Why create a service?

Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP provides a way for external applications to integrate with data contained in Microsoft Dynamics GP. When you add a new type of document to Microsoft Dynamics GP, you should evaluate whether an external application will need to integrate with your document data. If you decide to allow external applications to use your document data, you will need to add a service for your document type.

When you add a service for a new type of document, the most important design decision is to define what operations your service provides to the external application. To define your service operations, you need to evaluate whether you want the external application to retrieve, create, update, or remove documents. The service operations you select have the following influence on your service design:

• You need to determine whether the Microsoft Dynamics GP Service framework supports the service operations you chose. The Dynamics GP Service framework supports service operations that retrieve a single document, retrieve a collection of documents, create a new document, and update, delete, or void an existing document.
• You need to add a service method for each operation that you chose. The methods allow the external application to perform operations with your document type.
• You need to add your document type to the Dynamics GP Service framework. Each service operation requires you to supply information about your document type to the Dynamics GP Service framework.

For example, the sample service included with the Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP SDK gives an external application the ability to retrieve, create, update, and delete lead documents. The sample creates a new service, adds a method for each operation, and adds leads as a new document type to the service framework.

For more information about Dynamics GP Services, see Dynamics GP Web Service Overview.