Database Reference
In-Depth Information
To see all the movies Brad Pitt has acted in, the URI is
http://OData.netflix.com/Catalog/People?$filter=Name%20eq%20'Brad%20Pitt'&
$expand=TitlesActedIn .
The key to knowing what to add to the URL to apply additional filters is in the information returned
by the service. For example, let's modify the previous example as follows:
http://OData.netflix.com/Catalog/People?$filter=Name%20eq%20'Brad%20Pitt'
On the resulting page, several <link> elements tell you what additional filters you can apply to your
URI:
<link rel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/related/Awards"...
<link rel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/related/TitlesActedIn"...
<link rel="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/related/TitlesDirected"...
These links let you know the information by which you can filter the data.
OData Consumers
An OData consumer is an application that consumes data exposed via the OData protocol. An
application that consumes OData can range from a simple web browser (as you've just seen) to an
enterprise custom application. The follow is a list of the consumers that support the OData protocol:
Browsers. Most modern browsers allow you to browse OData services and Atom-
based feeds.
OData Explorer. A Silverlight application that allows you to browse OData
services.
Excel 2010. Via PowerPivot for Excel 2010. This is a plug-in to Excel that has OData
support.
LINQPad. A tool for building interactive OData queries.
Client libraries. Programming libraries such as .NET, PHP, Java, and Windows
Phone 7 that make it easy to consume OData services.
Sesame (an OData browser). A browser built by Fabrice Marguerie specifically for
browsing OData.
OData Helper for webMatrix. Along with ASP.NET, let's you retrieve and update
data from any service that exposes its data via the OData protocol.
There are several more supported client libraries. You can find a complete list of consumers at
www.odata.org/consumers .
OK, enough about OData. If you want to learn more, the OData home page is www.OData.org/home .
You should spend some time reading up on OData and start playing with some of the services
provided by the listed producers. When people began getting into web services and WCF services, there
was an obvious learning curve involved in understanding and implementing these technologies. Not so
much with OData—it has the great benefit of using existing technologies to build on, so understanding
and implementing OData is much faster and simpler.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search