All posts by : Service Station

1 of 138 | Screencast: Creating your first WCF client - Welcome back to the WCF screencast series! After a spending four weeks covering WF topics, we return to WCF for the latest video in the weekly WF/WCF Screencast series. In the coming month, we’ll be covering topics around the calling of WCF services. This week I'll guide you through how to create your first WCF client application that consumes an existing WCF service (see the previous WCF screencasts below for more details). You'll see how to add a service reference to the client project using the WCF service's Metadata Exchange (MEX) endpoint, which generates the service definition and contract, and then we'll use those generated artifacts to actually invoke the service op......

2 of 138 | Screencast: Workflow (WF) Screencast Series - As part of Pluralsight's WCF/WF Developer Screencast Series, my colleague and friend Matt Milner has been busy building the "getting started" videos for Windows Workflow Foundation (WF).  They've already published four on Channel9 endpoint.tv in case you missed them. Here are some quick links for those interested: Your first sequential workflow Your first state machine workflow Running workflows in your .NET applications Using persistence services in WF There will be more coming within the next few weeks....

3 of 138 | Screencast: Configuring WCF Services with Endpoints - As Cliff mentioned, the second installment in the WCF/WF Developer Screencast Series just went live. This one is called Configuring WCF Services with Endpoints. In this screencast, I build on the service I showed you how to create last week and show you to configure it with different endpoints -- you'll learn about addresses, bindings, and contracts -- and you'll see how to use the WCF Service Configuration Editor to create/modify different endpoint configurations. WCF/WF Developer Screencast Series -- Previous Screencasts Creating your First WCF Service ...

4 of 138 | Screencast: Creating your First WCF Service - I announced earlier this week that we've joined forces with the WCF/WF teams at Microsoft to produce a weekly screencast on ramping-up with these .NET 3.0 technologies. This is the first installment in the series, entitled Creating your First WCF Service in Visual Studio 2008. This short video guides you through how to create your first WCF Service from scratch in VS2008 - defining a data contract, a service contract, and testing/hosting the service using the new built-in WCF tools found in VS2008. Note: I want each of these screencasts to have a unique URI, hence the separate post. Apologies if you've already seen this clip....

5 of 138 | My latest article on BizTalk Services - Jon Flanders and I coauthored an article on BizTalk Services that just went live on the MSDN Magazine web site. We begin the article by discussing ESB's and the trends towards SaaS, and then we describe how BizTalk Services embodies the best of these different worlds through what Microsoft likes to call the Internet Service Bus (ISB). Then we show you how to begin using BizTalk Services within your WCF applications through the new RelayBinding. If you haven't touched it yet, there's plenty of sample code within the article to help you get started with BizTalk Services on your own. Simply browse to http://labs.biztalk.net, create your own user account, download/install the SDK, and you......

6 of 138 | Double Feature: WCF + WF - We still have a few seats left for our upcoming Double Feature: WCF + WF events. For those new to our Double Feature offerings, the concept is simple: we cover almost two complete 4-day courses (WCF + WF) in one extended hours 5-day week. We call it the firehose methodology. If you're looking to ramp-up on both of these emerging Connected Systems technologies in the most efficient way possible, take a look at this offering. It's a great way to maximize the ROI on your limited training/travel dollars, especially in today's economy. The next event is in Irvine on 6/16. If that doesn't work for you, we're also holding one in London on 7/14, another in Chicago on 8/4, and another in Waltha......

7 of 138 | Disabling WcfSvcHost.exe when debugging projects - One of the many new WCF features in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is a mechanism to control whether the built-in WCF test host application (WcfSvcHost.exe) should automatically launch when debugging other projects in a solution. Prior to this release, there was no way to control this without disabling WcfSvcHost.exe by removing the special ProjectTypeGuid that controls this feature from the .csproj file. Now, you can simply right click on your WCF Service Library and select Properties. Then in the project properties area you should find a tab called WCF Options, which looks like this: Simply uncheck the box to disable the WcfSvcHost.exe from starting when debugging other projects within your s......

8 of 138 | XML Schema Explorer in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 - In case you didn't notice, the XML Schema Designer that was made available as a downloadable CTP back in August 2007 made it into Visual Studio 2008 SP1. It's now called the XML Schema Explorer. You can read more about it here....

