Recommend a good book about Web Services (.NET)?

Question

Looking for a good overview about .NET web services and SOA architecture. Any suggestions?

Any good links?

Answer 1

In my opinion, the best book for SOA in general is Hohpe and Woolf's Enterprise Integration Patterns. It's the bible for messaging.

It is pre-WCF, so it uses MSMQ for the code samples (along with java), but it is very straightforward and really clarifies a lot of the problems of concurrency/transactions and how to design an enterprise SOA system with great examples and great clarity.

Answer 2

MSDN got quite detailed documentation about WCF web services including technical view and best practices etc. Check out Understanding SOA

The book I found quite useful is Essential Windows Communication Foundation (WCF): For .NET Framework 3.5 (Microsoft .NET Development Series) which covers most of the latest .NET web service features, from architecture to developing web service for different scnenarios.

Answer 3

For a high level (read: introductory) overview I'd recommend reading ASP.NET 3.5 Application Architecture and Design from Packt Publishing.

Here is a link to the full table of contents. Chapter 7 is probably the most relevant for you.

Answer 4

Michelle Bustamante's Learning WCF.

While specifically related to WCF, it has a ton of background information of SOA principles, etc.

Excellent book. She worked very closely with the WCF team when they were designing/building. Very highly respected and knows her stuff. Must read. Also, you might want to check out her apperances on the dotnet rocks podcast.

Answer 5

I found Learning WC F to be out of date in a few areas.

Programming WCF Services by Juval Lowy was printed very recently and should be right upto date. It is however heavier going than Learning WCF.

I am currently reading RESTful.NET By Jon Flanders which is proving to be interesting.

Answer 6

You may want to take a look at my list of good recently published .NET related books:

http://www.riaguy.com/books/