A new, streamlined and enhanced version of the Open Data Protocol has been approved as an OASIS Standard; see the press release from OASIS. After eighteen months of intense work, several public reviews, and careful consideration of all the feedback received, a joint team from Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat, Citrix, Progress, SAP, and many others now proudly presents OData Version 4.0. The specification consists of four documents:
- OData Version 4.0 Part 1: Protocol
- OData Version 4.0 Part 2: URL Conventions
- OData Version 4.0 Part 3: Common Schema Definition Language (CSDL)
- OData JSON Format Version 4.0
OData fosters easy access to business data and interoperability between different product lines. OData Version 2.0 is supported by many SAP products; to name just a few:
- SAP NetWeaver Gateway
- SAP HANA XS
- SAP Mobile Platform
- SAP Sybase SQL Anywhere
- SAP Jam
- SuccessFactors Employee Central
- SAP Crystal Reports
The new OData Version 4.0 has been shaped by the feedback we received from many product teams using OData at SAP, and our tools and infrastructure teams have closely accompanied the standardization process, providing a valuable reality check for the specification team in the OASIS Technical Committee. One of these teams is driving the Apache Olingo incubator project, providing OData server and client libraries for Java and JavaScript. Initiated by SAP, this open-source project has recently been joined by Microsoft Open Technologies and is now implementing OData 4.0 for Java servers and clients as well as JavaScript clients.
I'm looking forward to many SAP products speaking OData 4.0 in addition to the prior version 2.0, allowing to build even more powerful applications.
An overview of What's New in OData Version 4.0 has been published by the specification team, and I will write about the features that are most important for SAP here on SCN.
The standardization of OData is an ongoing effort, and the specification team is now focussing on extension specifications, the most important being the OData Extension for Data Aggregation Version 4.0. It recently has reached Committee Specification status, meaning it is ready for implementation.
Please have a look at the specifications and comment here on the OData 4.0 features you are most eager to see implemented!