9 of 138 | DataContracts and object references - Another new WCF feature that's part of .NET 3.5 SP1 has to do with better support for object references. DataContractSerializer has always supported serializing object references and dealing with graphs, including cycles, and not just simple trees. But doing so is not the default behavior -- you have to tell DataContractSerializer that you want it to preserve object references when you instantiate it. Let's look at a simple example. Supposed that you have the following cyclic object graph (I'm assuming the same Person type that I used in my previous post): Person p = new Person(); p.Id = "123"; p.Name = "Aaron"; p.Spouse = new Person(); p.Spouse.Id = "456"; p.Spouse.Name = "Moni......

10 of 138 | DataContracts without attributes (POCO support) in .NET 3.5 SP1 - One of the new WCF features in .NET 3.5 SP1 is that DataContractSerializer now supports serializing types that aren’t annotated with any serialization attributes like [DataContract] or [Serializable]. If you were using DataContractSerializer prior to SP1, you had to follow the rules outline by Sowmy here. These rules illustrate that for custom classes you have a few choices. You can annotate the class with [DataContract] and [DataMember] to define an attribute-based mapping or implement IXmlSerializable to define a custom mapping. Or you can annotate the class with [Serializable] to automatically map all fields (like with .NET Remoting) or implement ISerializable to take things into ......

11 of 138 | WCF features/improvements in .NET 3.5 SP1 & VS 2008 SP1 - Scott Guthrie announced the availability of .NET 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 today. If you read his entry, you'll see this release is packed with new features, many of which revolve around the Ajax, MVC, and ADO.NET improvements they've been working on. However, this release also contains some new WCF nuggets including the following: New Hosting Wizard for WCF Service projects. Enhancements in Test Client such as support for RM Sessions, Message Contract and Nullable types enables testing of broader set of WCF-based services. Expanding reach of DataContract Serializer by relaxing the need of having [DataContract]/ [DataMember] on types and by supporting an interoperable mecha......

12 of 138 | BizTalk Server 2006 R3 just announced - Steve Martin, director of product management for Microsoft's Connected Systems Division (CSD), just announced their plans for the next version of BizTalk Server on his blog. It will be called BizTalk Server 2006 R3. This new version will be updated to work with Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008. It will also be updated with the following SOA-related features: New web service registry capabilities with support for UDDI v3.0 Enhanced service enablement of applications through new and enhanced adapters Enhanced service enablement of “edge” devices through BizTalk RFID Mobile Enhanced interoperability and connectivity support for B2B......

13 of 138 | DevWeek 2008 wrap-up - I just wrapped up DevWeek 2008, a wonderful developer conference held each year in London. This show brings in some of the best attendees around...I always really enjoy my time here. I'm sitting in my hotel here decompressing before my long journey home. Here are the demos from my sessions:  Programming WCF (workshop) The ABC's of Programming WCF Message-Oriented WCF SOAP, REST, POX, & RSS Getting Started with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 (workshop) Thanks again to the attendees for making this a great event once again, for all the thought provoking questions and discussions along the way. Hope to see you again next year! I'm going to especially miss the Indian food and running along......

14 of 138 | Extending WCF with Custom Behaviors - My last Service Station column on Extending WCF with Custom Behaviors is online (it's actually been online for a little while now but I missed blogging about it with the holiday craze). Here's the abstract: Windows® Communication Foundation (WCF) provides numerous extensibility points that allow developers to customize the runtime behavior for service dispatching and client proxy invocation. You can tap into these extensibility points by writing custom behaviors that can be applied declaratively to your services. This month I'll show you how this process works....

15 of 138 | WCF Addressing In-Depth - My latest Service Station column is now online -- it's called WCF Addressing In-Depth.     It starts out by reviewing WCF addressing fundamentals and then it quickly dives into IIS addressing considerations, multiple endpoints, unique vs. shared addresses, logical vs. physical addresses, addressing headers, message filters, and host name comparisons. Enjoy.  ...

16 of 138 | BizTalk Server 2006 R2 - Beta 2 is available - I'm psyched about R2 release of BizTalk Server 2006 because it comes with full support for WCF as a communication mechanism. Beta 2 is now available on the Microsoft Connect site.  ...

