Whats New in WCF 4.5

In the .NET Framework 4.5, a lot of new features have been added to make it simpler Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) applications:

·         Simplification of generated configuration files

Here in WCF 4.5 the config file become simpler in the sense as instead of showing all the binding whether it is default or not, it will only contains the binding where the value is modified from default to others.

·         Support for Contract-first development

This feature will let you create service reference from WSDL file by using svcutl.exe /serviceContract switch

·         ASP.NET compatibility mode

WCF provides ASP.NET compatibility mode to grant developers full access to the features in the ASP.NET HTTP pipeline when writing WCF services. To use this mode, you must set the aspNetCompatibilityEnabled attribute to true in the  section of web.config. Additionally, any service in this appDomain needs to have the RequirementsMode  property on its AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsAttribute set to Allowed or Required. By defaultAspNetCompatibilityRequirementsAttribute is now set to Allowed. 

·         Default Transport Values

Some new Default transport values are set like

                        channelInitializationTimeout

                        listenBacklog

maxPendingAccepts

maxPendingConnections

receiveTimeout

·         XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas Class Updated

Some values are set to as

MaxArrayLength                   (max int value)

MaxBytesPerRead                  (max int value)

MaxDepth                               (128 Nodes)

MaxNameTableCharCount     (max int value

MaxStringContentLength       (max int value)

·         Validation of WCF config file

Now in the build process WCF configuration files are validated.  List of validation errors or warnings are displayed in Visual Studio if the validation fails.

·         New asynchronous streaming support

Streaming becomes smoother as the sending thread will not block the process and there will be a limitation on the buffer size for sender.

·         New HTTPS protocol

The IIS can now support the HTTPS protocol.

·         Ability to generate metadata in a single WSDL

   The metadata of the service can now be generated in a single file by appending. ?singleWSDL in the URL.

·         Websockets support

Bidirectional communication over port 80 and 443, just like the TCP protocol.

·         Support for configuring services in code

A developer can now configure the file by simply modifying the config file; there is no need to compile the code again.

·         XML Editor tooltips

The XML editor will now provide the tooltip as well for every node element.

·         ChannelFactory Caching support

WCF can cache channel factories while developer is using a WCF client proxy

·         Binary encoder compression support

Binary encoding and the file compression is now supported at the service level as will so there will not be chance of a fault if the client use this but the service does not have.

·         UDP Protocol support

Now the service client can sends a message to a service and there is no need to wait till the response comes.

·         Multiple authentication Support

The Service can now support multiple authentications just like the IIS do in the virtual directory if you are using HTTP transport protocol.

·         IDN Support

WCF can now support International Domain Name as well.

Thanks

Anil Kumar Pandey

Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCC, DNS MVM