managedcode Windows Communication Foundation
Trigger On
- working on WCF services, bindings, or clients
- deciding whether a service should stay WCF or move to modern HTTP APIs
- reviewing transport, security, or interoperability settings
Workflow
- Use WCF where SOAP, WS-* features, or multi-transport service requirements are real; do not rewrite those needs into HTTP-only guidance by accident.
- Keep contracts, bindings, behaviors, and hosting configuration explicit because WCF complexity compounds through configuration indirection.
- For new REST-style services, prefer modern ASP.NET Core APIs instead of extending WCF into a shape it is no longer best suited for.
- Plan migrations per endpoint and capability: transport, security model, transaction requirements, metadata, and client compatibility.
- Validate interoperability and deployment assumptions with the actual client ecosystem, not only local service startup.
- When WCF coexists with ASP.NET, be explicit about which runtime behaviors are shared and which are not.
Deliver
- stable WCF service or client configuration
- realistic migration guidance to newer stacks where appropriate
- clear contract and binding ownership
Validate
- WCF is used for a reason the modern stack does not replace directly
- binding and security behavior are explicit
- interop is verified with real consumers
References
- migration.md - WCF to gRPC/REST/CoreWCF migration paths, decision framework, and endpoint-by-endpoint migration strategy
- patterns.md - WCF maintenance patterns for configuration, contracts, hosting, security, diagnostics, and client proxy management