Metadata (WCF)

The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) provides an infrastructure for exporting, publishing, retrieving, and importing service metadata. WCF services use metadata to describe how to interact with the service's endpoints so that tools, such as Svcutil.exe, can automatically generate client code for accessing the service.

In This Section

Metadata Architecture Overview
A high-level overview of metadata architecture.

Metadata Formats
Describes the different metadata formats.

Exporting and Importing Metadata
Describes how to export and import metadata.

Publishing Metadata
Describes how WCF publishes metadata.

Retrieving Metadata
Describes the different ways to retrieve metadata.

Using Metadata
Describes different ways to use service metadata.

Security Considerations with Metadata
Describes important security considerations when dealing with service metadata.

See also

• Extending the Metadata System