Exception with WCF
What is the best way to resolve an exception from a WCF service? How can you throw an exception from WCF service?
Using faults.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752208.aspx
or
Jean-Paul Smits blogg
FaultContract is the way to go. The MSDN link given in another answer is a good place to look. It should be noted, however, that:
Resist the temptation to place Exception-derived classes in response to an error
Do not follow FaultContract<ArgumentException>
Rather create FaultContract<NameCanNotHaveDigitsFault>
where NameCanNotHaveDigitsFault
is your domain specific class, not tied to a specific framework.
You can throw FaultExceptions from the wcf service, they will be passed back to the client.
Any other type of exception will put your communication channel into a bad mode, making it unusable.
So the easiest (quickest and dirtiest) way to throw exceptions in a wcf service is to wrap / modify them in FaultExceptions.