OData Source - SQL Server Integration Services Design Patterns - page 343

Field Property Description

Collection CollectionName This box lets you select a specific collection from the

OData feed.

Resource
Path

ResourcePath When using the Resource Path access mode, this field

lets you enter a full path of the specific OData re-
source you want to access.

Query Op-
tions

Query This field lets you append different query options,

such as $top or $filter , to your request. Table
12-3 lists the set of query options you'd commonly in-
clude in a request. Note that the values should be URL
encoded—the OData Source does not automatically
encode these values for you.

Feed Url N/A This is a read-only field that shows the URL that the

OData Source will use to access the server. It is built
based on the values you set for the other fields in this
dialog. This field can be useful for debugging pur-
poses.

There are two main ways to access the OData service using the OData Source: by
selecting a collection, or by configuring a resource path.
Accessing the service using a collection is the default behavior of the OData
Source. You will typically use this option when you want to read one of the top level
entity sets exposed by the service. The Collection field will give you a drop-down list
of the available entity sets, similar to how the OLE DB Source lists the set of available
tables and views.
You would use the resource path when you are doing more than just accessing a
single entity set. For example, you want to run an action or operation defined by the
service, or you want to access a subentity through a navigation property. In these cases,
you would provide the full URL in the Resource Path field. Note that you are expected
to apply any URL encoding to the value yourself— the component does not automatic-
ally do this for you. Also note that the OData Source will not do any special validation
for these values—it will simply try accessing the URL at runtime and rely on the ser-
vice's $metadata document to determine how to interpret the results. Using the Pre-
view button on the OData Source Editor dialog (shown in Figure 12-4 ) is very helpful
in these cases because it will let you quickly validate whether the request will succeed
and that you are getting the data you want.