Downloading and Installing WSE

WSE is not an integral part of the .NET runtime; you must download and install it separately. WSE 1.0 was released in January 2003, and Service Pack 1 was released in March 2003.

WSE 1.0 Service Pack 1 is more of a cumulative release than a service pack. Unlike Windows service packs, you don’t have to install WSE 1.0 to install the service pack; WSE 1.0 Service Pack 1 is a complete package and includes WSE 1.0 with the updates from the service pack already applied. You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=06255a94-2635-4d29-a90c- 28b282993a41 .

WSE 1.0 Service Pack 1 functions happily under both .NET 1.0 and .NET 1.1. The installation process is straightforward—you just click and go, except in one situation. If you installed the technology preview of WSE—the Web Services Development Kit (WSDK), which is compatible only with .NET 1.0—and then installed .NET 1.1, you cannot immediately install WSE. The installation process for WSE will attempt to uninstall WSDK, but WSDK will install and uninstall only under .NET 1.0. If you have .NET 1.1 installed, the uninstall of WSDK will fail when it checks the version of the runtime and finds that .NET 1.1 is installed. The only solution is to uninstall .NET 1.1 and then uninstall WSDK. Once you’re at a base .NET 1.0, you can install both WSE 1.0 SP1 and .NET 1.1 (in either order).

Note

The WSE classes are contained within the Microsoft.Web.Services.dll assembly that’s added to the global assembly cache (GAC) and registered automatically with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. You must add a reference to this assembly to all projects that use WSE and also add the correct namespace references to all source files that will use WSE. The root namespace for WSE is Microsoft.Web.Services; you might also have to add several child namespaces.