What is the purpose of WCF Service Library? I understand if you build an IIS hosted service you create a web project, if self-hosted - create an .exe.
What is a real life scenario to use WCF as DLL?
Thank you
+1
A:
"WCF Service Application” itself is a direct web service application relying on WCF technology (which is similar to the ASP.NET web service development). "WCF Service Library" on the other hand is a compiled component which can be deployed as a web service or a Windows service or even as a part of a customized hosting application.
- Developing a WCF Service Library and Hosting it as a WCF Web Service
Justin Niessner
2009-09-14 18:12:32
Ok, if WCF service library can be deployed to IIS (thank you for the link) why would i ever create a WCF as a web project? Sounds like service library is a better choice. When would you use each?
Vitalik
2009-09-14 18:25:02
+2
A:
I would always create a WCF library as a class library - it's much easier to use. You have total flexibility to then either host your WCF service inside IIS (by supplying a virtual directory and a .svc file inside it), or you could write your own self-hosting EXE and reference the WCF service in the class library from it.
Putting a WCF service directly into a web project seems like a really bad idea and might only be useful for very simple instructional purposes - just to show how to get started. I would never do this for a "live" system.
Marc
marc_s
2009-09-14 19:01:51