You must have the following resources to use the Live Search Web service:

• A deployment computer with an Internet connection; the ability to send requests using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1 and the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP 1.1); and the ability to parse XML.
  
  
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and the Microsoft .NET Framework (version 2.0 or later) installed on a computer to build and run the sample applications.
  
  

  Note

  If the Live Search Web service is called from behind a proxy server that enforces limits on SOAP packet size, you may experience issues with sending and receiving large SOAP packets. For example, a call to the Live Search Web service that returns a large number of results may result in a large SOAP packet being sent. You may need to bypass the proxy, set the SOAP packet size limit very high, or limit the amount of data you are requesting. The Live Search Web service is built on standards that are based on SOAP, XML, and WSDL technologies. It has been tested for environments using the .NET platform and Visual Studio .NET tools for Windows, Web, and Console application development. Other environments and toolkits have not been tested, but may work with the Live Search Web service platform.

The formal Web Service Description Language (WSDL) XML document defines the format of messages used by the Live Search Web service, and some default values that are supplied by the service if they are omitted from your source code. The service description is an agreement that defines the behavior of the Live Search Web service, and instructs developers how to interact with the service. Your development project must reference the Live Search Web service WSDL to access the SOAP API.

For example, follow these steps to access the Live Search Web service WSDL from Microsoft Visual Studio 2005:

1. From the File menu, choose New | Project.
   
   
2. Choose one of the Project Types; for example, Visual C# Projects.
   
   
3. From the Templates list, choose to create a new Windows Application, ASP.NET Application, Smart Device Application, or Console Application. These Project Types and Templates have been tested for this release; other Project Types and Templates may also work correctly with these instructions.
   
   
4. From the Solution Explorer tab, right-click References and, from the pop-up menu, select Add Web Reference.
   
   

Note: If you are using Visual Studio 2008, right click References and, from the pop-up menu, select Add Service Reference. Click Advanced on the Add Service Reference dialog box, then click Add Web Reference on the Service Reference Settings dialog box. Then proceed to the next step.

1. Type the following address in the URL text box: http://soap.search.msn.com/webservices.asmx?wsdl.
   
   
2. Click Go.
   
   
3. You can accept the default Web service name com.msn.search.soap suggested in the Web reference name text box, or type your own name for the service in the text box. Click Add Reference to add the Web reference to your project.
   
   

   Note
   The name you choose for your project and the name you choose for the Web service must be added as a using directive in Microsoft Visual C#. For example, if you choose the name WindowsLiveSearchAPISample for your Windows Application project and WindowsLiveSearch as the Web reference name, you would add the following to your declarations: using WindowsLiveSearchAPISample.WindowsLiveSearch;

Now that you have added the Web reference to your project, you can begin developing your application. Each application requires a unique Application ID, which is supplied by the Developer Provisioning System.

Creating a New Application ID

Managing Application IDs