title: Web Reference vs. Service Reference
body: <p>I just hit a huge brick wall with Paypal.  I had created a regular C# project to create some wrapper classes using their WSDL.</p>
  
  <p>If you create a non-web project, the only option you get to add a wsdl is a Web Service Reference.  And this builds kinda the same set of proxy classes as a Web Reference would but not really..it adds more that even the PayPal guys are not aware of.</p>
  
  <p>So I was this entire time looking for the right Interface in this list of proxy classes to use as the service (SoapBinding) and the <code>PayPalAPIAASoapBinding</code> was not there I kept telling our PayPal point in contact.</p>
  
  <p>I could only see the following 2 Interfaces that appeared to me what I needed to use since I did not see a <code>PayPalAPIAASoapBinding</code> which you CAN see in a Web Reference based service reference:</p>
  
  <pre><code>PayPalAPIAAInterfaceClient
  PayPalAPIInterfaceClient 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So I figured out oh, I probably had created a Service Reference vs. a Web Reference which Web Reference is an option in a Web project.  But I don't want my service reference tightly coupled to my web project.  So that's why I created the C# Project.</p>
  
  <p>So what the heck is a Service Reference vs. Web Reference?  And how am I supposed to separate this out into anther project if Service Reference is going to throw me a loop and give me a set of different interfaces than a Web Reference would?</p>
  
  <p>Also, to make things even MORE confusing, VS 2008 has a Web Service Application project.  </p>
  
  <p>So what do I use?  <strong>We're using the .NET 3.5 framework and we're <em>not</em> ready to move to WCF</strong>.  So can I still use the new Service Reference even if not using WCF or what?  IF you're using .NET 3.5 and not WCF yet and you still want to do basic web services, do you still go the Service Reference route and just not use the WCF framework?  Meaning can it be used like a .NET 2.0 Web Reference still, just that you're going to get an entirely different generation of the WSDL?</p>