systems for tomorrow needs.

You will be building WCF in .net 3.0 by selecting new template from visual studio which WCF template.
After adding "Hello World" kind of program, publish the site using Tools menu.
Add Service reference (this is 3rd option after "add reference" and "web reference") by selecting the SVC extention file url.

If you would like to have code and want to explore all the functionalities check the workshopt links below

http://www.sheltonblog.com/archive/2007/10/06/all-6-parts-of-the-soa-development-with-windows-communications.aspx

WCF is more than a web service in .net, it can handle other than HTTP interfaces, which web service can not do. WCF can handle MSMQ, TCP interface inputs as well.

Please keep in mind SOA will never be as quick as client application or database solution.

Happy Learning.......