Making the switch from WSE-enabled Web Services, is WCF the way to go?

Question

We currently have a half a dozen of project which originally have been built using .NET Framework 1.1 and WSE 2.0. But Microsoft's support for WSE is lacking and the latest version of it (3.0) only targets .NET Framework 2.0. Our new projects will use .NET Framework 3.5 and instead of hacking our self a WSE-support, we are currently looking for alternative approaches.

Our current projects use WSE to digitally sign the SOAP-messages with a X.509 certificate. This is what we require also for our future projects.

It seems that going with the WCF-route seems to be the smart choice but is there any alternatives? WCF seems to support X.509 certifications but we are little worried of its support for other platforms than .NET. Our clients need to be able to use Java-based software to connect to out services. And they've stated that it should be as easy as it has been before (when we were using Web Services). So WCF must be configured to use HTTP and SOAP.

Given the requirements of X.509, cross-platform interoperability and ease of use (HTTP & SOAP), is Windows Communication Foundation the right solution?

Answer 1

Yes WCF is the solution - it is API for building Web services and it is interoperable if you don't use MS/.NET specific features. But you should be aware that sometimes there are some problems with porting WSE services to WCF. I recommend to build very simple service in WSE (like Hello World) and secure it with certificates in the same way as real services. Then create Jave client to consume the service. After that replace WSE service with WCF. It will be your proof of concept. In a case of problems you can easily share this solution here or on MSDN to get some help.