17 of 138 | WCF Performance Comparisons - One of the most common questions I get while teaching WCF is "how does WCF stack-up against the existing distributed technology stacks (ASMX, WSE, COM+, .NET Remoting) in terms of performance and throughput?" This whitepaper, written by Saurabh Gupta, offers some answers. [Via Paul Andrew]   I love the comparison between message-based security and the mixed mode where you secure the transport and use message credentials for authorization. According to this study, mixed offers 2.5x more throughput than message security (using WCF for both), and about 10x more than using WSE 2.0. I think mixed mode will end up becoming the sweet spot for many scenarios.  ...

18 of 138 | WCF Messaging Fundamentals - My latest Service Station column recently hit the Web on the MSDN Magazine site -- it's called WCF Messaging Fundamentals -- it covers the ins-and-outs of lower-level WCF message processing.   It starts by explaining the .NET 3.0 updates to System.Xml that allow for multiple byte-level representations of an XML Infoset (text, binary, MTOM) and then explains how WCF builds on that flexible foundation. Then it dives into the Message class, discusses message versions, and various ways to read/write messages. It also covers more advanced topics like message state/lifetime, message headers and properties. Finally, the article describes how messages are ultimately mapped to methods and how you ca......

19 of 138 | Pappas Bros Review - I'm in Dallas doing a short WCF training today/tomorrow and had dinner tonight at Papas Bros, supposedly the best steakhouse in town. Whenever someone recommends something as the best, I'm immediately skeptical, but this place indeed lived up to the qualifier. Excellent food and pleasant atmosphere.   So if you're in Dallas/Houston, I'd highly recommend it. Try the crab cakes for starters (amazing), the lobster bisque (even better), and the prime ribeye (to die for). I just wish I had saved room for dessert. ;-)  ...

20 of 138 | Improved HTTP/POX programming coming in Orcas/WCF - Great post by Steve Maine on the improved HTTP/POX programming support found in the Orcas release of WCF. He discusses the new System.ServiceModel.Web.dll assembly, the new [HttpTransferContract] attribute, and the new WebHttpBinding. These programming model additions should make POX/REST/HTTP scenarios more approachable with WCF. Very nice.  ...

21 of 138 | When you're writing a custom MessageEncoder in WCF - Make sure you check out Kenny's post here. He discusses an issue with the base MessageEncodingBindingElement and provides the boilerplate code that you must write any time you write a subclass. And this issue may not be possible to fix in the next release.  ...

22 of 138 | How Microsoft thinks about services - Don Smith recently posted a few short videos that describe how Microsoft, and specifically the patterns & practices team focused on the Web Services Software Factory, think about services. They describe the taxonomy they are using in their work, which will influence what they produce over the next year.   Check them out and you can provide feedback here.  ...

23 of 138 | Jon Flanders joins Pluralsight! - Here at Pluralsight we take pride in having the most recognized authorities in the industry teaching our premier .NET courses -- our business model revolves around that core principle. As a result, our BizTalk crew wouldn't have been 100% complete without bringing one of the biggest BizTalk names into our family. Today I'm excited to announce that Jon Flanders, of masteringbiztalk.com fame, has joined Pluralsight as a course author and instructor. Welcome aboard Jon!   Jon is not only a solid technologist but also a great friend of ours who we respect a lot. We go way back with him...I personally used to teach a popular Web application development course with Jon over 8 or 9 years ago, bac......

24 of 138 | BizTalk Server 2006 Web Services - My latest Service Station column for MSDN Magazine has been published online. You can find it here -- my focus in this issue is BizTalk Server 2006 Web Services.   The article describes how BizTalk Server 2006 integrates with Web services standards via the SOAP, WSE 2.0, and WCF (new in R2) adapters that come with BizTalk.   In a future piece, I'll cover the R2 WCF adapters in depth.  ...

