What is Binding and How Many Types of Binding are there in WCF

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Hi What is Binding and how many types of Bindings are there in WCF ?

Nattudurai Eswaramurthy · Answer

WCF Binding Types Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) separates how the software for an application is written from how it communicates with other software. Bindings are used to specify the transport encoding and protocol details required for clients and services to communicate with each other. WCF uses bindings to generate the underlying wire representation of the endpoint so most of the binding details must be agreed upon by the parties that are communicating. The easiest way to achieve this is for clients of a service to use the same binding that the endpoint for the service uses How many types of bindings are there in WCF? The Types of WCF Bindings: Binding Class Name Transport Message Encoding BasicHttpBinding HTTP Text WSHttpBinding HTTP Text WSDualHttpBinding HTTP Text WSFederationHttpBinding HTTP Text NetTcpBinding TCP Binary NetPeerTcpBinding P2P Binary NetNamedPipesBinding Named Pipes Binary NetMsmqBinding MSMQ Binary MsmqIntegrationBinding MSMQ Not Supported (uses a pre-WCF serialization format) CustomBinding You Decide You Decide Now let us try to understand the above WCF Binding types in detail. BasicHttpBinding The BasicHttpBinding uses HTTP as the transport for sending SOAP 1.1 messages. A service can use this binding to expose endpoints that conform to WS-I BP 1.1 such as those that ASMX clients consume. Similarly a client can use the BasicHttpBinding to communicate with services exposing endpoints that conform to WS-I BP 1.1 such as ASMX Web services or services configured with the BasicHttpBinding. Security is turned off by default but can be added setting the mode attribute of the of child element to a value other than None . It uses a Text message encoding and UTF-8 text encoding by default. BasicHttpBinding Example: system.serviceModel > services > service type =  Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples.CalculatorService  behaviorConfiguration =  CalculatorServiceBehavior  > binding=basicHttpBinding bindingConfiguration=Binding1 contract=Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples.ICalculator /> service > services > bindings > basicHttpBinding > binding name =  Binding1  hostNameComparisonMode =  StrongWildcard  receiveTimeout =  00:10:00  sendTimeout =  00:10:00  openTimeout =  00:10:00  closeTimeout =  00:10:00  maxReceivedMessageSize =  65536  maxBufferSize =  65536  maxBufferPoolSize =  524288  transferMode =  Buffered  messageEncoding =  Text  textEncoding =  utf-8  bypassProxyOnLocal =  false  useDefaultWebProxy =  true  > security mode =  None  /> binding > basicHttpBinding > bindings > system.serviceModel > WSHttpBinding The WSHttpBinding is similar to the BasicHttpBinding but provides more Web service features. It uses the HTTP transport and provides message security as does BasicHttpBinding but it also provides transactions reliable messaging and WS-Addressing either enabled by default or available through a single control setting. Here is an Example using WSHttpBinding configuration > system.ServiceModel > bindings > wsHttpBinding > binding closeTimeout =  00:00:10  openTimeout =  00:00:20  receiveTimeout =  00:00:30  sendTimeout =  00:00:40  bypassProxyOnLocal =  false  transactionFlow =  false  hostNameComparisonMode =  WeakWildcard  maxReceivedMessageSize =  1000  messageEncoding =  Mtom  proxyAddress =  http://foo/bar  textEncoding =  utf-16  useDefaultWebProxy =  false  > reliableSession ordered =  false  inactivityTimeout =  00:02:00  enabled =  true  /> security mode =  Transport  > transport clientCredentialType =  Digest  proxyCredentialType =  None  realm =  someRealm  /> message clientCredentialType =  Windows  negotiateServiceCredential =  false  algorithmSuite =  Aes128  defaultProtectionLevel =  None  /> security > binding > wsHttpBinding > bindings > system.ServiceModel > configuration > WSDualHttpBinding The WSDualHttpBinding provides the same support for Web Service protocols as the WSHttpBinding  but for use with duplex contracts. WSDualHttpBinding only supports SOAP security and requires reliable messaging. This binding requires that the client has a public URI that provides a callback endpoint for the service. This is provided by the clientBaseAddress attribute. A dual binding exposes the IP address of the client to the service. The client should use security to ensure that it only connects to services it trusts. This binding can be used to communicate reliably through one or more SOAP intermediaries. By default this binding generates a runtime stack with WS-ReliableMessaging for reliability WS-Security for message security and authentication HTTP for message delivery and a Text/XML message encoding Example using WSDualHttpBinding configuration > system.ServiceModel > bindings > wsDualHttpBinding > binding closeTimeout =  00:00:10  openTimeout =  00:00:20  receiveTimeout =  00:00:30  sendTimeout =  00:00:40  bypassProxyOnLocal =  false  clientBaseAddress =  http://localhost:8001/client/  transactionFlow =  true  hostNameComparisonMode =  WeakWildcard  maxReceivedMessageSize =  1000  messageEncoding =  Mtom  proxyAddress =  http://foo/bar  textEncoding =  utf-16  useDefaultWebProxy =  false  > reliableSession ordered =  false  inactivityTimeout =  00:02:00  /> security mode =  None  > message clientCredentialType =  None  negotiateServiceCredential =  false  algorithmSuite =  Aes128  /> security > binding > wsDualHttpBinding > bindings > system.ServiceModel > configuration > WSFederationHttpBinding Federation is the ability to share identities across multiple systems for authentication and authorization. These identities can refer to users or to machines. Federated HTTP supports SOAP security as well as mixed-mode security but it does not support exclusively using transport security. This binding provides Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) support for the WS-Federation protocol. Services configured with this binding must use the HTTP transport. Bindings consist of a stack of binding elements. The stack of binding elements in wsFederationHttpBinding is the same as that contained in wsHttpBinding when of is set to the default value of Message . The wsFederationHttpBinding controls the details of the message security settings in element of . Note that the of element provides get access only as the security used by the binding cannot be changed once the binding is created. The wsFederationHttpBinding also provides a privactyNoticeAt attribute to set and retrieve the URI at which the privacy notice is located. Keeping policy secure is especially important in federation scenarios. The recommendation is to use some form of security such as HTTPS to protect the policy from malicious users. In federation scenarios using this binding the service policy potentially has important information such as the key to use to encrypt the issued (SAML) token the type of claims to put in the token and so forth. If this policy is tampered with an attacker could discover the key of the issued token leading to further tampering info disclosure and other malicious behavior. To help prevent this the policy must be obtained securely (for example using HTTPS) from the service Example of WSFederationHttpBinding configuration > system.ServiceModel > bindings > wsFederationHttpBinding > binding bypassProxyOnLocal =  false  transactionFlow =  false  hostNameComparisonMode =  WeakWildcard  maxReceivedMessageSize =  1000  messageEncoding =  Mtom  proxyAddress =  http://foo/bar  textEncoding =  Utf16TextEncoding  useDefaultWebProxy =  false  > reliableSession ordered =  false  inactivityTimeout =  00:02:00  enabled =  true  /> security mode =  None  > message negotiateServiceCredential =  false  algorithmSuite =  Aes128  issuedTokenType =  saml  issuedKeyType =  PublicKey  > issuer address =  http://localhost/Sts  /> message > security > binding > wsFederationBinding > bindings > system.ServiceModel > configuration > NetTcpBinding This binding generates a run-time communication stack by default which uses transport security TCP for message delivery and a binary message encoding. This binding is an appropriate Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) system-provided choice for communicating over an Intranet. The default configuration for the netTcpBinding is faster than the configuration provided by the wsHttpBinding  but it is intended only for WCF-to-WCF communication. The security behavior is configurable using the optional securityMode attribute. The use of WS-ReliableMessaging is configurable using the optional reliableSessionEnabled attribute. But reliable messaging is off by default. More generally the HTTP system-provided bindings such as wsHttpBinding and basicHttpBinding are configured to turn things on by default whereas the netTcpBinding binding turns things off by default so that you have to opt-in to get support for example for one of the WS-* specifications. This means that the default configuration for TCP is faster at exchanging messages between endpoints than those configured for the HTTP bindings by default. Example of NetTcpBinding The binding is specified in the configuration files for the client and service. The binding type is specified in the binding attribute of the element. If you want to configure the netTcpBinding binding and change some of its settings it is necessary to define a binding configuration. The endpoint must reference the binding configuration with a bindingConfiguration attribute. In the following example a binding configuration is defined. services > service name =  Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples.CalculatorService  behaviorConfiguration =  CalculatorServiceBehavior  > ... endpoint address =  binding =  netTcpBinding  contract =  Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples.ICalculator  /> ... service > services > bindings > netTcpBinding > binding closeTimeout =  00:01:00  openTimeout =  00:01:00  receiveTimeout =  00:10:00  sendTimeout =  00:01:00  transactionFlow =  false  transferMode =  Buffered  transactionProtocol =  OleTransactions  hostNameComparisonMode =  StrongWildcard  listenBacklog =  10  maxBufferPoolSize =  524288  maxBufferSize =  65536  maxConnections =  10  maxReceivedMessageSize =  65536  > readerQuotas maxDepth =  32  maxStringContentLength =  8192  maxArrayLength =  16384  maxBytesPerRead =  4096  maxNameTableCharCount =  16384  /> reliableSession ordered =  true  inactivityTimeout =  00:10:00  enabled =  false  /> security mode =  Transport  > transport clientCredentialType =  Windows  protectionLevel =  EncryptAndSign  /> security > binding > netTcpBinding > bindings > NetPeerTcpBinding NetPeerTcpBinding provides support for the creation of peer-to-peer or multiparty applications using peer transport over TCP. Each peer