Connecting to SharePoint through web services

SharePoint also includes a comprehensive set of web services that can also be used to interact with system configuration and content. The available services cover both the base SharePoint functionality covered in the SharePoint Foundation version as well as the extended functionality available in SharePoint Server.

The services come in two formats; SOAP based services and new WCF based services that support REST.

These services provide an effective integration option since they can be called from any network accessible computer written in any technology that can support the standard services. As an example, the integrations built into MS Office applications use these web services to integrate with SharePoint as well as the list extraction support built into SQL Server's Integration Services.

Good candidates for using SharePoint web services include: