WCF

A binding explains the transport (such as HTTP or TCP) and the encoding being used (such as text or binary). A binding can contain binding elements that specify details like the security mechanisms used to secure messages, or the message pattern used by an endpoint.

WCF defines nine standard bindings:

1. Basic binding: Defined by the BasicHttpBinding class, this is designed to expose a WCF service as a legacy ASMX web service, so that old clients can work with new services. When used by the client, this binding enables new WCF clients to work with old ASMX services.

2. TCP binding: Defined by the NetTcpBinding class, this uses TCP for cross-machine communication on the intranet. It supports a variety of features, including reliability, transactions, and security, and is optimized for WCF-to-WCF communication. As a result, it requires both the client and the service to use WCF.

3. Peer network binding: Defined by the NetPeerTcpBinding class, this uses peer networking as a transport. The peer network-enabled client and services all subscribe to the same grid and broadcast messages to it. Peer networking is beyond the scope of this book since it requires an understanding of grid topology and mesh computing strategies.

4. IPC binding: Defined by the NetNamedPipeBinding class, this uses named pipes as a transport for same-machine communication. It is the most secure binding since it cannot accept calls from outside the machine and it supports a variety of features similar to the TCP binding.

5. Web Service (WS) binding: Defined by the WSHttpBinding class, this uses HTTP or HTTPS for transport, and is designed to offer a variety of features such as reliability, transactions, and security over the Internet.

6. Federated WS binding: Defined by the WSFederationHttpBinding class, this is a specialization of the WS binding, offering support for federated security.

7. Duplex WS binding: Defined by the WSDualHttpBinding class, this is similar to the WS binding except it also supports bidirectional communication from the service to the client.

8. MSMQ binding: Defined by the NetMsmqBinding class, this uses MSMQ for transport and is designed to offer support for disconnected queued calls. MSMQ integration binding defined by the MsmqIntegrationBinding class, this converts WCF messages to and from MSMQ messages, and is designed to interoperate with legacy MSMQ clients.