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OK, I’m getting confused again about the differences between the various WCF-based programming models. There are so many variations on the theme - WCF Data Services, WCF RIA Services, WCF Web API, etc. – that I can no longer see the wood for the trees. Microsoft’s insistence on renaming things doesn’t help. So, here’s a quick aide-mémoire for me based on WCF, Data Services and RIA Services Alignment Questions and Answers.

Service model	Description	Also known as
WCF	SOAP-based services Full flexibility for building operation-centric services Supports interoperability (e.g. with Java)	Indigo
WCF WebHttp Services	Operation centric Expose WCF service operations to non-SOAP endpoints Best when operation-centric HTTP services to be deployed at web scale or building a RESTful service and want full control over the URI/format/protocol	WCF Rest
WCF Data Services	Data centric Best when exposing data model through a RESTful interface Includes a full implementation of the OData Protocol	Astoria ADO.Net Data Services
WCF RIA Services	For building an end-to-end Silverlight applications Provides a prescriptive pattern that defaults many options for the best experience in the common cases	.Net RIA Services
WCF Web API	Expose applications, data and services to the web directly over HTTP Replaces the REST Starter Kit Supporting SOAP is not a goal New kid on the block

References

• WCF, Data Services and RIA Services Alignment Questions and Answers
• WCF community site