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visual-studiowcfservice-reference

Why should I use Visual Studio service references over svcutil?

So it seems like I have a couple of major options when getting WCF service proxy code into a project in Visual Studio:

  1. Use Visual Studio's built-in tooling for Service References

  2. Use a simple svcutil command, something like svcutil http://[my endpoint] /namespace:[my namespace] /noconfig (since I use some fairly standard bindings across projects), and drag the resulting file into my project (or upgrade in place).

To be clear, option 2 feels like the best one, albiet with no built-in tooling for updating. But the Service Reference dialog generates like a zillion files. Is there any obscure benefit to VS Service References that I'm missing?

Solution

  • If you also own the service, I'd say don't use either one. Instead, break up your contracts, entities, and client proxies into different assemblies that you can use both on the service and the client.

    Kinda like described in WCF The Manual Way... The Right Way.