Dynamics CRM 2016: Onboarding from the Preview to Web API

Are you an early adopter who found that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Web API preview release worked fine? Splendid! But you'll need to migrate to the new Web API for the general  release, writes Abhishek Kumar on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog.

In June of 2015, Microsoft released a preview version of the Web API along with Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1; but says Kumar, there have been a set of breaking changes since the preview release, which apply to both Dynamics CRM 2016 and Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update.

Why the new Web API?

The aim of the new version of the Dynamics CRM Web API was to improve the ability of developers (and Microsoft) to build more sophisticated apps on top of CRM. The Web API preview worked alongside the existing ODATA REST-based APIs; but the new API will gradually replace the current one, creating a single Web API. The new API replaces the Organization Service (2011 SOAP endpoint) and OData v2 REST APIs. The new API provides OData (Open Data Protocol) v4. This is an OASIS standard for building and consuming RESTful APIs over rich data sources - hence . It will provide the basis for long-term growth and development, and allow Microsoft and developers to create more full-featured, sophisticated applications on top of Dynamics CRM.

A second benefit of the new API is in the integration options it will provide. As CEO Curt Finch of Journyx described in an MSDynamicsWorld article last June:

[The] ever-evolving nature of the market necessitates a change. Increasingly, in ...