Querying list items and using SharePoint web services vs the object model

Question

My company is looking into writing a custom application that will need to perform many list item queries across multiple site collections. It will need to run for WSS 3.0 and it 'would be nice' if it worked on WSS 2.0 as well. It won't be designed for MOSS/SPS but again it 'would be nice' if it worked on these platforms. There is no restriction on which .NET version should be used for the solution.

For this type of application, what would be better: the object model/API or SharePoint web services? The primary factor I'm considering is performance, followed by features and functionality. Thanks!

Answer 1

The first thing to consider is "will my code run on a sharepoint server or remotely ?"

• If it's running remotely, you don't have any choice, use web services

• If it's running on a sharepoint server, I would suggest using object model, as performance will be better, you'll have access to more API and authentication will be easier (=automatic).

Answer 2

Object model is better as you can gain access to additional features and the full detail of the list items, such as the version history.

The object model is also better for performance (as long as you dispose() your spsite and spweb objects properly).

The Sharepoint object model has some differences between 2 and 3, but if you look at the reference for v2 then it will also work fully with v3.

The web services have not changed at all between v2 and v3, which explains why they do not have any new features of v3.

The reason the object model will win on performance is that you will not be serialising the data as Xml and then transmitting a large chunk of Xml, and then deserialising the Xml. The object model spares your memory and bandwidth.

Answer 3

+1 to the other posters.

If you decide to go the OM route then you can compile for both WSS 2.0 and WSS 3.0 from the one source. These should get you started.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/243201/developing-for-sharepoint-2003-using-visual-studio-2008

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/286826/how-to-reference-two-versions-of-an-api

Answer 4

Can the OM be used inside an Infopath form? Currently I'm using the web services to pull in the list data I want but I would rather use the OM.