Protection Level in WCF

ProtectionLevel The default value for ProtectionLevel is None or the value which is set at ServiceContract level. It defines the Protection Level of operation and how service messages will be protected. The value for ProtectionLevel can be set as 

• None : No protection will be applied to messages and message will flow on wire as plain text.
• Sign : Messages will be digitally signed before sending.
• EncryptAndSign : Messages will be encrypted before sign and sending.

Not all wcf Bindings like BasicHttpBindins supports ProtectionLevel. For using ProtectionLevel property you must use the binding which supports protection. Bindings security mode should be set to Message, if it is set to None or Transport the operation level setting of protection level does not have any effect. 

 [ServiceContract()]

    public interface IOrders

    {

        [OperationContract(ProtectionLevel = ProtectionLevel.Sign)]

        int GetHighValueOrdersCount(DateTime dt);

    }

                

 AsyncPattern

AsyncPattern is a Boolean property with default value of false. You can mark it as true if your service operation should execute asynchronously on client or server or both. You should create the asynchronous operations to handle long running processes like I/O calls.

For creating wcf asynchronous operations use the method name conventions as BeginMethodName and EndMethodName. The BeginMethodName must be marked as [OperationContract(AsyncPattern=true)].

    [ServiceContract]

    public interface IOrders

    {

        [OperationContract]

        int TodaysOrderCount(DateTime dt);

        [OperationContract(AsyncPattern = true)]

        IAsyncResult BeginPlaceOrder(Order order, AsyncCallback cb, Object state);

        bool EndPlaceOrder(IAsyncResult ar);

    }

               

Action and ReplyAction

Action and ReplyAction properties are co related. The default value for Action is concatenation of ServiceNameSpace + ServiceContractName + OperationName and for ReplyAction ServiceNameSpace + ServiceContractName + OperationName + Response.

Action header indicates the URI of Operation to be invoked and defines WS-Addressing action. WS-Addressing allows you transport neutral communication between client and service and it is very much useful in situation where SOAP response is not enough and cannot be provided immediately. So you will have to introduce intermediate router service between client and target service which will receive message and route to different services for additional activities.

You can specify the value for Action and ReplyAction as "*" (an asterisk) to handle all unhandled URI.

Create new WCF service library and test using WCFTestClient

    [ServiceContract(Namespace="http://orders.northwind.com")]

    public interface IOrders

    {

        [OperationContract(

          Action="http://orders.northwind.com/placeorders",

          Name="PlaceOrders",

          ReplyAction="http://orders.northwind.com/reorderqty"

        )]

        Message PlaceOrders(Message msg);

    }          

               

HasProtectionLevel

HasProtectionLevel is a read only Boolean property with default value of false. If value of ProtectionLevel is set to "None" it will return false and if ProtectionLevel is set to Sign or EncryptAndSign it will return true.   

Name

It is read/write string property. You can get or set the different and meaningful name to your operations using this property. The default value for this property would be your method name. The value of this property will be used in wsdl for <operation> element.

    [ServiceContract()]

    public interface IOrders

    {

        [OperationContract(Name="PlaceOrder")]

        bool OrderPlace(Order order);

    }

               

        Message PlaceOrders(Message msg);

    }          

               

  

IsInitiating

IsInitiating is a Boolean property with default value of false. The service operation marked with IsInitiating = true must be called before any other operation from client side. This operation will create new session for client. For use of this the ServiceContract should support sessions by marking SessionMode=SessionMode.Required or SessionMode=SessionMode.Allowed. This property can be used where Service Contract needs to validate the client details before executing any operation.

From below example client must call ValidateClient before any other operation call. If any other operation get called before ValidateClient service returns ActionNotSupported FaultException. Operation PlaceOrder can be call many times after calling ValidateClient and before CloseChannel.