SharePoint 2013 APIs

Question

Looking for somewhere that describes the differences between the SharePoint 2013 APIs, specifically I'm wondering what APIs I can use to create databases and site collections. As far as I can tell, only the Server API or Powershell will let me do that. I was hoping I could be proved wrong and be able to use the client object model or the REST services. Anyone know for sure?

Answer 1

No only server-side OM offers these kind of operations. Both CSOM and REST are built to deal with data and services hosted within SharePoint.

Answer 2

Here is an MSDN article which best describes what you are looking for:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sharepoint/jj164060.aspx

The largest set of APIs is in the server object model of managed classes. At the level of SharePoint Foundation 2013, this object model includes classes and members that enable programmatic control of the basic site and list structure of SharePoint Foundation. Most of these classes are in the Microsoft.SharePoint namespace. In addition, you can extend almost every SharePoint Foundation component by using the server object model, including workflows, alerts, Web Parts, basic search, and Microsoft Business Connectivity Services (BCS). The server object model also includes an extensive set of APIs enable extensions of the administration and security system of SharePoint Foundation, including backup, farm health and diagnostics, logging, farm and web application management, upgrade, deployment, caching, and Windows PowerShell customization.

The highlighted part is not available in other API.