Summary

The idea behind WCF is relatively simple: Allow a client application to call methods provided by a service. Although the idea is simple, WCF is a complicated topic because it provides so much flexibility. It lets clients and services communicate through a variety of transport mechanisms using an assortment of security protocols. The WCF provides attributes that make defining service contracts easy, but the great flexibility it provides makes configuring services more difficult.

For more information on WCF, search the Microsoft online help and the Web. A good starting point is the Microsoft WCF home page at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa388579.aspx.

The .NET Framework divides groups of useful files into namespaces. For example, the classes provided by WCF are included in the System.ServiceModel namespace. Chapter 32 describes some of the other useful namespaces defined by the .NET Framework. It provides a brief overview of some of the most important System namespaces and gives more detailed examples that demonstrate regular expressions, XML, cryptography, reflection, threading, and Direct3D.