Feature of WCF:

There are set of feature in WCF, in which some are given as follows:

·    Service Orientation:

One consequence of using web service standards is that WCF enables you to create service oriented applications. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is the reliance on Web services to send and receive data. The services have the general advantage of being loosely-coupled instead of hard-coded from one application to another. A loosely-coupled relationship implies that any client created on any platform can connect to any service as long as the essential contracts are met.

·  Interoperability:

WCF implements modern industry standards for Web service interoperability through which web services can communicate easily.

·  Multiple Message Pattern:

Messages are exchanged in one of several patterns. The most common pattern is the request/reply pattern, where one endpoint (A service endpoint can be part of a continuously available service hosted by IIS, or it can be a service hosted in an application) requests data from a second endpoint and second endpoint replies. There is another patterns such as a one-way message in which a single endpoint sends a message without any expectation of a reply.

·  Service Meta Data:

WCF supports publishing service metadata using formats specified in industry standards such as WSDL (Web Service Description Language), XML Schema and WS-Policy. This metadata can be used to automatically generate and configure clients for accessing WCF services. Metadata can be published over HTTP and HTTPS or using the Web Service Metadata Exchange standard.

·  Data Contracts:

Because WCF is built in .NET Framework environment, it also includes code-friendly methods of supplying the contracts you want to enforce. One of the universal types of contracts is the data contract. In essence, as you code your service using Visual C# or Visual Basic, the easiest way to handle data is by creating classes that represent a data entity with properties that belong to the data entity. Once you have created the classes that represent data, your service automatically generates the metadata that allows clients to comply with the data types you have designed.

·  Security:

Messages can be encrypted to protect privacy and you can require users to authenticate themselves before being allowed to receive messages. Security can be implemented using well-known standards such as SSL or WS-Secure conversation.

·  Extensibility:

The WCF architecture has a number of extensibility points. If extra capability is required, there are a number of entry points that allow you to customize the behavior of a service.