The SOAP endpoint is dying – long live the Organization Service!

By | June 17, 2019

 

This post may have no practical meaning, really. Well, except, maybe, that the next time somebody tells you “Organization Service has been deprecated” you can say confidently that the rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

I used to think that the Organization Service is going away, it’s getting replaced by Web API, and this was all based on the announcements like the one you can find here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/developer/use-microsoft-dynamics-365-web-services

“The .NET assemblies for the Organization service currently use a 2011 SOAP endpoint which has been deprecated. The SDK assemblies will eventually be migrated to internally use the Web API instead of the 2011 SOAP endpoint.”

That used to give me shivers, since the Organization Service has proved to be very reliable and capable over the years. How could it possibly be deprecated and disappear without causing some kind of domino effect?

Earlier today, though, I read something that turned this all around:

“The Web API provides a RESTful programming experience but ultimately all data operations go through the underlying organization service.”

The quote above comes directly from this page: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/webapi/overview

How come WebAPI is using the Organization Service which is going to be deprecated? Is it all going to break down?

The answer was always right there, I just had to read those announcements carefully.

The Organization Service is going to stay. It’s the endpoint which is going to be deprecated… At least that’s what it sounds like if you keep in mind that all the announcements have always been about the SOAP endpoint, and not about the whole service.

I am not sure of whether the diagram below is 100% accurate, but it seems to be close enough to what all those links are talking about:

image

The diagram above shows current state.

And the diagram below shows future state:

image

The backend is not necessarily going anywhere. It’s the client side which is going to be updated – a few pieces will disappear, and, instead, everything will be rerouted through Web API. Which, in turn, will keep working with the Organization Service.

As I wrote at the beginning – there is not a lot of practical value in this knowledge except that, maybe, it adds a bit of peace of mind when you are thinking about what’s going to happen when the SOAP endpoint is finally taken away.

Other that that, the clock is still ticking: https://crmtipoftheday.com/1155/the-clock-is-ticking-on-your-endpoint/

7 thoughts on “The SOAP endpoint is dying – long live the Organization Service!

  1. Hosk

    I have had the same debate with Microsoft for ages because I had the same fear that if they depreciated the organisation service then what would happen to plugins and console apps which used it.

    In the end Microsoft said they if you used their DLL’s then they would sort it.

    You explanation confirms and nicely illustrates what’s going to happen

    Reply
  2. Piotr Gaszewski

    Killing the endpoint might be also problematic in some cases. I saw many solutions where developers were not using SDK to connect OrganizationService but their owned, client classes generated by Visual Studio.

    Reply
    1. Alex Shlega Post author

      You are right of course. It just makes me feel a little better somehow knowing (or, maybe, imagining that I know:) ) how things work. Whether Microsoft should be deprecating anything at all… well, at least there was a really advanced warning for this one.

      Reply
  3. Andrew Noronha

    Thanks Alex for a great post. Articles like this help to keep abreast of things that I normally wouldnt stumble upon.

    Reply

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