WEB API and WCF

Question

When to use web api and wcf difference between service oriented and resource oriented

Sachin Singh · Answer

WCF usually uses SOA architecture means SOAP protocol , which means it uses SOAP envelop to transfer messages. On internet everything is a resource for example an image of dog is a resource. a video on sprituality is a resource. an employee information with id 105 of a particular company is a resource. But earlier means before rest we used to think in terms of Action like getImage , getEmployeeById, getDog etc which was very normal for programmers , we usually think in terms of action but it was not very correct http is the oldest and most reliable protocol which says everything is a resource so a url like http://domain.com/getEmloyee/2 doesn't replicate what Http really says , if you follow http principles then your url should be http://domain.com/Emloyee/2 , now the url repersents a resource , an employee of Id 2 and not an action , this is one contraint of REST. Similarly utlilizing other http features like content negotiation , status codes , stateless etc when all these are followed religiously then we say we have developed a REST service. I think you got the idea , that when we human negotiate for price of a thing then why not content type of a resource why always get XML when we could get Json or XML whatever we like. all these achieved with REST and is not possible with SOAP. Means WCF follows SOAP , Web API follows rest.

Rijwan Ansari · Answer

Key differences; WCF offers request-reply, one-way, or duplex while Web API is by default request-reply only. WCF is used for developing SOAP-based services whereas Web API is used for both SOAP-based and RESTful services. WCF does not offer any support for MVC features whereas Web API supports MVC features. WCF supports HTTP, UDP, and custom transport protocol whereas Web API supports only HTTP protocol. WCF offers Text, MTOM, and Binary Encoding support whereas Web API supports the UTF-8 encoding format. WCF supports message queues, message security, duplex communication, transaction whereas Web API doesn’t support. WCF stands for Windows Communication Foundation whereas API stands for Application Program Interface.

Satya Karki · Answer

Check this article for differences and when to use webapi or wcf. https://www.guru99.com/wcf-web-api-difference.html

WEB API and WCF

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