Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Microsoft WCF Tools (Test, Configure, UI)

With SOA and Web v2.0 everything is about services.

As you know for Microsoft the current strategic tool of choice for services is WCF. However, testing / configuring with WCF, among things can be tricky. Knowing what tool to use in what situation is essential. As it turns out still not everybody knows about the currently available tools from Microsoft, so just as a reminer below a list:

  • ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe): Generates service model code from metadata documents and metadata documents from service model code;
  • Find Private Key Tool (FindPrivateKey.exe): Retrieves the private key from a specified store.
  • ServiceModel Registration Tool (ServiceModelReg.exe): Manages the registration and un-registration of ServiceModel on a single machine. COM+
  • Service Model Configuration Tool (ComSvcConfig.exe): Configures COM+ interfaces to be exposed as Web services.
  • Configuration Editor Tool (SvcConfigEditor.exe): Creates and modifies configuration settings for WCF services.
  • Service Trace Viewer Tool (SvcTraceViewer.exe): Helps you view, group, and filter trace messages so that you can diagnose, repair, and verify issues with WCF services.
  • WS-AtomicTransaction Configuration Utility (wsatConfig.exe): Configures basic WS-AtomicTransaction support settings using a command line tool.
  • WS-AtomicTransaction Configuration MMC Snap-in: Configures basic WS-AtomicTransaction support settings using a MMC snap-in.
  • WorkFlow Service Registration Tool (WFServicesReg.exe): Registers a Windows Workflow service.
  • WCF Service Auto Host: Hosts WCF services contained in libraries (*.dll) files
  • WCF Test Client: GUI tool that allows you to input parameters of arbitrary types, submit that input to the service, and view the response the service sends back.
You can find all information about there tools here.

There are also a few Debugger Visualizers for WCF available aswell:
http://codeplex.com/WCFVisualizer

Be aware though, Oslo is coming up about to change this big time!

Happy Serviceing!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You also might find WCFStorm (http://www.wcfstorm.com) interesting. Its a test client for WCF services that can handle both load and functional test cases.