Web Services

This article is relevant to entity models that utilize the deprecated Visual Studio integration of Telerik Data Access. The current documentation of the Data Access framework is available here.

Telerik Data Access provides support (wizards) for using Telerik Data Access entities with the following services:

RIA Services

WCF RIA Services simplifies the development of n-tier solutions for Rich Internet Applications (RIA), such as Silverlight applications. A common problem when developing n-tier RIA solutions is to coordinate the application logic between the middle tier and the presentation tier. In order to create the best user experience, you want your RIA client to be aware of the application logic that resides on the server, but you do not want to develop and maintain the application logic on both the presentation tier and the middle tier. RIA Services solves this problem by providing framework components, tools, and services that make the application logic on the server available to the RIA client without requiring you to manually duplicate that programming logic. You can create a RIA client that is aware of the business rules and knows that the client is automatically updated with the latest middle tier logic every time when the solution is re-compiled.

You can use Telerik Data Access to map to your database tables and then expose those entities as part of WCF RIA Services. Telerik Data Access provides a WCF RIA Wizard that will automatically create the C# "plumbing" code and the necessary project files for using Telerik Data Access entities with the service.

To learn how to expose a Telerik Data Access Domain Model via WCF RIA Service, please refer to the Using WCF Services - Ria Services section.

For a complete walkthrough, please refer to the Quickstart - Silverlight and WCF RIA Services section.

Data Services

WCF Data Services (formerly known as "ADO.NET Data Services" or "Astoria") is a component of the .NET Framework that enables you to create services that use the Open Data Protocol (OData) to expose and consume data over the Web or intranet by using the semantics of representational state transfer (REST). OData exposes data as resources that are addressable by URIs. Data is accessed and changed by using standard HTTP verbs of GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE.

WCF Data Services uses the OData protocol for addressing and updating resources. In this way, you can access these services from any client that supports OData. OData enables you to request and write data to resources by using well-known transfer formats: JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), a text-based data exchange format used extensively in AJAX application, and Atom, a set of standards for exchanging and updating data as XML.

Telerik Data Access provides support for WCF Data Services. This means that you will be able to leverage the power of Telerik Data Access in your application. Telerik Data Access provides the Service Wizard that allows you to generate WCF Data Services based on Telerik Data Access Domain Model.

To learn how to expose a Telerik Data Access Domain Model via WCF Service, please refer to the Using WCF Services - WCF Data Services section.

For a complete walkthrough, please refer to the Quickstart - Silverlight and WCF Data Services section.

Plain Services

A WCF Service exposes a collection of Endpoints (connections) for communicating with either client applications or other service applications. The mnemonic "ABC" can be used to remember address/binding/contract. Binding specifies what communication protocols are used to access the service, whether security mechanisms are to be used, and the like. WCF includes predefined bindings for most common communication protocols such as SOAP over HTTP, SOAP over TCP, and SOAP over Message Queues, etc. A WCF client connects to a WCF service via an Endpoint. Each service exposes its contract via one or more endpoints. An endpoint has an address (which is a URL specifying where the endpoint can be accessed) and binding properties that specify how the data will be transferred. When a client wants to access the service via an endpoint, it not only needs to know the contract, but it also has to adhere to the binding specified by the endpoint. Thus, both client and server must have compatible endpoints.

Telerik Data Access provides support for WCF Endpoint Services. This means that you will be able to leverage the power of Telerik Data Access in your application. Telerik Data Access provides the Service Wizard that allows you to generate WCF Endpoint Services based on Telerik Data Access Domain Model.

To learn how to expose a Telerik Data Access Domain Model via WCF Service, please refer to the Using WCF Services - WCF Plain Services section.

REST Collection Services

REST Collection Service is a service that represents a collection of resources exposed as XML or JSON.

Telerik Data Access provides support for REST Collection Services. This means that you will be able to leverage the power of Telerik Data Access in your application. Telerik Data Access provides the Service Wizard that allows you to generate REST Collection Services based on Telerik Data Access Domain Model.

To learn how to expose a Telerik Data Access Domain Model via REST Collection Services, please refer to the Using WCF Services - RESTful Collection Services section.

ATOM Publishing Protocol Services

ATOM Publishing Protocol Service manages a collection of resources using the Atom Publishing Protocol. The service allows you to get a Service Document that represents the types of collections managed by the service, as well as what content types it supports and other information. You can use HTTP verbs like GET, PUT, POST and DELETE to manage the items in the collection. The collection is returned as an Atom feed. Each collection can contain a single type of content (a JPEG image for example) or multiple content types.

Telerik Data Access provides support for ATOM Publishing Protocol Services. This means that you will be able to leverage the power of Telerik Data Access in your application. Telerik Data Access provides the Service Wizard that allows you to generate ATOM Publishing Protocol Services based on Telerik Data Access Domain Model.

To learn how to expose a Telerik Data Access Domain Model via ATOM Services, please refer to the Using WCF Services - ATOM Services section.

Web API Services

HTTP is not just for serving up web pages. It is also a powerful platform for building APIs that expose services and data. HTTP is simple, flexible, and ubiquitous. Almost any platform that you can think of has an HTTP library, so HTTP services can reach a broad range of clients, including browsers, mobile devices, and traditional desktop applications. ASP.NET Web API allows developers to expose their applications, data and services to the web directly over HTTP. ASP.NET Web API is a framework for building web APIs on top of the .NET Framework.

Telerik Data Access provides support for Web API. This means that you will be able to easily leverage the power of Telerik Data Access in your N-Tier applications by exposing your model through HTTP-based Web API services. Telerik Data Access provides the Service Wizard that allows you to expose Telerik Data Access Domain Model via Web API.

To learn how to expose a Telerik Data Access Domain Model via ASP.NET Web API Services, please refer to the Using WCF Services - ASP.NET Web API Services section.

For a complete walkthrough, please refer to the Quickstart - ASP.NET Web API section.