Getting Ready to Use SQL Data Services

[This document supports a preliminary release of a software product that may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release. This document is provided for informational purposes only.]

To use Microsoft® SQL Data Services (SDS), you first need to sign up for the service and acquire a user name and password. For this private beta release, you go to https://www.microsoft.com/sql/dataservices/default.mspx and register your request for the free beta. Customer invitations are sent via e-mail. Each invited customer receives an invitation id. These customers go to https://beta.mssds.com/public/Default.aspx, provide their invitation id, and then obtain the necessary credentials to access the data service.

After you obtain credentials, you can programmatically create and query flexible entities. For details about flexible entities and the related data model, see SDS Data Model Overview (Authorities, Containers, Entities and Flexible Entities).

SSDS is a Web 2.0 friendly data service. When you interact with the service, SSDS supports open wire formats. It supports both SOAP and REST interfaces. As a result, developers can use almost any language or development environment that supports these interfaces. Several samples are provided in various languages including C#, Java and Ruby. The C# samples are authored in the Microsoft Visual Studio integrated development environment.

To develop applications with Visual Studio, you will need version 2005 or later. Visual Studio 2008 is the preferred development environment for use with SQL Data Services.

See Also

Concepts

SDS Data Model Overview (Authorities, Containers, Entities and Flexible Entities)
Examples of Using SOAP and REST Interfaces with the SQL Data Services