Talk on Microsoft's OData

1. OData: The Open Data Protocol

3. Windows
iPhone
Browser
Windows Phone
Silverlight
Web Site
Web API
webOS
S E R V I C E S
POWERING
EXPERIENCES

4. Today’s Service Interfaces
 Customers[] GetCustomersByZip(zip)
 Customers[] GetCustomersByZip(zip, skip, take)
 Customers[] GetCustomersByZip(zip, skip, take, sort)
 Customers[] GetCustomersByRegion(region, skip, take)
 Customers[] GetCustomersByRegion(region, skip, take, sort)
 …
Problems with this approach:
Clients are very limited in what they can do generically – Each
service requires its own custom clients (N * N problem)
Leads to “interface bloat” – cost of maintenance
More likely to result in data silos with limited potential for reuse

5. What if we had a common way to access
information through services?
 Customer is a resource that supports:
 Query on properties
 Navigation over relationships
 Paging through results
 Create, Read, Update, Delete operations
Solves key problems with today’s service interfaces
Enables a broad ecosystem of reusable clients
Simplifies interface maintenance – lowers cost
Encourages reuse of information, including in ways not foreseen at
the time the service was created

6. Open Data Protocol (OData)
A Web protocol for querying and updating data
that provides a way to unlock your data and free
it from silos that exist in applications today.

7. For Developers

8. For Information
Workers

9. For Consumers

10. OData Ecosystem – Current implementations
Enterprise Consumer Government/Public Developer
PowerPivot Pivot Open Gov. Data Initiative .NET
SQL Server Reports (producer) Netflix Edmonton, CA Silverlight Client
SharePoint iPhone Vancouver, CA Java Client
WebSphere Windows Live Dallas (Many sources) PHP Client
Dallas (many sources) Facebook insights CDYNE* AJAX Client
SQL Azure Microsoft MediaRoom European Env Agency* iPhone
Dynamics NAV Twitpic UK Government* Mono/Mono Touch Client
Dynamics CRM eBay Data.Gov* Telerik Open Access
Next Gen Active Directory DigitalMap* Recovery.Gov* Intersoft Solutions
MS Pinpoint ESRI* MelissaData* ComponentOne
Powershell WeatherBug* United Nations* LinqPad
Office 15 Boundary Solutions* World Bank* OData4J
Tellago SO-Aware Stats.Com* DB40
Zillow.com* WCF RIA Services
Windows Azure Table Storage
OpenLink Virtuoso
Stack Overflow
PHP Server (in development)
Ruby on Rails
Windows Phone 7
Light Switch
* Available through DataMarket.Azure.com

11. Standards / Openness
 OData
 Based on AtomPub, HTTP, JSON
 Released under the Open Specification Promise
○ Implemented by multiple 3rd parties including IBM
WebSphere
 .NET client source code
 Released under Apache 2.0 license
 http://odata.codeplex.com/

12. Contact Information
 LanceO@microsoft.com
 www.odata.org
 http://msdn.com/data

13. © 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must
respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any
information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.