WCF 4.5 Multi-Layer Services Development with Entity Framework

Chapter 1: Web Services and Windows Communication Foundation 7

What is SOA? 8

Web services 8

What is a web service? 8

WSDL 10

Web service proxy 10

SOAP 11

Web services: standards and specifications 11

WS-I Profiles 12

WS-Addressing 12

WS-Security 12

WS-ReliableMessaging 12

WS-Coordination and WS-Transaction 13

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) 13

What is WCF? 14

Why is WCF used for SOA? 14

WCF architecture 16

Basic WCF concepts – WCF ABCs 17

Address 17

Binding 17

Contract 18

Endpoint 22

Behavior 23

Hosting 23

Channels 24

Metadata 25

WCF production and development environments 25

Summary 26

Chapter 2: Implementing a Basic HelloWorld WCF Service 27

Creating the HelloWorld solution and project 27

Creating the HelloWorldService service contract interface 36

Implementing the HelloWorldService service contract 38

Hosting the WCF service in IIS Express 39

Creating the host application 39

Testing the host application 42

IIS Express 43

Modifying the web.config file 44

Starting the host application 46

Creating a client to consume the WCF service 47

Creating the client application project 47

Generating the proxy and configuration files 48

Customizing the client application 49

Running the client application 50

Setting the service application to AutoStart 51

Summary 52

Chapter 3: Hosting and Debugging the HelloWorld WCF Service 53

Hosting the HelloWorld WCF service 54

Hosting the service in ASP.NET Development Server 54

Hosting the service in a managed application 55

Hosting the service in a console application 56

Consuming the service hosted in a console application 59

Hosting the service in a Windows service 60

Hosting the service in the Internet Information Services server using the

HTTP protocol 60

Preparing the folders and files 61

Turn on Internet Information Services 63

Creating the IIS application 63

Starting the WCF service in IIS 64

Testing the WCF service hosted in IIS 64

Hosting the service in the Internet Information Services server using

the TCP protocol 65

Benefits of hosting a WCF service using the TCP protocol 65

Preparing the folders and files 66

Enabling the non-HTTP WCF activation for the hosting machine 69

Creating the IIS application 70

Testing the WCF service hosted in IIS using the TCP protocol 71

Other WCF service hosting options 72

Debugging the HelloWorld WCF service 72

Debugging from the client application 72

Starting the debugging process 73

Debugging on the client application 74

Stepping into the WCF service 75

Directly debugging the WCF service 76

Starting the WCF service in debugging mode 76

Starting the client application 77

Attaching to a running WCF service process 77

Running the WCF service and client applications in non-debugging mode 77

Debugging the WCF service hosted in IIS 78

Summary 79

Chapter 4: Implementing a WCF Service in the Real World 81

Why layer a service? 82

Creating a new solution and project using WCF templates 83

Creating the WCF service project 83

Creating the service interface layer 84

Creating the service interfaces 85

Creating the data contracts 86

Implementing the service contracts 88

Modifying the app.config file 91

Testing the service using WCF Test Client 93

Testing the service using our own client 97

Adding a business logic layer 104

Adding the business domain object project 104

Adding the business logic project 106

Calling the business logic layer from the service interface layer 110

Testing the WCF service with a business logic layer 114

Summary 116

Chapter 5: Adding Database Support and Exception Handling 117

Adding a data access layer 117

Creating the data access layer project 118

Calling the data access layer from the business logic layer 120

Preparing the database 122

Adding the connection string to the configuration file 123

Querying the database (GetProduct) 124

Testing the GetProduct method 126

Updating the database (UpdateProduct) 129

Adding error handling to the service 132

Adding a fault contract 133

Throwing a fault contract exception 135

Updating the client program to catch the fault exception 137

Testing the fault exception 141

Summary 142

Chapter 6: LINQ: Language Integrated Query 143

What is LINQ? 144

Creating the test solution and project 144

Datatype var 145

Automatic properties 146

Object initializer 147

Collection initializer 148

Anonymous types 149

Extension methods 150

Lambda expressions 156

Built-in LINQ extension methods and method syntax 159

LINQ query syntax and query expression 160

Built-in LINQ operators 163

Summary 165

Chapter 7: LINQ to Entities: Basic Concepts and Features 167

ORM: Object-Relational Mapping 168

Entity Framework 169

LINQ to Entities 170

Comparing LINQ to Entities with LINQ to Objects 171

LINQ to SQL 172

Comparing LINQ to SQL with LINQ to Entities 173

Creating a LINQ to Entities test application 174

Creating the data model 175

Adding a LINQ to Entities item to the project 175

Generated LINQ to Entities classes 181

Querying and updating a database table 182

Querying records 182

Updating records 183

Inserting records 184

Deleting records 184

Running the program 185

Viewing generated SQL statements 187

Viewing SQL statements using ToString 187

