This is a new set of APIs that was introduced in Dynamics CRM version 8.0. In earlier versions of Dynamics CRM, such as 2016 and earlier, developers used to work with the SOAP endpoint to connect to Dynamics CRM data. Using SOAP, it was easy to connect through a .NET application, but for a non-.NET application, it was difficult to connect. Later, the REST API was introduced to make non-.NET applications easy to connect with Dynamics CRM data. This REST API is also known as OData endpoints.

Although it is easy to connect to Dynamics CRM data using the REST API, it only provides a limited set of methods for us to work with Dynamics CRM data. To overcome this limitation, a new Web API was introduced in Dynamics CRM version 8.0, which made it easy for .NET and non-.NET applications to connect with data and also provided a full set of methods. Sometime in the near future, the Web API is going to replace the Dynamics 365 CE Organization service as well. We will discuss more details about the Web API in the Working with the Web API section of this chapter.