Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation

I got this book, because I had learned WF from another book in the series which I thought was exceptional. This book has lots of examples, and it will be an excellent reference once I am done reading it the first time. The language isn't as clear as the WF book, and there is an extensive use of "buzz words" to describe the advantages of SOA development in the early chapters that don't really give you a sense that you're learning anything. In the end however, they manage to give a very concise, comprehensible rundown on what is a pretty complex subject. I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn WCF.

It gave me the rapid startup on WCF that I needed. All the other books prior to this one where out of date by 1+ years. This is the book that you want to get the rapid view of WCF. If you want a deep dive on "parts" of this, then Juval Lowy's book gives you details that are missed. There are a few details in Pro WCF that are definitely not in the MSDN documentation, but might be out on the web in a blog somewhere. So, you make the choice, but a book that brings it to you in a readable view with sample code, or go hunting an pecking - I'd rather save the time. This book, while not 5 stars, is probably the best at giving more senior folks a rapid overview of major capabilities within WCF. It's definitely tailored towards more senior folks that don't want to sit and stare at 100% code or API documentation, but want to see the features used in scenarios that what we deal with each day in our enterprises. Mostly integration, using existing applications, as they're probably hosted in COM or Java/J2EE environments.

This book covers everything WCF. I could have done without the SOA introduction, only because I have heard it so many times before. That being said, it is a good introduction to SOA. The book goes on to cover all the ins and outs of WCF. The book covers the WCF programming model, queue management, reliable messaging, transactions, and security. It covers each topic very thoroughly. It is written in a very readable format and is definitely worth adding to your library.

Recently, I've set out to learn everything I can about WCF and this book has made the journey a lot more fun. In short, the best thing about this book is that it answers just about every WCF question you've wanted answered. The MSDN documentation on WCF is pretty exhaustive, but in many cases, it's really difficult to find what you are looking for. Admittedly, if you follow it step by step, you can figure out the answers to most of your questions, but this book allowed me to bypass a lot of that. Case in point - MTOM. While relatively simple and straightforward, I couldn't find any MSDN examples on it and spent about 4 hours trying to get some simple attachments to work. After I figured it out I thought "Well I certianly made that a lot harder than it needed to be" and was annoyed it took me so long to figure it out. Well, MTOM is just one of the many areas this book covers and in 3 pages, you'll understand the bindings well enough to get just about any MTOM scenario you may have working. Data Contracts are another great example. Not a hard concept by any means, but one you can find yourself stumbling through when working through more complex scenarios. The discussion on Data contracts occurs at multiple intervals, but right off the bat things get clear quickly and before long you get the feeling there's nothing you are unable to do with respect to data contracts. Transactions are another area this book sheds a lot of light on. Obviously transaction support is vital in many service based scenarios and Chapter 9 of this book gets right to the heart of things. I can't think of a single area that this book doesn't cover extremely well and most importantly, it's like they wrote it with real world developers in mind b/c their examples and discussion focus directly on many of those things that you need to do in your day to day job, but the WCF documentation on MSDN sort of glosses over. This isn't a knock on MSDN in any way, it's just that Peiris and Mulder really build on it they leave you wanting for nothing. So far, this is the best WCF book I've come across and couldn't recommend it any higher.

I have 2 questions concerning this early book on WCF. Please answer if you are one of the authors :) What programming language is used in the book? Is this book updated for WCF 1.0 release or is still in Beta? Thanks, for answering.