25 of 138 | Is RFID a future winner or loser? - It's seems RFID is everywhere all of a sudden and it wasn't that long ago that no one knew what it was. Just the other night there was a whole news special on it called Spy Chips --apparently there's a group of protestors out there convinced that corporations/government plan to track our every move with this technology. Thanks to Hollywood it doesn't seem far-fetched, plus without the conspiracy angle, it would be much too boring for prime time news.   I'm not convinced that RFID will amount to much any time soon. There are some big barriers. Prices need to drop and the technology will have to improve significantly first. Sure, there are some perfect scenarios where RFID fits like a charm (......

26 of 138 | SOA Facts - Craig sent this to me yesterday. Since this a blog about SOA, posting it here seems very appropriate. ;-)   http://www.soafacts.com/   My favorite: "SOA is the answer to the question nobody ever asked (or if they did, you couldn't tell what the question was from SOA)."  ...

27 of 138 | Need WCF training? Need WF training? Kill two birds with one course - Since Fritz first announced our Double Feature brand a year ago, we've delivered several offerings using a few different combinations of technologies. Our most popular combinations are ASP.NET 2.0 + SQL Server 2005 and Windows Communication Foundation + Windows Workflow Foundation.  They really seem to work well for folks who want to ramp-up on multiple technologies with only a single training week to spare.   Our next Double Feature on WCF + WF is scheduled for the week of 3/26 in Waltham, MA. I'll be teaching this one along with our resident Workflow guru Matt Milner. The event is filling up quickly but there are still some seats left. Check out the course page for more information and re......

28 of 138 | InfoPath 2007 + Forms Server 2007 = Design Once - As some of you probably know, I've been a big fan of InfoPath since it first came out. What type of XML aficionado wouldn't love a product like that? Recently I've been digging into InfoPath 2007 along with the new Forms Server 2007 or Forms Services (packaged in SharePoint 2007). Compelling is an understatement.   The #1 complaint about InfoPath 2003 was that you had to have InfoPath installed on the client in order to fill out or even view a form. Although the product was built on things like XML, XSLT, and HTML, it simply wasn't design for browser rendering. Hence, many organizations didn't consider it a viable option given the resulting client deployment requirements.   The good news i......

29 of 138 | The Service Factory for WCF - Although somewhat stale news, I thought I should mention here that my article on the The Service Factory for WCF has hit the Web.   Check out Don Smith's blog for his recent announcement on the December release -- he outlines the new features they nailed and tells you what they're working on next. They're definitely up to some cool stuff.   You can learn more about Service Factory here, and you can get the latest bits here.  ...

30 of 138 | My article on the Web Services Software Factory (Service Factory) - One of the articles I mentioned here just shipped in the December issue of MSDN Magazine (see the Service Station column) and it's now online for public consumption. Enjoy.   I wrote a sequel to this piece that specifically covers the WCF guidance package in more detail -- it should hit the site in the next month or two.  ...

31 of 138 | Pluralsight at TechEd Europe - Pluralsight made a big splash at TechEd Europe last week. It was a great show and a beautiful location in Barcelona, Spain. The Eye now has meaning overseas.     If you live in Europe, keep your eye on our training calendar - we'll be organizing more courses in Europe throughout 2007, especially on the emerging .NET 3.0 technologies (WCF, WF, WPF, WCS). If you're interested in a custom onsite, contact us now - we're already doing onsites throughout the world today.   If you attended any of my sessions during the show, you'll find the demo code I promised below:   DEV401 -- BizTalk Server 2006 for XML Developers DEV402 -- Web Services on Steroids aka BizTalk Server 2006 PRE007 -- What'......

32 of 138 | WCF (Indigo) ships with .NET 3.0 - .NET Framework version 3.0 officially shipped last week. You can download the RTM bits here.   You can see the WCF team is a somewhat insane with happiness over on Channel 9. ;-)   Congrats to the team for shipping a great product.  ...

33 of 138 | Microsoft SOA and Business Process Conference - Microsoft is holding their SOA and Business Process Conference this week in Redmond. This is the show that was called the Business Process Management and Integration Conference last year.   I'll be at the show on Thursday and Friday and will be delivering the following two sessions with Gruia Pitigoi-Aron from the BizTalk team:   BizTalk Web Services: The Next Generation (Friday, 10:00am) BizTalk WCF Adapters In-Depth (Chalk Talk, Friday, 1:00pm)   We have some killer demos in place to illustrate some of the new features made available by the new WCF adapters. The worlds of BizTalk and Web services are coming together in full-force.   If you're around, stop by and say hello. Pluralsight is......

