New Features in WCF 4.5 – Part 6

In this WCF Tutorial Series on “New Features of Windows Communication Foundation v4.5”, we have covered a lot of exciting features like Simplified Configuration, WCF Configuration Validation, ASP.NET Compatibility Mode default change, BasicHttpsBinding, Task-based Programming model etc. In this part-6 of WCF Tutorial, we will explore the following:

• Multiple Authentication Support
• Contract First Development

Before we start discussing more new features in this Part-6 of WCF 4.5 tutorial, lets recap the previous parts briefly.

• New Features inWCF 4.5 – Part 1
  • Simplified Generated Configuration
  • Validating WCF Configuration
• New Features inWCF 4.5 – Part 2
  • Single WSDL file
  • Tooltip and Intellisense Support
• New Features inWCF 4.5 – Part 3
  • ASP.NET Compatibility Mode default change
  • BasicHttpsBinding
• New Features inWCF 4.5 – Part 4
  • Task-based Programming Model
• New Features inWCF 4.5 – Part 5
  • ChannelFactory Caching

 

In previous versions of Windows Communication Foundation, if we wanted to have multiple authentications for a single service, we achieve this by creating separate endpoint for that particular WCF Service. But now, WCF 4.5 supports Multiple Authentications at single endpoint. So, we can configure single endpoint of a WCF Service to support multiple authentications (e.g. Windows, Basic, Anonymous, etc).

Above diagram clearly describe how multiple authentication is supported by WCF 4.5.

Multiple Authentication can be achieved in two simple steps as follows:

• In IIS, host the WCF Service and enable multiple authentications like Anonymous, Basic or Windows Authentication.
• In configuration file, update security mode settings as follows:
  <security mode=”TransportCredentialOnly”>
  <transport clientCredentialType=”InheritedFromHost” /></security>