SharePoint Web Services are Deprecated

After telling everyone who would listen (for years) that they should switch to the SharePoint Client-side Object Model (CSOM), there is finally a clear statement for us to use as evidence.

Buried deep in the article, Choose the right API set in SharePoint 2013, you’ll find this text:

“Two API sets are still supported in the SharePoint 2013 Preview framework for backward compatibility, but we recommend that you not use them for new projects: the ASP.NET (asmx) web services, and direct Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) calls to the owssvr.dll file.”

RPC calls are also deprecated, but few were using those, it’s really the native web services that need to be retired. They served a purpose, but they were never complete and they are now based on what could be called ‘old’ technology.

Sure, the CSOM API isn’t complete either, but hopefully the missing power will come eventually. The features that were added in SharePoint 2013 seem to have all gotten appropriate attention in the CSOM API.