The API provides a standard and consistent way in which to interact with MDS programmatically. The practice of creating and using an API allows an open architecture for sharing content and data between applications. The API in MDS can be used to embed MDS functionality in any application without the need to understand the underlying database structure, whilst ensuring that the integrity of the data is not compromised.

All functionality, and more, that is available in the Master Data Manager web application is also available in the Web Service API. There is only one available exposed service which is exposed as a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service. The WCF service API provides a dynamic, strongly-typed development reference that provides a robust and reliable application development experience.

The WCF service is not the only way to access MDS; Microsoft also offers the following assemblies that you can use to interact with MDS, as well as aiding with...