Wcf Web APi OData

2
votes

I have recently discovered OData & the new WCF Web APi library on codeplex. The web api allows me to expose results as IQueryable, which allows me to expose URL's in the OData format. Myn question is what is the difference between this and a regular OData Service, I read the following blog post http://phejndorf.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/wcf-web-api-odata-format-doesnt-mean-odata-service/ but I am unsure what the OP means.

Thanks

1
odatawcf-web-api

1 Answers

4
votes

The WCF Web API supports adding a [QueryComposition] attribute to a function so you can use the OData $filter=.. style of filtering data on the server and sending only a subset back to the client.

With OData, I should say WCF Data Services, there is much more that just querying. You can do all of the CRUD operations. It also means you are using the OData, is an AtomPub superset, protocol where with WCF Web API you do whatever you like. OData is actually a hypermedia format that contains metada, relations etc.