node can host multiple peer channels defined with this binding type Example of NetPeerTcpBinding configuration > system.ServiceModel > bindings > netPeerBinding > binding closeTimeout =  00:00:10  openTimeout =  00:00:20  receiveTimeout =  00:00:30  sendTimeout =  00:00:40  maxBufferSize =  1001  maxConnections =  123  maxReceiveMessageSize =  1000  > reliableSession ordered =  false  inactivityTimeout =  00:02:00  enabled =  true  /> security mode =  TransportWithMessageCredential  > message clientCredentialType =  CardSpace  /> security > binding > netPeerBinding > bindings > system.ServiceModel > configuration > NetNamedPipeBinding Defines a binding that is secure reliable optimized for on-machine cross process communication. By default it generates a runtime communication stack with WS-ReliableMessaging for reliability transport security for transfer security named pipes for message delivery and binary message encoding The NetNamedPipeBinding generates a run-time communication stack by default which uses transport security named pipes for message delivery and a binary message encoding. This binding is an appropriate Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) system-provided choice for on-machine communication. It also supports transactions. The default configuration for the NetNamedPipeBinding is similar to the configuration provided by the NetTcpBinding  but it is simpler because the WCF implementation is only meant for on-machine use and consequently there are fewer exposed features. The most notable difference is that the securityMode setting only offers the None and Transport options. SOAP security support is not an included option. The security behavior is configurable using the optional securityMode attribute. Example using NetNamedPipeBinding configuration > system.serviceModel > services > service name =  Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples.CalculatorService  behaviorConfiguration =  CalculatorServiceBehavior  > host > baseAddresses > add baseAddress =  http://localhost:8000/ServiceModelSamples/service  /> baseAddresses > host > this endpoint is exposed at the base address provided by host: net.pipe://localhost/ServiceModelSamples/service --> endpoint address =  net.pipe://localhost/ServiceModelSamples/service  binding =  netNamedPipeBinding  contract =  Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples.ICalculator  /> the mex endpoint is exposed at http://localhost:8000/ServiceModelSamples/service/mex --> endpoint address =  mex  binding =  mexHttpBinding  contract =  IMetadataExchange  /> service > services > bindings > netNamedPipeBinding > binding closeTimeout =  00:01:00  openTimeout =  00:01:00  receiveTimeout =  00:10:00  sendTimeout =  00:01:00  transactionFlow =  false  transferMode =  Buffered  transactionProtocol =  OleTransactions  hostNameComparisonMode =  StrongWildcard  maxBufferPoolSize =  524288  maxBufferSize =  65536  maxConnections =  10  maxReceivedMessageSize =  65536  > security mode =  Transport  > transport protectionLevel =  EncryptAndSign  /> security > binding > netNamedPipeBinding > bindings > For debugging purposes set the includeExceptionDetailInFaults attribute to true --> behaviors > serviceBehaviors > behavior name =  CalculatorServiceBehavior  > serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled =  True  /> serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults =  False  /> behavior > serviceBehaviors > behaviors > system.serviceModel > configuration > NetMsmqBinding Defines a queued binding suitable for cross-machine communication The netMsmqBinding binding provides support for queuing by leveraging Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) as a transport and enables support for loosely coupled applications failure isolation load leveling and disconnected operations . configuration > system.ServiceModel > bindings > netMsmqBinding > binding closeTimeout =  00:00:10  openTimeout =  00:00:20  receiveTimeout =  00:00:30  sendTimeout =  00:00:40  deadLetterQueue =  net.msmq://localhost/blah  durable =  true  exactlyOnce =  true  maxReceivedMessageSize =  1000  maxRetries =  11  maxRetryCycles =  12  poisonMessageHandling =  Disabled  rejectAfterLastRetry =  false  retryCycleDelay =  00:05:55  timeToLive =  00:11:11  sourceJournal =  true  useMsmqTracing =  true  useActiveDirectory =  true  > security > message clientCredentialType =  Windows  /> security > netMsmqBinding > bindings > system.ServiceModel > configuration > MsmqIntegrationBinding Defines a binding that provides queuing support by routing messages through MSMQ This binding element can be used to enable Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) applications to send messages to and receive messages from existing MSMQ applications that use either COM MSMQ native APIs or the types defined in the ( Default Namespace ) System.Messaging namespace You can use this configuration element to specify ways to address the queue transfer assurances whether messages must be durably stored and how messages should be protected and authenticated Example using MsmqIntegrationBinding configuration > system.ServiceModel > bindings > msmqIntegrationBinding > binding closeTimeout =  00:00:10  openTimeout =  00:00:20  receiveTimeout =  00:00:30  sendTimeout =  00:00:40  deadLetterQueue =  net.msmq://localhost/blah  durable =  true  exactlyOnce =  true  maxReceivedMessageSize =  1000  maxImmediateRetries =  11  maxRetryCycles =  12  poisonMessageHandling =  