Viewing SQL statements using SQL Profiler 189

Deferred execution 190

Checking deferred execution with SQL Profiler 190

Deferred execution for singleton methods 192

Deferred execution for singleton methods within sequence expressions 193

Deferred (lazy) loading versus eager loading 197

Lazy loading by default 198

Eager loading with the Include method 199

Comparing lazy loading and eager loading 201

Joining two tables 201

Querying a view 202

Summary 203

Chapter 8: LINQ to Entities: Advanced Concepts and Features 205

Calling a stored procedure 205

Mapping a stored procedure to a new entity class 206

Modeling a stored procedure 206

Querying a stored procedure 207

Mapping a stored procedure to an existing entity class 208

Inheritance 212

LINQ to Entities Table per Hierarchy inheritance 212

Modeling the BaseCustomer and USACustomer entities 213

Modeling the UKCustomer entity 216

Generated classes with TPH inheritance 217

Testing the TPH inheritance 217

LINQ to Entities Table per Type inheritance 220

Preparing database tables 221

Modeling USACustomer1 and UKCustomer1 entities 222

Generated classes with TPT inheritance 223

Testing the TPT inheritance 223

Handling simultaneous (concurrent) updates 227

Detecting conflicts using a data column 228

The Concurrency Mode property 228

Adding another entity data model 229

Writing the test code 231

Testing the conflicts 232

Turning on concurrency control 232

Detecting conflicts using a version column 236

Adding a version column 236

Modeling the Products table with a version column 237

Writing the test code 238

Testing the conflicts 239

Transaction support 239

Implicit transactions 240

Explicit transactions 241

Summary 244

Chapter 9: Applying LINQ to Entities to a WCF Service 245

Creating the LINQNorthwind solution 246

Modeling the Northwind database 246

Creating the business domain object project 247

Using LINQ to Entities in the data access layer 249

Adding a reference to the BDO project 249

Creating UpdateProduct in the data access layer 251

Creating the business logic layer 253

Creating the service interface layer 254

Testing the service with the WCF Test Client 260

Testing concurrency with our own client 262

Creating the test client 262

Implementing the GetProduct functionality 264

Implementing the UpdateProduct functionality 265

Testing the GetProduct and UpdateProduct operations 269

Testing concurrent update manually 271

Testing concurrent updates automatically 274

Summary 280

Chapter 10: Distributed Transaction Support of WCF 281

Creating the DistNorthwind solution 282

Hosting the WCF service in IIS 284

Testing the transaction behavior of the WCF service 285

Creating a client to call the WCF service sequentially 286

Testing the sequential calls to the WCF service 293

Wrapping the WCF service calls in one transaction scope 295

Testing multiple database support of the WCF service 296

Creating a new WCF service 297

Calling the new WCF service in the client application 298

Testing the WCF service with two databases 303

Enabling distributed transaction support 306

Enabling transaction flow in service binding 306

Enabling transaction flow on the service hosting application 307

Modifying the service operation contract to allow a transaction flow 308

Modifying the service operation implementation to require a

transaction scope 309

Understanding the distributed transaction support of a WCF service 310

Testing the distributed transaction support of the WCF service 311

Configuring the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator 311

Configuring the firewall 313

Propagating a transaction from the client to the WCF service 314

Testing distributed transaction support with one database 314

Testing the distributed transaction support with two databases 315

Tradeoffs of distributed transactions 319

Summary 319

Chapter 11: WCF Security 321

WCF security components 321

WCF authorization 322

WCF auditing 322

WCF transfer security 323

WCF security modes 323

WCF transport security 324

WCF message security 325

WCF mixed security 325

WCF transport and message (both) security 325

Authentication options for transport security 325

Authentication options for message security 326

Hosting a WCF service using Basic Authentication 327

Setting up the service 327

Enabling the Basic Authentication feature 328

Configuring Basic Authentication on IIS 329

Configuring the HTTPS protocol 331

Configuring Basic Authentication on the service 333

Testing the service with Basic Authentication 336

Hosting a WCF service with Windows Authentication 338

WCF Security Guidance 340

Summary 340

Chapter 12: Extending WCF Services 341

WCF runtime architecture 341

Why extend WCF services? 343

WCF extension points 343

Client-side extension points 344

Service-side extension points 345

Extending a WCF service 345

WCF extension classes 346

WCF behavior classes 347

WCF behavior element classes 348

Applying the extensions 348

Extending HelloWorldService 349

Setting up the service 349

Creating the extension project 350

Creating an extension class 351

Creating a behavior class 354

Creating a behavior element class 356

Applying the extension to HelloWorldService 358

Testing the extended HelloWorldService 359

Summary 361

Index 363