Today we are releasing CTP2 of the next version of the WCF Data Services libraries.  This release targets .NET 4 and Silverlight 4 and includes new client and server features in addition to those that shipped as part Oct 2010 CTP1.   Below is a brief summary of the features available in this CTP.  Subsequent blog posts will discuss each feature in more detail and provide examples of how to use each.

Properties on derived types:  The WCF Data Services framework is designed to make it possible to expose a model that has inheritance hierarchy for the entities in the model however a current limitation is that only operations on properties that exist on the base type, associated with the set, are supported. This feature has been among our customers top asks since the lack of support makes exposing models with rich, well-defined inheritance hierarchies impossible to do. To enable such scenarios WCF Data Services now supports both exposing and consuming models which have properties (primitive, complex & navigation) defined on subtypes of the base type associated with the set.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What are the prerequisites?

A1: See the download center page for a list of prerequisites, supported operating systems, etc.

Q2: Does this CTP install side-by-side with Oct 2010 CTP1 that is currently on my development machine?

A2: Installation of CTP2 will result in setup automatically uninstalling CTP1 if it is installed on the machine. 

Q3: Does this CTP install side-by-side with the .NET 4 and Silverlight 4 versions that are currently on my development machine?

A3: By in large this install is side-by-side with existing .NET4 and SL4 bits; however, that was not possible in all cases so some VS files will be modified by the CTP installer to enable the Add Service Reference gesture in Visual Studio 2010 to make use of the new features in this CTP.  The files should be replaced to their original state during uninstall of this CTP. 

Q4: Does this CTP include support for Windows Phone 7?

A: No, you can download the OData Windows Phone 7 client from http://odata.codeplex.com. The Windows Phone 7 client does not yet support new features like properties on derived types.

Giving Feedback

The following forum is dedicated to providing feedback on "pre-release" versions of data services such as this CTP: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dataservices/threads.  Please direct all your questions about the release to this forum. 

Note: The forum intended for questions on currently shipping versions of ADO.NET Data Services is still available at: (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adodotnetdataservices/threads  ).

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the release!

Ahmed Moustafa
Program Manager
WCF Data Services