Disabled  rejectAfterLastRetry =  false  retryCycleDelay =  00:05:55  timeToLive =  00:11:11  useSourceJournal =  true  useMsmqTracing =  true  serializationFormat =  Binary  > security mode =  None  /> binding > msmqIntegrationBinding bindings > system.ServiceModel > configuration > CustomBinding Provides full control over the messaging stack for the user Custom bindings provide full control over the WCF messaging stack. Special tailored bindings can be created my adding the configuration elements for specific entities. For example the user can combine the httpsTransport section reliableSession section and the security section to create a reliable and secure https based binding. An individual binding defines the message stack by specifying the configuration elements for the stack elements in the order they appear on the stack. Each element defines and configures the one element of the stack. There must be one and only one transport element in each custom binding. Without this element the messaging stack is incomplete. The order in which elements appear in the stack matters because it is the order in which operations are applied to the message. The recommended order of stack elements is the following: Transactions (optional) Reliable Messaging (optional) Security (optional) Transport Encoder (optional) Example: The following example shows how to create a CustomBinding object using a ReliableSessionBindingElement and an HttpTransportBindingElement Uri baseAddress = new Uri( http://localhost:8000/servicemodelsamples/service ); // Create a ServiceHost for the CalculatorService type and provide the base address. using (ServiceHost serviceHost = new ServiceHost( typeof (CalculatorService) baseAddress)) { // Create a custom binding that contains two binding elements. ReliableSessionBindingElement reliableSession = new ReliableSessionBindingElement(); reliableSession.Ordered = true ; HttpTransportBindingElement httpTransport = new HttpTransportBindingElement(); httpTransport.AuthenticationScheme = System.Net.AuthenticationSchemes.Anonymous; httpTransport.HostNameComparisonMode = HostNameComparisonMode.StrongWildcard; CustomBinding binding = new CustomBinding(reliableSession httpTransport); // Add an endpoint using that binding. serviceHost.AddServiceEndpoint( typeof (ICalculator) binding  ); // Add a MEX endpoint. ServiceMetadataBehavior smb = new ServiceMetadataBehavior(); smb.HttpGetEnabled = true ; smb.HttpGetUrl = new Uri( http://localhost:8001/servicemodelsamples ); serviceHost.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb); // Open the ServiceHostBase to create listeners and start listening for messages. serviceHost.Open(); // The service can now be accessed. Console.WriteLine( The service is ready. ); Console.WriteLine( Press to terminate service. ); Console.WriteLine(); Console.ReadLine(); // Close the ServiceHostBase to shutdown the service. serviceHost.Close(); } Your Response is important to use. Please Check This is Currect Answer if it helped

Nattudurai Eswaramurthy · Answer

A binding defines how an endpoint communicates to the world. A binding defines the transport (such as HTTP or TCP) and the encoding being used (such as text or binary). A binding can contain binding elements that specify details like the security mechanisms used to secure messages or the message pattern used by an endpoint. WCF supports nine types of bindings. Basic binding Offered by the BasicHttpBinding class this is designed to expose a WCF service as a legacy ASMX web service so that old clients can work with new services. When used by the client this binding enables new WCF clients to work with old ASMX services. TCP binding Offered by the NetTcpBinding class this uses TCP for cross-machine communication on the intranet. It supports a variety of features including reliability transactions and security and is optimized for WCF-to-WCF communication. As a result it requires both the client and the service to use WCF. Peer network binding Offered by the NetPeerTcpBinding class this uses peer networking as a transport. The peer network-enabled client and services all subscribe to the same grid and broadcast messages to it. IPC binding Offered by the NetNamedPipeBinding class this uses named pipes as a transport for same-machine communication. It is the most secure binding since it cannot accept calls from outside the machine and it supports a variety of features similar to the TCP binding. Web Service (WS) binding Offered by the WSHttpBinding class this uses HTTP or HTTPS for transport and is designed to offer a variety of features such as reliability transactions and security over the Internet. Federated WS binding Offered by the WSFederationHttpBinding class this is a specialization of the WS binding offering support for federated security. Duplex WS binding Offered by the WSDualHttpBinding class this is similar to the WS binding except it also supports bidirectional communication from the service to the client. MSMQ binding Offered by the NetMsmqBinding class this uses MSMQ for transport and is designed to offer support for disconnected queued calls. MSMQ integration binding Offered by the MsmqIntegrationBinding class this converts WCF messages to and from MSMQ messages and is designed to interoperate with legacy MSMQ clients. For WCF binding comparison see http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/aaron/archive/2007/03/22/46560.aspx Your Response is important to use. Please Check This is Currect Answer if it helped