I have in the past coded up Windows Form or Console apps in Visual Studio (2005 and earlier), and the IDE has facilitated linking up with a web service. Now I am building a console application that needs to consume a web service, but when I right-click on the project (or References), I do not see a "Add Web Reference" context menu item (for WinForm or Console app). There IS one if I right-click on a Web Application project, but this doesn't help me, as the application I am building MUST be a console app. This was not the behavior in VS2005, or earlier! What's up with that? The MSDN page that describes the process for .NET 3.5 does not make a distinction; i.e. does not acknowledge a difference.
I am not making this up, and it is not an optical illusion. Here's are the two context menus, side by side: 
So now I am wondering how I am supposed to hook up a web service to a Console application. I imagine that this is still possible at a lower level (i.e. it can be hand-coded), but I am unsure how to proceed. I have posted the question on StackOverflow.
And StackOverflow Comes Through With an Answer!
With VS2008 MS is focused on WCF-Services. You can select a Webservice Reference by clicking "Add Service Reference..." and on the following dialog clicking the "Advanced..." button. In the following dialog you can choose to add a Web Service Reference.
And just as Filburt said, so it was. I love StackOverflow!
But my observation is: Leave it to Microsoft to hide something that used to exist in a highly visible location, and without comment in the documentation, shove it into an obscure location 2 levels deeper in the IDE! I can imagine some design wanker saying to himself, "Well, nobody cares about this anymore, so we'll just hide it where the sun doesn't shine." Did someone take a survey to decide this? He probably just asked his liberal-arts degreed girlfriend, and when she said "Huh?" he ticked the box marked "Asked the users?"
Geek Speak | Stack Overflow
1/12/2010 7:43:35 PM UTC 
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