title: how to query SQL Server via REST to get XML
body: <p>We have been using a web application framework to build apps that need to be able to query a SQL Server database and get the results as XML.</p>
  
  <p>In the past, the framework provided that capability. But that capability is now deprecated.</p>
  
  <p>So we were thinking, the framework allows us to easily query a REST service over HTTP, so why not use a SQL Server HTTP Endpoint. However, we then read that HTTP Endpoints are deprecated, as of SQL Server 2008. Not a platform on which to design an architecture for the future.</p>
  
  <p>Azure (formerly SQL Data Services) was going to offer similar services, but now only supports the TDS protocol, not http. So no REST to be found in Azure.</p>
  
  <p>The suggested alternative is to develop a custom app using WCF Data Services (formerly ADO.NET Data Services). But that would mean a whole additional app to develop, deploy, and maintain, presumably with its own authentication setup separate from SQL Server's, and its own source code repository... using a technology we have no experience with, therefore with its own pretty deep learning curve.</p>
  
  <p>Can you suggest any other way to query a SQL Server database via REST/HTTP, that is not deprecated, and that would return results as XML?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any help.</p>