Data Transfer and Serialization in Windows Communication Foundation

In a connected system, services and clients depend on the exchange of data to accomplish any task. As a developer of a service or client, you must also understand how Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) handles data and data serialization in order to create applications that are efficient and easy to maintain.

In This Section

• Specifying Data Transfer in Service Contracts
  Describes the basic concepts of data transfer in services.

• Using Data Contracts
  Describes what data contracts are and how to create and use them.

• Data Contract Serializer
  Describes how to accomplish serialization of data with the DataContractSerializer class or any extension of the XmlObjectSerializer class.

• Using the XmlSerializer Class
  Describes how and why to use the XmlSerializer class, an alternative to the DataContractSerializer class.

• Using Message Contracts
  Describes how message contracts allow fine control over SOAP messages.

• Using the Message Class
  Describes how to use Message class features.

• Filtering
  Describes filtering, which enables pre-processing of a message based on various criteria.

• Large Data and Streaming
  Describes how to send a large block of data, such as a binary file.

• Security Considerations for Data
  Describes items to be aware of when programming data transfer and serialization.

• Data Transfer Architectural Overview
  Describes a view of the overall design of data transfer in WCF.

Reference

System.ServiceModel

DataContractSerializer

XmlSerializer

System.Runtime.Serialization

System.Xml.Serialization

Related Sections

Extending Encoders and Serializers in Windows Communication Foundation

See Also

Concepts

Best Practices: Data Contract Versioning
Service Versioning

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Build Date: 2009-08-07