Updated: July 10, 2020 (June 21, 2010)

  Analyst Report

WCF Data Services Eases Web Data Access

My Atlas / Analyst Reports

739 wordsTime to read: 4 min
Rob Sanfilippo by
Rob Sanfilippo

Before joining Directions on Microsoft, Rob worked at Microsoft for 14 years where he designed technologies for Microsoft products and... more

WCF Data Services, a data access technology delivered in the .NET Framework 4, is a renamed and updated version of the former ADO.NET Data Services, which lets developers build server applications that make databases and other data sources accessible as feeds over the Web using Microsoft’s Open Data Protocol (OData). In addition to the new name, WCF Data Services has several improvements, including support for the latest updates to OData. The enhancements could help organizations that use client-side Web application technologies (such as Silverlight) build more responsive Web applications, and could help Microsoft get more traction for OData.

New Naming Aligns Technologies with WCF

Microsoft has renamed ADO.NET Data Services to WCF Data Services in the .NET Framework 4 to emphasize its compatibility with and ability to add functionality to applications built with the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), a message-oriented API for Web service communication.

For similar reasons, .NET RIA Services, a separate technology that provides a set of tools for building multitier business applications with Silverlight, has been renamed WCF RIA Services.

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