How to consume a web service that has digital certificates from a web application.

I have been asked a couple of times how to invoke Web Services that have digital certificates from web applications (and also from Windows applications), so here is a quick reference note and some links on the subject:

There are many ways to invoke secure web services from web applications, but basically two are quick and effective and depend on the technology being used to invoke the web services. (that is how you are calling them), if you are using framework 2.0 the best is to use Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0 for Microsoft .NET, a series of extensions for Visual Studio that implement significant improvements in security, file management as part of the message, etc. With WSE* you can use many of the most advanced Web Services features and they are part of the standards endorsed by OASIS and other Microsoft suggestions, including digital certificates, more information about this technique here. This add-on is free, you do not have to pay anything for it and it can be downloaded from the Microsoft site by clicking here.

Now if you are using framework 3.0 you can use Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) which includes from the core support for security schemes like the one mentioned, Microsoft has developed a security best practices guide for WCF services. And a very complete guide of practical cases (how-to) and scenarios that can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

Juan Peláez

Developer Evangelist

Microsoft Colombia.