Essential Windows Communication Foundation (WCF): For .NET Framework 3.5 (Microsoft .NET Development Series) (ISBN 0321440064) Book Reviews 1-7 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Very good and valuable resource

The book covers all aspects of WCF in a clear and concise way. Even for people with a lot of experience or architectects who want to get an overview of WCF this is a real valuable resource.

It has a nice writing style so you can even enjoy it a bit later or with a glass of wine...

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-09-06 04:25:17 EST)

07-02-08

2\2

Best overview of the Windows Communication Foundation I've seen

This is the best overview I have seen of the Windows Communication Foundation API. Particularly valuable is the discussion of the API's support for Web services that follow REST (Representation State Transfer) conventions. It would have been nice to have provided a clearer roadmap of where the technology is going, particularly its planned integration into BizTalk Server via Microsoft's Oslo project. But this looks like a very valuable book for developers trying to get work done now.

Rob Helm, Directions on Microsoft

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-09-06 04:21:04 EST)

05-29-08

3\3

I expected a lot and it delivered

I'm a big fan of the entire "Essential" series from Addison-Wesley and I expected a lot from this book. I could sum up my opinion on it by saying "It delivers".

My vantage point is a little different from most in that I was coauthor of a book on Winfx/Indigo and I teach WCF. The pool of books out there on WCF are all quite good when compared to other technologies. I think that's b/c in large part, enterprise technologies aren't usually used by beginners and there's been a general reluctance to embrace WCF from what I've seen. I suspect this is in large part b/c you have to relearn Remoting/WS/WSE/MSMQ/Enterprise Services. Once you dive into it though, you quickly realize that WCF is almost too good to be true.

This book does a few things very well. First off, it explains each of the concepts clearly. I find that the authors all write well and are very good at succinctly communicating whatever they are talking about without ever talking over your head. The level of detail is very good too. A few places they could have went deeper (for instance, I think MTOM should have gotten more than a brief descriptive few sentences) but on the whole, I think the covered topics in proportion with how much they are used in the marketplace. They use a good bit of both simple and more involved expamples so if this was your first WCF book, you'd be well served but if you've read several WCF books, you'd still be glad you bought the book. I've bought both the print version and the Kindle version (which I love) and don't believe I've come across any errors. As such, I'd have to say the editing is very good, although that's not surprising in the least from this series. Another nice feature of the book is that while it has three authors, the writing style if very similar. So you get the benefit of three different people's experience without having the problems related to three different writing styles.

I found this book to be very helpful overall and even though I was well versed in most of the stuff they cover, I still found it a great reference. I've purchased copies of it for everyone on my staff and that's perhaps the highest compliment I could pay it - in addition to buying both the hard cover and Kindle version. I suspect if you buy it, you'll be glad you did.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-03 04:25:08 EST)

03-29-08

5\8

Worth it - if not just for reference

Unfortunately this book is not as good as some of the other books in this series (mainly the windows workflow foundation) as there are a few too many mistakes (spelling, code, etc) and not that many real world examples. As an introduction and first steps book - great. As reference material for later use - great! - but for a read, as a developer, not that good. The target audience is too widely spread - developers (green and old), architects, business analysts, so this book is great to have in the office but not in your bookshelf at home.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-30 03:53:51 EST)

03-01-08

3\4

A must have guide to WCF

If you are going to get into Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) with .NET Framework 3.5, you will want this book by your side.

The authors do a great job of covering all the basics and then go in depth on each major WCF topic offering a chapter on each. They cover all the new .NET 3.5 topics thoroughly and in depth.

The have an entire chapter on Workflow Services, which is new to .NET 3.5. They do a great job of explaining it from a WF viewpoint and a WCF viewpoint.

They also have go into depth on using WCF for web (AJAX Integration, JSON, WebOperationContext, WebScriptServiceHost, WebScriptServiceHostFactory, RSS, ATOM) programming.

One of the things I really like about this book is they way the authors summarized topics with tables. They make comparing options, which there are a lot with WCF, easier to pick.

I know the big thing with WCF is that it brings a lot of different technologies together under one umbrella, but you still have to make choices on what to use and then how to use it. The umbrella does not make the choices any less confusing unless you have a good guide for making those choices. This book accomplishes that completely.

An example can be found by going to the Amazon page that allows you to search the book, and searching on "Supported Features of Each Binding". Click page on page 117 and then check out the next page also.

This book is very well organized, it is in depth, and the writing styles make it an easy read.

There is no code to download yet, but I contact one of the authors and they said it is on the way.

I highly recommend spending some time with this book before jumping head first into WCF. Using this book as a guide to help you make decisions about which path to take will make using WCF a pleasure.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-03-29 23:29:12 EST)

03-01-08

0\7

Where's the source Code

about an hour into this book. Browsed the front and back of the book. Went to the website and do not see any source code for the examples. Simply unbelievable. Looking at Chapter 11 and not easy to follow trying to type the code in.

If the author reads this, please post the source code used in the examples for this book.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-03-04 07:46:36 EST)

03-01-08

5\6

WCF how to with VS2008