Programming WCF Services, 2nd Edition

Programmatic Versus Administrative Configuration

The two techniques shown so far for configuring both the client and the service complement each other. Administrative configuration gives you the option to change major aspects of the service and the client post-deployment, without the need to rebuild or redeploy. The major downside of administrative configuration is that it is not type-safe, and configuration errors will be discovered only at runtime.

Programmatic configuration is useful when the configuration decision is either completely dynamic—i.e., when it is taken at runtime based on the current input or conditions—or is static and never changes, in which case you might as well hardcode it. For example, if you are interested in hosting in-proc calls only, you can hardcode the use of the NetNamedPipeBinding and its configuration. However, by and large, most clients and services resort to using a config file.