Developer's Guide (Master Data Services)

Find information about how to write code to customize the way you and your users interact with Master Data Services. Learn how to:

• Write a program that accesses the Master Data Manager web service. The Master Data Manager web service is a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service that developers use to control Master Data Services features through code.

• Incorporate Master Data Services features into existing applications.

• Write code to perform repetitive or complex actions that are difficult or impossible to do with the Master Data Manager UI.

• Create a custom workflow that executes in response to a business rule you specify. A custom workflow calls code that you write, which can take whatever action you require to process the workflow.

Master Data Manager Web Service

The Master Data Manager web service lets you make programmatic use of the features of Master Data Services from any computer that can access your Master Data Manager web site. Before you can start writing code to access the web service, you must generate proxy classes, which are contained in a namespace that you specify. This documentation uses Microsoft.MasterDataServices as the proxy namespace. The main proxy class you use to perform web service operations is the Microsoft.MasterDataServices.ServiceClient class, which implements the Microsoft.MasterDataServices.IService interface. From your code, call methods of the Microsoft.MasterDataServices.ServiceClient class to access the Master Data Manager web service. The remainder of the classes in the namespace are used by the web service operations.

Web Service Content

• Create Master Data Manager Web Service Proxy Classes
  Describes how to enable metadata publishing from the Master Data Manager web site and how to create proxy classes that can be used to programmatically access the web service operations.

• Categorized Web Service Operations (Master Data Services)
  A categorized list of the web service operations of the Microsoft.MasterDataServices.ServiceClient class.

Custom Workflows

Master Data Services uses business rules to create basic workflow solutions. You can automatically update and validate data and have e-mail notifications sent based on conditions you specify. Business rules in Master Data Services are intended to manage the most common workflow scenarios. If your workflow requires more complex event processing, such as multi-tiered approvals or complex decision trees, you can configure Master Data Services to send data to a custom assembly that you create. To handle custom workflows, you must configure and start SQL Server MDS Workflow Integration Service on the web application computer, and create an assembly that implements the Microsoft.MasterDataServices.WorkflowTypeExtender.IWorkflowTypeExtender interface.

Custom Workflow Content

• Create a Custom Workflow (Master Data Services)
  Instructions on how to create a workflow handler assembly, how to configure and start SQL Server MDS Workflow Integration Service, and how to create a business rule in Master Data Manager that starts a custom workflow.

Web Server Namespaces

Master Data Services installs a set of assemblies on the web server computer. These assemblies contain namespaces that can be used for advanced scenarios that customize the behavior of the web server computer. The following table describes these namespaces.

Namespace	Description
Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Deployment	Contains classes that can be used to create a deployment package from a model and to deploy a package into a Master Data Services database.
Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Services	Contains a class that receives and processes web service operations made to the web server computer through the Master Data Manager web application.
Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Services.DataContracts	Contains classes that define how data is passed from the client computer through the Master Data Manager web application to the web server computer.
Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Services.MessageContracts	Contains classes that define how requests and responses are passed from the client computer through the Master Data Manager web application to the web server computer.
Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Services.ServiceContracts	Contains the interface that defines the operations that can be called through the Master Data Manager web service.