34 of 138 | Web Services Software Factory - One technology that I've been spending a lot of time with lately is the Web Services Software Factory, also known as Service Factory, produced by the patterns & practices team.   Don Smith has played a central role in its development and has provided some valuable learning resources on his blog to help you get up to speed quickly.   Service Factory is designed to speed up and simplify the process of building quality Web services, primarily through the guidance packages that come with the installation. There are two flavors of Service Factory guidance packages: one for ASMX (which has already shipped on MSDN) and another for WCF, which is still under development. The WCF version is expe......

35 of 138 | Me and my MacBook Pro - Speaking of new family additions, another one that I'm excited about is my new MacBook Pro. I've been a loyal IBM Thinkpad user for years, but frankly, I was getting bored. I don't really have any Thinkpad complaints other than it's not very exciting to buy one anymore, if you know what I mean.   I started on an Apple II and worked on Macs a lot during school, and I've missed them, but getting one never seemed pragmatic living in the Microsoft world. However, with the latest MacBooks, the proposition of living in both worlds seems better now. So I jumped off the cliff and got one.   A few impressions: I love the feel of the hardware…it's solid and polished. Great attention to detail, like......

36 of 138 | What's New in System.Xml 2.0 - My latest Service Station column is now online -- What's New in System.Xml 2.0.   It was refreshing to write about a core XML topic once again.  ...

37 of 138 | Building Connected Systems with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 - Pluralsight is holding a special event -- Building Connected Systems with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 -- on December 4-8 in Kirkland, WA focused on the next release of BizTalk Server, which brings some compelling new features to Connected Systems development.    It seems so much is happening in the Connected Systems space these days, even outside of BizTalk Server. .NET 3.0 is on the doorstep with some important arrivals -- WCF and Worflow -- which will have a huge impact on the way .NET developers build their systems. A new version of Office is also coming -- 2007 Microsoft Office System -- with new releases of SharePoint, InfoPath, and a new InfoPath "server" called Forms Server 2007, which b......

38 of 138 | Configuring host base addresses in WCF - In previous releases of WCF, it wasn't possible to configure the host's base addresses in the WCF configuration section. This has been a point of debate within the team itself. The differences between self-hosting scenarios (NT service, Winforms app, etc) and managed hosting scenarios (IIS/WAS) complicates the issue quite a bit, and some worry that it might cause developer confusion.   When I originally asked for this feature, they basically told me that they saw it as the job of the host application to read such configuration settings and that I could write an extension. Hence, back in April I posted about how to write a custom WCF ServiceHost that does just that. Although a bit disappoint......

39 of 138 | Speaking at UNUG tonight on BizTalk orchestrations - I just spoke at UNUG last month on the BizTalk Server architecture and messaging layer. Although the talk was over 2.5 hours long, there just wasn't enough time to scratch the surface on orchestrations.   So this month I'm back to cover BizTalk's shape-driven programming model and the benefits of its underlying orchestration engine. Standard time and place: Neumont in South Jordan at 6pm.  ...

40 of 138 | Serialization in Windows Communication Foundation - Next time you stop by the Service Station, you'll find my latest column. It's titled Serialization in Windows Communication Foundation. It compares the ins-and-outs of the three supported WCF serializers --XmlSerializer, DataContractSerializer, and NetDataContractSerializer -- including the differences in their respective programming models and XML mapping algorithms. Enjoy.  ...

41 of 138 | Downloading and installing .NET 3.0 (previously WinFX) June CTP - In response to recent questions/confusion, I posted an entry with links to the .NET 3.0 Beta 2 downloads -- ironically a few days later on Friday (June 23), they released a new version labeled the June CTP.   So, to avoid being the cause of even more confusion, here are the links to the latest June CTP bits:   .NET 3.0 (WinFX) Runtime Components June CTP Windows SDK (for June CTP) VS.NET 2005 Extensions (for June CTP) Workflow Foundation RC and Extensions (for June CTP)   As a matter of practice, go to the new .NET 3.0 portal site (http://www.netfx3.com/), and follow the download links to locate the latest bits.  ...

42 of 138 | Implementing Service Contracts with BizTalk Server 2004 - If you're interested in how the worlds of Web Services and BizTalk Orchestrations come together, check out this article I wrote a while back. It's called Implementing Service Contracts with BizTalk Server 2004.   It focuses on the issues around mapping between these two worlds, how to implement existing WSDL definitions in a BizTalk orchestration, what happens when you use the WS publishing wizard, etc.   I had completely lost track of this article because it never showed up on the MSDN Web Services Developer Center (where it was originally intended), and I recently learned that it ended up within the BTS 2004 technical articles section on MSDN instead. Anyway, some of the content might be......

43 of 138 | Downloading and installing .NET 3.0 (previously WinFX) - I've received numerous questions recently about where to find the latest and greatest WCF build, especially since the name change from WinFX to .NET 3.0. One way to find the bits is to browse to Microsoft's new .NET 3.0 portal site at http://netfx3.com and follow the link to downloads. However, I promised folks that I'd post the actual download links here:   .NET 3.0 (WinFX) Runtime Components Beta 2 Windows SDK VS.NET 2005 Extensions Workflow Foundation RC and Extensions   If you're looking to get a WCF development environment up and running, all you need is VS.NET 2005 and the first link (runtime components) above. The rest of the downloads give you some extra development tools but ......

44 of 138 | VSLive! Vegas 2006 Workshop Demos - For those of you who attended my WCF workshop yesterday at VSLive! Vegas, you can find the demo/sample code I promised here. ...

45 of 138 | Speaking at UNUG on BizTalk Server 2006 - The next thing on my agenda is a local UNUG (Utah .NET User's Group) talk, which will take place tomorrow night in South Jordan (Neumont). I'm going to speak on BizTalk Server 2006 -- one of my favorite topics these days. I'm going to focus primarily on its messaging layer and integration features.   If you're here in Utah and not at TechEd, hopefully we'll see you tomorrow night. My TechEd 2006 visit was shortened this year by my daughter's yearly ballet recital, which trumps all things technical.  ...

46 of 138 | TechEd 2006 Precon Demos - TechEd 2006 is here. I delivered a pre-conference seminar on Building .NET Web Services Today with .NET 2.0 and WSE 3.0. You can get the demos here, which may not make much sense unless you were there.   I was somewhat surprised by one of my informal surveys, which showed that a much higher percentage of the attendees are actually using Web services in production today.  Many of them are taking advantage of ASMX and WSE with great success, solving real problems with today's technologies. Refreshing.  ...

47 of 138 | WCF Extensibility Demos (Webcast) - You can download the WCF extensibility demos I walked through during today's Webcast from here.  ...

48 of 138 | Upcoming Webcast on Extending WCF - Kirk has organized a suite of Web Services Webcasts that will be delivered this month on MSDN. You'll find sessions on ASMX 2.0, WSE 3.0, and a bunch on WCF scheduled throughout June.   I'll be giving my Webcast on Extending WCF tomorrow morning at 8:00am PST. See you there!  ...

49 of 138 | Microsoft Architect Connections (MSAC) - I'm going to be speaking at Microsoft Architect Connections next Tuesday at the Omni Los Angeles California Plaza. It's a *free* single day event focused on "Enabling the Service Oriented Enterprise".     Kirk Allen Evans and Wolf Gilbert organized the event, and they've rounded up an interesting speaker crew, and some great topics of interest.   I'll be giving an XML State of the Union-style presentation, discussing the evolution of XML, SOAP, REST, POX, and RSS, the impact it's having on business, and where it's headed in the years to come.   You can register here if there's still space left.  ...

50 of 138 | WCF serialization rules - I recently wrote an article on the various serialization options in WCF (which will soon be published in MSDN Magazine). It focuses on the differences between XmlSerializer, DataContractSerializer (DCS), and NetDataContractSerializer, their programming models, tool support, and when to use one vs. the other.   While the WCF team was reviewing my piece, Sowmy (a serialization dev) pointed me to a blog entry he wrote on the DCS rules. It's amazingly succinct as Don pointed out. The piece documents the supported framework types and the precedence rules if a type implements more than one DCS programming model. For example, if a type implements both IXmlSerializable and ISerializable, the former......