Product Description
This easy-to-use introduction to Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is ideal for developers who want to learn to build services on a company network or as part of an enterprise system. Built into Windows Vista and Longhorn, and available for Windows XP and Windows 2003, WCF provides a platform for service-oriented architecture (SOA) that enables secure and reliable communication among systems within an organization or across the Internet. With WCF, software developers can focus on their business applications and not the plumbing required to connect them. Furthermore, with WCF developers can learn a single programming API to achieve results previously provided by ASMX, Enterprise Services and .NET Remoting. Learning WCF removes the complexity of using this platform by providing detailed answers, explanations and code samples for the most common questions asked by software developers. Windows Communication Foundation (or WCF, formerly code name "Indigo") provides a set of programming APIs that make it easy to build and consume secure, reliable, and transacted services. This platform removes the need for developers to learn different technologies such as ASMX, Enterprise Services and .NET Remoting, to distribute system functionality on a corporate network or over the Internet. The first truly service-oriented platform, WCF provides innovations that decouple service design and development from deployment and distribution - creating a more flexible and agile environment. WCF also encapsulates all of the latest web service standards for addressing, security, reliability and more.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 14 reviews)

Minor flaw hinders what could have been a great book.

Pro - Easy to understand and having a hands-on approach is good. Nice slow pace for beginners.

Con - (i) I agree with the previous reader here that the organization of the book could be better. I also don't like to type in anything without knowing the reason why I type it. (ii) The organization of the source code is confusing. For example, the CompletedLabs in Chapter 1, there is a HelloIndigo_Part1 folder, a HelloIndigo_Part2 folder and a HelloIndigo_Part3 folder - I honestly could not tell which folder corresponds to which lab of the book.

November 19, 2008

My first and last book by this publisher

I was looking for a good book on WCF and saw that this book received great reviews. I started out with their other book "Programming WCF Services" and thought maybe this one would be better to start out with. I am now returning both of them and will try either the Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation (Pro) book by APRESS or the Professional WCF Programming: .NET Development with the Windows Communication Foundation (Programmer to Programmer) book.

I personally don't like the way this book is organized. You walk through several examples in the first chapter using terms and technologies that you haven't learned about yet - I found myself jumping around in the book to try to figure out what I just typed into Visual Studio and why I typed it. I like to learn a little bit about the concepts before I start getting into the examples.
October 09, 2008

Going straight to the WCF technical matter.

I had to cross through several WCF books before finding the right one for me. This book has very easy learning approach - going straight to the technical WCF matter. In a good intro chapter, explaining everything about creating and configuring WCF servers and clients the book defines serialization, hosting, bindings, behaviors and other specific WCF basis. All these meanings are discussed deeper in consecutive chapters.
August 31, 2008

Great empathetic writer!

Not only does the author write well and explain concepts expertly, but from the effort she expended in putting together the instructional materials that readers can download to follow her along for the "hands on" parts of the book, one could tell she understands very well what readers need from a tech book writer!!
July 12, 2008

superlative

I purchased this and Lowy's book on WCF. Of the two, I'd say this is the one that will make WCF real to blue collar developers. More technical books need to be written this way. The author does an outstanding job of describing the pieces and parts of WCF from a functional standpoint before leading the reader through simple step-by-step exercises. These do a solid job of reinforcing the theory. I normally blow off working through sample code in technical works, but with WCF, it really helps to explore some of the nuances to things like serialization, callbacks and security. These are best appreciated by doing hands-on walkthroughs and fortunately, the author has provided very good examples in the companion download.

Lowy's book is good for different reasons, but I feel far more conversant in the WCF area having read and re-read Bustamente's book. Lowy's is a nice companion and it goes deep into stuff that, unless your current project really needs it, you'll brain dump in two weeks. Quote Lowy at swank cocktail parties with the hoi poloi, but use this book when you want to gain a solid understanding of this thing we call WCF.

Bustamente writes clearly and to the point. Git r' done types like me who are interested in exploring the functional without getting lost in the minutiae will appreciate Learning WCF.

This book is not about SOA although the author does touch on some basic premises governing what it does for the enterprise. Unlike Lowy, there weren't any real groaners about how SOA is going to replace OO and end world poverty. OO maybe got 30% penetration among software developers in formal polls. (As an informal measure, go into any MS shop and check out how many OO diagrams are created by devs in their work and you'll see what I mean. Most MS shops won't even spend money on third party modeling tools.) SOA isn't going to do any better and it addresses a different set of problems than does OO. Bustamente gives developers a solid grounding in appreciating what WCF can do while leaving all the fluff about "paradigm shifts" and what-not for others.
June 10, 2008

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