Difference between web reference and service reference

Question

What is the difference between web reference and service reference in WCF  Which is preferable in WCF

User · Answer

A Web Reference allows you to communicate with any service based on any technology that implements the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1, and exposes the relevant metadata as WSDL. Internally, it uses the ASMX communication stack on the client's side.

A Service Reference allows you to communicate with any service based on any technology that implements any of the many protocols supported by WCF (including but not limited to WS-I Basic Profile). Internally, it uses the WCF communication stack on the client side.

Note that both these definitions are quite wide, and both include services not written in .NET.

It is perfectly possible (though not recommended) to add a Web Reference that points to a WCF service, as long as the WCF endpoint uses basicHttpBinding or some compatible custom variant.

It is also possible to add a Service Reference that points to an ASMX service. When writing new code, you should always use a Service Reference simply because it is more flexible and future-proof.

User · Answer

Another point to take in consideration is that the new UI for Service Interface will give you much more flexibility on how you want to create your proxy class  For example  it will allow you to map data contracts to existing dlls  if they match  actually this is the default behaviour

User · Answer

The service reference is the newer interface for adding references to all manner of WCF services  they may not be web services  whereas Web reference is specifically concerned with ASMX web references   You can access web references via the advanced options in add service reference  if I recall correctly    I d use service reference because as I understand it  it s the newer mechanism of the two

User · Answer

A Web Reference allows you to communicate with any service based on any technology that implements the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1, and exposes the relevant metadata as WSDL. Internally, it uses the ASMX communication stack on the client's side.

A Service Reference allows you to communicate with any service based on any technology that implements any of the many protocols supported by WCF (including but not limited to WS-I Basic Profile). Internally, it uses the WCF communication stack on the client side.

Note that both these definitions are quite wide, and both include services not written in .NET.

It is perfectly possible (though not recommended) to add a Web Reference that points to a WCF service, as long as the WCF endpoint uses basicHttpBinding or some compatible custom variant.

It is also possible to add a Service Reference that points to an ASMX service. When writing new code, you should always use a Service Reference simply because it is more flexible and future-proof.

User · Answer

Another point to take in consideration is that the new UI for Service Interface will give you much more flexibility on how you want to create your proxy class  For example  it will allow you to map data contracts to existing dlls  if they match  actually this is the default behaviour

User · Answer

The low-level answer here is that a Web Reference will create a client proxy class that allows your code to talk to a Web Service that is described via WSDL and communicates via SOAP or HTTP GET  other posters indicate that it is only ASMX  but Web References can also talk to Java-based Web Services or Python-based or Ruby so long as they all talk WSDL and conform to the WS-I interoperability standard    A Service Reference will create a client proxy class that communicates with a WCF-based service   regardless of whether that WCF service is a Web Service or not

User · Answer

Another point to take in consideration is that the new UI for Service Interface will give you much more flexibility on how you want to create your proxy class  For example  it will allow you to map data contracts to existing dlls  if they match  actually this is the default behaviour

User · Answer

The low-level answer here is that a Web Reference will create a client proxy class that allows your code to talk to a Web Service that is described via WSDL and communicates via SOAP or HTTP GET  other posters indicate that it is only ASMX  but Web References can also talk to Java-based Web Services or Python-based or Ruby so long as they all talk WSDL and conform to the WS-I interoperability standard    A Service Reference will create a client proxy class that communicates with a WCF-based service   regardless of whether that WCF service is a Web Service or not

User · Answer

Service references deal with endpoints and bindings  which are completely configurable   They let you point your client proxy to a WCF via any transport protocol  HTTP  TCP  Shared Memory  etc   They are designed to work with WCF   If you use a WebProxy  you are pretty much binding yourself to using WCF over HTTP

User · Answer

The service reference is the newer interface for adding references to all manner of WCF services  they may not be web services  whereas Web reference is specifically concerned with ASMX web references   You can access web references via the advanced options in add service reference  if I recall correctly    I d use service reference because as I understand it  it s the newer mechanism of the two

User · Answer

Service references deal with endpoints and bindings  which are completely configurable   They let you point your client proxy to a WCF via any transport protocol  HTTP  TCP  Shared Memory  etc   They are designed to work with WCF   If you use a WebProxy  you are pretty much binding yourself to using WCF over HTTP

User · Answer

Another point to take in consideration is that the new UI for Service Interface will give you much more flexibility on how you want to create your proxy class  For example  it will allow you to map data contracts to existing dlls  if they match  actually this is the default behaviour

User · Answer

The service reference is the newer interface for adding references to all manner of WCF services  they may not be web services  whereas Web reference is specifically concerned with ASMX web references   You can access web references via the advanced options in add service reference  if I recall correctly    I d use service reference because as I understand it  it s the newer mechanism of the two

User · Answer

The service reference is the newer interface for adding references to all manner of WCF services  they may not be web services  whereas Web reference is specifically concerned with ASMX web references   You can access web references via the advanced options in add service reference  if I recall correctly    I d use service reference because as I understand it  it s the newer mechanism of the two

User · Answer

Service references deal with endpoints and bindings  which are completely configurable   They let you point your client proxy to a WCF via any transport protocol  HTTP  TCP  Shared Memory  etc   They are designed to work with WCF   If you use a WebProxy  you are pretty much binding yourself to using WCF over HTTP

User · Answer

Service references deal with endpoints and bindings  which are completely configurable   They let you point your client proxy to a WCF via any transport protocol  HTTP  TCP  Shared Memory  etc   They are designed to work with WCF   If you use a WebProxy  you are pretty much binding yourself to using WCF over HTTP

[.net] Difference between web reference and service reference?

Examples related to .net

Examples related to wcf

Examples related to asmx