WCF Transactions: WSAtomicTransactionOctober2004 vs. WSAtomicTransaction11

Question

WCF has three transaction protocols: OleTransactions, WSAtomicTransactionOctober2004 & WSAtomicTransaction11

OleTransactions are the Windows specific OleTx protocol, but both the other two are just listed as the implementation of the WSAT protocol.

So there must be a difference between the 2004 & 11 options?

Only thing I can GUESS is

• 2004 = November 2004 spec
• 11 = August 2005 spec (seems odd, since this is version 1.0 and the name implies 1.1)

Answer 1

For .net <=3.0, use WSAtomicTransactionOctober2004 If you use COM+, use OleTransactions otherwise, use WSAtomicTransaction11

Answer 2

The difference between the three types can be summed up as follows

WSAtomicTransactionOctober2004

• Support for version 3.0 of the Microsoft.Net framework.

WSAtomicTransaction11

• Standard for HTTP transactions.
• Required for transactions to Web services built on third-party technologies.
• Can be used where the server and client are written using WCF and using TCP or named pipes but it is not the preferred method.

OleTransaction

• Standard for TCP and named pipe transactions where the server and client are written using WCF.
• To use COM+ transactions that use RPC and DTC.
• Can't be used for transactions to Web services built on third-party technologies.
• Can't be used with HTTP.