In SharePoint 2010 there are a number of object models that can be used by developers to access the server. The Client Object Model (Client OM) is a unified model which uses the same or similar programming concepts as the Server Object Model (Server OM). The Client OM can be accessed via web services, via a client (JavaScript) API, and via REST. This paves the way for richer applications by dramatically simplifying accessing SharePoint data from client machines and other machines in the infrastructure. Figure 29 shows the SharePoint object model options.
Through the use of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) based services and ADO.NET Data Services v.1.5 it is possible to access the WCF services via a REST interface. This makes it possible to make a simple web request to get data. This makes it easy to get access to SharePoint data from any client application. The basic C# code to access a REST service (excluding required references) is shown below
Having the APIs available everywhere makes it possible to integrate to SharePoint from a wide variety of applications whether they are sophisticated implementations including 41 www.microsoft.com/sharepoint
the latest features like WCF, a web based application, or whether they are a legacy application with limited options for integration. By providing a set of similar APIs accessible from a client, the server, or the cloud, the benefits provided by SharePoint are available to all kinds of applications including those on non-Windows platforms.
