Core Service versioning
Whether you are using the Core Service.REST or the older WCF Core Service, your API clients connect to the API through a specific contract version. To support backward compatibility, new releases of Tridion Sites return data that an old client can handle gracefully.
Introduced functionality
In most cases, only the latest Core Service API versions will support new functionality added in the release of Tridion Sites) that introduced that version. Of course, if you want to make use of new functionality offered by a new release (new parameters, new methods, and so on), you must modify and recompile your existing code, and explicitly connect to the new end points.
Older endpoints
Every Tridion Sites release aims to ensure these endpoints are backward compatible with existing clients (the service contract is maintained) so that if you upgrade Tridion Sites, you can leave your code unchanged. Existing calls to the Core Service interface will generally continue to work because the existing service contract is still supported.
When you are using older endpoints (contract versions), the current API makes every effort not to change the structure of the data that gets returned; however, there may be instances where the structure does change. The API handles such changes in the following ways:
- Existing properties will keep same type in the new release.
- New properties are always optional and any that are not known at all in an older contract version will be removed.
- New subclasses will be downgraded to the nearest base class that exists in the release to which your interface call belongs.
- New enumeration (enum) members that are not known in an older contract version will be replaced by
UnknownByClient(known in all contract versions) to indicate data that the client does not understand.
Core Service.REST support
Tridion Sites 9.6 is the first release to support Core Service.REST, and thus Tridion Sites 9.6 supports a single API contract version, V1.0.
WCF Core Service support
The following table describes the versions of WCF Core Service that each version of Tridion Sites supports.
| Product version | Introduced contract version | Supported contract versions |
|---|---|---|
| Tridion Sites 10 | 202201 | 2013, 201501, 201603, 201701, 202101, 202201 |
| Tridion Sites 9.6 | 202101 | 2013, 201501, 201603, 201701, 202101 |
| SDL Tridion Sites 9.5 | none | 2013, 201501, 201603, 201701 |
| SDL Tridion Sites 9 | 201701 | 2013, 201501, 201603, 201701 |
| SDL Web 8.5 | 201603 | 2013, 201501, 201603 |
| SDL Web 8 Cumulative Update 1 | 201501 | 2013, 201501 |
| SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 HR1 | 2013 | 2013 |