Can I run an app using SPMetal (Linq 2 SharePoint) on a non-SharePoint server?

Question

I don't yet have a development VM with SharePoint installed (I have been using SPServices and JavaScript up to this point), so I cannot quickly answer this for myself...

I am interested in investigating SPMetal, but I can't find anything that will definitively tell me if I can generate Linq to SharePoint classes and then use them in a non-SharePoint project.

For example, if I have a Win Form app that I now want to pull some data from a SharePoint list. Can I use SPMetal or do I need to just use web services and CAML?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You cannot use SPMetal without SharePoint object model. If you look at the SPMetal sources you can find that it works with SPContext. Instead of this you can use REST API of SharePoint o client SharePoint Object Model (CSOM).