Configuring the Data Service (ADO.NET Data Services)

With ADO.NET Data Services, you can create a data service that is based on an Entity Framework data model, a class that implements IQueryable, or a data service that is dynamically defined by implementing the IDataServiceMetadataProvider and the IDataServiceQueryProvider interfaces. For more information, see Data Services Providers (ADO.NET Data Services). A data service is a class that inherits from the DataService class, where the type of the data service is the entity container of the data model. This entity container has one or more properties that return an IQueryable that is used to access entity sets in the data model.

The behaviors of the data service are defined by the members of the DataServiceConfiguration class, and by members of the DataServiceBehavior class, which is accessed from the DataServiceBehavior() property of the DataServiceConfiguration class. The DataServiceConfiguration class is supplied to the InitializeService method that is implemented by the data service, as in the following Northwind service that you create when you complete the quickstart:

Public Class Northwind
    Inherits DataService(Of NorthwindEntities)

    ' This method is called only once to initialize service-wide policies.
    Public Shared Sub InitializeService(ByVal config As DataServiceConfiguration)
        ' Make certain entity sets writable.
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Customers", EntitySetRights.All)
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Employees", EntitySetRights.All)
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Orders", EntitySetRights.All)
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Order_Details", EntitySetRights.All)
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Products", EntitySetRights.All)

        ' Make the remaining entity sets read-only.
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.AllRead)
    End Sub
End Class

public class Northwind : DataService<NorthwindEntities>
{
    // This method is called only once to initialize service-wide policies.
    public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)
    {
        // Make certain entity sets writable.
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Customers", EntitySetRights.All); 
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Employees", EntitySetRights.All);
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Orders", EntitySetRights.All);
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Order_Details", EntitySetRights.All);
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("Products", EntitySetRights.All);

        // Make the remaining entity sets read-only.
        config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.AllRead);
    }
}

Data Service Configuration Settings

The DataServiceConfiguration class enables you to specify the following data service behaviors:

Minimum Resource Access Requirements

The following table details the minimum entity set rights that must be granted to execute a specific operation. Path examples are based on the Northwind data service that is created when you complete the quickstart. For more information, see How to: Enable Access to the Data Service.

1 In this example, Address represents a complex type property of the Customers entity that has a property named StreetAddress. The model used by the Northwind data services does not explicitly define this complex type. When the data model is defined by using the Entity Framework provider, you can use the Entity Data Model tools to define such a complex type. For more information, see How to: Create and Modify Complex Types (Entity Data Model Tools).

2 This URI is supported when a property that returns a binary large object (BLOB) is defined as the Media Resource that belongs to an entity that is a Media Link Entry, which in this case, is Customers. For more information, see Working with Binary Data (ADO.NET Data Services).

See Also

Other Resources

Defining a Data Service (ADO.NET Data Services)

Hosting the Data Service (ADO.NET Data Services)