Web service is a part of WCF. WCF offers much more flexibility and portability to develop a service when comparing to web service. Still we are having more advantages over Web service. Following points provides detailed difference between them.
Web Service:
- Hosting -It can be hosted in IIS.
- Programming -[WebService] attribute has to be added to the class.
- Model -[WebMethod] attribute represents the method exposed to client.
- Operation -One-way, Request- Response is the different operations supported in web service.
- XML -System.Xml.serialization name space is used for serialization.
- Encoding -XML 1.0, MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom.
- Transports -Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, and Custom.
- Protocols- Security.
WCF
- Hosting - It can be hosted in IIS, windows activation service, Self-hosting, Windows service.
- Programming -[ServiceContraact] attribute has to be added to the class .
- Model -[OperationContract] attribute represents the method exposed to client .
- Operation - One-Way, Request-Response, Duplex are different type of operations supported in WCF .
- XML - System.Runtime.Serialization namespace is used for serialization.
- Encoding - XML 1.0, MTOM, Binary, Custom.
- Transports - Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Named pipes, MSMQ, P2P and Custom.
- Protocols- Security, Reliable messaging, Transactions.
