Web Reference vs Service Reference

Question

I just hit a huge brick wall with Paypal   I had created a regular C  project to create some wrapper classes using their WSDL   If you create a non-web project  the only option you get to add a wsdl is a Web Service Reference   And this builds kinda the same set of proxy classes as a Web Reference would but not really  it adds more that even the PayPal guys are not aware of   So I was this entire time looking for the right Interface in this list of proxy classes to use as the service  SoapBinding  and the PayPalAPIAASoapBinding was not there I kept telling our PayPal point in contact   I could only see the following 2 Interfaces that appeared to me what I needed to use since I did not see a PayPalAPIAASoapBinding which you CAN see in a Web Reference based service reference   PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient PayPalAPIInterfaceClient    So I figured out oh  I probably had created a Service Reference vs  a Web Reference which Web Reference is an option in a Web project   But I don t want my service reference tightly coupled to my web project   So that s why I created the C  Project   So what the heck is a Service Reference vs  Web Reference   And how am I supposed to separate this out into anther project if Service Reference is going to throw me a loop and give me a set of different interfaces than a Web Reference would   Also  to make things even MORE confusing  VS 2008 has a Web Service Application project     So what do I use   We re using the  NET 3 5 framework and we re not ready to move to WCF   So can I still use the new Service Reference even if not using WCF or what   IF you re using  NET 3 5 and not WCF yet and you still want to do basic web services  do you still go the Service Reference route and just not use the WCF framework   Meaning can it be used like a  NET 2 0 Web Reference still  just that you re going to get an entirely different generation of the WSDL

User · Accepted Answer

Add Web Reference is the old-style  deprecated ASP NET webservices  ASMX  technology  using only the XmlSerializer for your stuff  - if you do this  you get an ASMX client for an ASMX web service  You can do this in just about any project  Web App  Web Site  Console App  Winforms - you name it    Add Service Reference is the new way of doing it  adding a WCF service reference  which gives you a much more advanced  much more flexible service model than just plain old ASMX stuff    Since you re not ready to move to WCF  you can also still add the old-style web reference  if you really must  when you do a  Add Service Reference   on the dialog that comes up  click on the  Advanced  button in the button left corner     and on the next dialog that comes up  pick the  Add Web Reference  button at the bottom

User · Answer

In the end  both do the same thing  There are some differences in code  Web Services doesn t add a Root namespace of project  but Service Reference adds service classes to the namespace of the project  The ServiceSoapClient class gets a different naming  which is not important  In working with TFS I d rather use Service Reference because it works better with source control  Both work with SOAP protocols   I find it better to use the Service Reference because it is new and will thus be better maintained

User · Answer

Adding a service reference allows you to create a WCF client  which can be used to talk to a regular web service provided you use the appropriate binding  Adding a web reference will allow you to create only a web service  i e   SOAP  reference   If you are absolutely certain you are not ready for WCF  really don t know why  then you should create a regular web service reference

User · Answer

If I understand your question right   To add a  net 2 0 Web Service Reference instead of a WCF Service Reference  right-click on your project and click  Add Service Reference     Then click  Advanced    at the bottom left of the dialog   Then click  Add Web Reference    on the bottom left of the next dialog   Now you can add a regular SOAP web reference like you are looking for

[c#] Web Reference vs. Service Reference

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