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For better or worse, we're going to be using WCF as part of the back-end of a new system we are going to be building. I'm looking for a good book to help me learn how to create such services effectively and correctly. I came across the older version of Michele Leroux Bustamante's book, Learning WCF, but it isn't helping much for v4. She has a new version of the book for v4, but it isn't out until January. I picked up Juval Lowy's Programming WCF Services and while I'm sure it is a great book, it is definitely WAY above my current knowledge level. I'm not getting anything much from it.

I've been scoping out the offerings on Amazon, and quite frankly I can't tell which of all these books is going to be of much help. My local Barnes and Noble currently has no other WCF books on its shelves so I cannot check some of these out.

One that looked interesting was "Windows Communication Foundation 4 Step by Step" by John Sharp, but there's no reviews on Amazon of this, so...

I need some recommendations!

Updated to add:

I was dismayed that the results here were not at all trending towards finding me a book that could be used as a beginner-style tutorial (except for Bustamante's book, which is not yet available for WCF v4). I then found that John Sharp had written a book called "Windows Communication Foundation 4 Step by Step". I wasn't sure if this was going to be what I needed either, but a look at Amazon's user reviews for the previous edition of the book (for v3 of WCF) seemed to indicate it might work. As I frequently do, I used Amazon's reviews to choose to buy a book at my local Barnes & Noble. I'll see about reporting in this space how this book works out for me. Thanks, everyone who responded!

A further update:

I tried working through "Windows Communication Foundation 4 Step by Step" and for some reason it just wouldn't gel in my head. However, my lead dev took it and used the information to overcome a problem he had been having putting together a WCF service for an important project. He said it really helped him understand the whole of WCF. All I got to say is: he is smarter than I.

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You might even want to have a look at this : stackoverflow.com/questions/386801/wcf-book-recommendation – ykombinator Dec 16 '10 at 17:26
Slightly off-topic, but I've been referring to WCF as "WTF" for a while now. It's driving us nuts at times. – MetalMikester Dec 17 '10 at 11:29

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5 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Inside Windows Communication Foundation takes a ground-up approach to explaining WCF by starting with explaining channels and messages before higher-level concepts like bindings and the service model. Lowey's book mainly covers the service model so it can be difficult to understand how things fit together at first. Another good resource for WCF fundamentals is Nicholas Allen's WCF blog which goes into much more detail than could fit into a book.

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up vote 5 down vote

This one's a good book : Learning WCF: A Hands-on Guide by Michele Leroux Bustamante alt text

Customer reviews here.

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As I mentioned in the question, the v4 edition of this book isn't out until mid-January 2011, and I would like to have a good learning text for my Christmas vacation (yes, I enjoy reading tech books on my own time!). – Cyberherbalist Dec 16 '10 at 17:35
up vote 4 down vote

I have read with great joy "Programming WCF services" Lowy was considered one of the leading experts ( Although I don't hear much from him now )

Als the stackoverflow question mentioned in the comments gives this book a lot of votes.

It isn't an easy book and you should try to create the samples while you read, trying it reveals the nitty picky details that can get you stomped while working with WCF.

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I did a serious scan through the book and was astonished by how much detail Lowy crammed into a mere 875 pages. I also felt similar to the way someone who had just finished learning basic algebra would feel while perusing a book on differential calculus. – Cyberherbalist Dec 17 '10 at 16:58
Juval's book is the book on WCF .. there is no other! – JP Alioto Dec 17 '10 at 19:38
up vote 0 down vote

There should be enough information on MSDN to get you up to speed to the point where Juval's book becomes useful. There's also a DZone Refcard (#111) on WCF 4.0.

I can certainly understand wanting a book (that's usually my preference too), but when you're trying to come up to speed on new tech, books tend to be second-tier resources. Either they don't cover the latest release, or they cover pre-release or beta versions that don't match the actual release. Not that on-line resources don't suffer from the same problems, but it's at least possible to find up-to-date info on the net.

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up vote 0 down vote

Not a WCF book (the examples are in MSMQ and Java), but the bible for service patterns: Enterprise Integration Patterns, by Hohpe and Woolf.

If you read this, the architecture and approach of WCF will make complete sense, and you will do a much better job of designing software in general, and you'll be able to use the full power of WCF.

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I'll have to check this out, thx. – Cyberherbalist Dec 17 '10 at 17:06

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