Difference with ASHX (generic handler) vs wcf?

[fletchsod]

What's up with difference between generic handler (ashx) and window communication foundation (wcf)? What their purpose?
THanks...

 

[jmeckley]

WCF is a framework to handle asynchronous communication between 2 end points. http is one option for the communication channel. another option is MSMQ. There may even be other options as well.

ASHX is a feature of the asp.net framework. it's a simple, generic handler for the asp.net framework. another example of a hanlder is aspx (a webform) and asmx (webforms service). You could even create your own.

class MyPdfHandler : IHttpHandler
{
   public void Process(HttpContext context)
   {
   }

   public bool IsReusable {get {return true or false}}
}

which could then be registered in the web.config file to process all requests for a uri with a .pdf extension.

Jason Meckley
Programmer

faq855-7190
faq732-7259

 

[fletchsod]

Thanks...