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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-30T05:52:17+00:00

I’m currently developing a WP7 app, and I’d like it to talk with my

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I’m currently developing a WP7 app, and I’d like it to talk with my SQL Azure database. I know there are currently two ways of doing it:

  1. Talk to a WCF Service hosted on my web server.
  2. Use oData to communicate with my database.

I don’t know what’s the pros and cons between the both of them, but I know that using the first method involves two remote calls: one: to the web server, and two: from the web server to SQL Azure. Would using oData allow me to directly communicate with my SQL Azure database? Does SQL Azure provide a REST interface for my WP7 client to work with?

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  1. Editorial Team

    If you use the WCF service approach and host the service on our web server (i.e. not in an Azure Web Role) then yes there will be two higher latency hops across the network. However the WCF service does have the benefit of allowing you to provide your own security approach for your mobile clients. I suspect that this app will be used by more than just a couple of people? If you take the approach of talking directly to the SQL Azure oData endpoint then you will really struggle with Authetnication and Authorization. It’s not really designed for supporting your scenario.

    The other thing to note with the SQL Azure oData endpoint is that it never left SQL Azure Labs; i.e. it was never actually shipped as part of the product and the Labs implementation is end of lifed and grandfathered to existing users only.

    I know that doesn’t really answer your question; the short answer is that there is no RESTful endpoint that you can access to talk directly to SQL Azure. The long answer is that even when there was one you probably didn’t want to use it.

    Without knowing more about your app it’s a little hard to give guidance as to exactly what you should be doing. If you can provide a bit more detail I can provide some advice as to which Azure data storage technology would be best suited.

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