WCF proxy generation: svcutil.exe vs wsdl.exe

Question

I have .wsdl and .xsd files from WebService and need to generate proxy by them. Svcutil.exe and wsdl.exe generate very different output. What is the difference between these two tools for proxy generation and which way is more preferable?

Solution

Svcutil and wsdl are two different technologies for generating a proxy for consuming your service. But wsdl.exe was made for old .NET 2.0 web services. It is like old version of svcutil. Svcutil allows you to generate proxies for both - web services and WCF services. For generating a proxy wsdl retieves the data by means of DISCO discovery protocol. Svcutil also supports DISCO. But it can make the proxy retrieval using WS-Metadata Exchange protocol, which is an interopable standart of SOA.

I advice you to use svcutil because it would allow you to consume both .net 2.0 web services and wcf services.