The OASIS international open standards consortium announced the approval of the Open Data Protocol (OData) 4.0 and the OData JSON Format 4.0. These REST-based standards simplify the querying and sharing of data across applications for re-use in the enterprise, cloud, and mobile devices. With OData, information can be accessed from a variety of sources including relational databases, file systems, content management systems, and traditional web sites. OData 4.0 and the OData JSON Format 4.0 are now official OASIS Standards, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification.
OData provides a way to break down data silos and increase the shared value of data by creating an ecosystem in which data consumers can interoperate with data producers in powerful ways, enabling more applications to make sense of a broader set of data. Every producer and consumer of data that participates in this ecosystem can increase its overall value.
“OData 4.0 reflects some important lessons learned,” said Ralf Handl of SAP, co-chair of the OASIS OData Technical Committee. “In this new version, we’ve eliminated boundaries between isolated services, essentially moving from an approach of ‘structured data on the Web’ to a ‘web of structured data’ approach.”
“OData is the equivalent of ODBC for the Web. OData was always simple and intuitive, but version 4.0 applies the lessons that have been learned since the inception of OData into a clean streamlined standard,” added Ram Jeyaraman of Microsoft, who also co-chairs the OASIS OData Technical Committee. “OData 4.0 is the result of the collective handiwork of many talented people across many organizations who banded together in a truly remarkable fashion to accomplish the common goal of creating a standard open data protocol to create and consume data services on the Web.”
OData began as an open project on the public OData site in 2009. OData producers, consumers and libraries (many of them open source) include Java, PHP, Drupal, Joomla, Node.js, .NET, SQL Server, MySQL, iOS, WP7, and Android. Statements of Use for OData were provided by IBM, Microsoft, and SAP as part of the OASIS Standard approval process.
Recently, the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) issued a formal recommendation for worldwide adoption of OData to help combat the proliferation of online child sexual abuse material. VGT believes the use of OData will enable much-need compatibility among law enforcement tools within the global community in managing illicit images and video regardless of vendor.
OData is offered for implementation on a royalty-free basis. Companies, non-profit groups, governments, academic institutions, and individuals are welcome to participate in the OASIS OData Technical Committee, which continues to advance the standard based on recommendations and feedback provided by the OData community.
Support for OData
BlackBerry
“Our enterprise customers have asked us to support OData
for building their BlackBerry 10 applications whether they are
connecting to SAP Gateway, Microsoft Sharepoint, or other Critical
Business Data though the BlackBerry Enterprise Service. BlackBerry is
thrilled to be able to offer enterprises the mobile friendly APIs
whether they are developing with HTML5 or in our Native SDK, without
sacrificing features,” said Gregg Ostrowski Senior Director Enterprise
Developer and Technical Partnerships, BlackBerry.
CA Technologies
“This new version of OData strengthens the standard
as a powerful and useful data source access mechanism,” said John
Michelsen, CTO at CA Technologies. “The improvements to the data model
and data types enables OData to further address the challenges and
complexities of CRUD access using RESTful techniques. Leveraging this
standard assists CA Technologies to develop improved technology
platforms and more interoperable solutions to help our customers tackle
their business challenges in DevOps, Security, and Infrastructure
Management.”
Citrix
"There is a growing need for accessing data via well-defined
and, whenever possible, open APIs,” said Shishir Pardikar, senior
architect, Citrix. “As an enterprise software company, Citrix recognizes
the value of this and has been working with other companies in the
industry to define OData as a means for facilitating meaningful
interactions between applications that leverage open standards like REST
and HTTP. With the publishing of OData 4.0 as an OASIS standard, we are
keen on seeing standards like this drive more interesting solutions
through improved ‘mashability’ between systems."
IBM
"I am pleased to see that the OData Protocol is now a
standard," said IBM Distinguished Engineer and CTO, Open Technology
Kelvin Lawrence. "By using a protocol like OData that allows for the
mixing and matching of data sources, the task of accessing different
types of data is simplified enabling developers to quickly build related
applications more easily."
Microsoft
“In the ongoing rapid shift towards cloud based services,
a standard open data protocol to create and consume data services on the
Web is very important. Congratulations to the OASIS OData
Technical Committee for successfully advancing OData v4 to an OASIS
Standard. OData has become an important open data protocol for several
products and cloud services from Microsoft to accomplish the goal of
open data for the open Web. It’s encouraging to see numerous
implementations across the industry, and this productive standards
collaboration at OASIS,” said Scott Guthrie, Corporate VP, Cloud and
Enterprise, Microsoft
Progress Software
"The importance of a data API that standardizes
access for web and mobile devices cannot be overstated,” said Tony
Fisher, VP of Data Integration and Collaboration at Progress. “With
OData 4 we now have a mature and robust specification for making new
sources of data connectivity possible, no matter where they are or how
data sources are connected. As a market leader in Data Connectivity,
OData is important extension to the Progress portfolio.”
Red Hat
"Red Hat is excited about the finalization of the OData v4
specification, “ said Dr. Mark Little, VP Engineering at Red Hat. "The
OData Technical Committee has made many improvements and additions
making OData an extremely powerful, enterprise-capable, REST protocol.
We are looking forward to implementing the specification in our own
technologies as well as contributing to other open source projects."
SAP
“OData is the primary technology used to access business data
in SAP’s mobile and Web applications, such as SAP Fiori apps. It is also
used by SAP partners and customers via support of it included in SAP
HANA and SAP NetWeaver Gateway. Besides contributing substantially to
the standardization of OData at OASIS, SAP has created and is leading
two open source projects that implement the standard: Apache Olingo and
Eclipse Ogee,” said Erich Karl Clauer, VP, Industry Standards and Open
Source, SAP.
SDL
“We believe that access to the right content in the right
context is essential today and open standards like OData are key to
achieving this,” said Dennis van der Veeke, CTO of SDL. “The adoption of
the Open Data Protocol as an OASIS standard will help pave the way where
any data can be used simply, securely, and automatically, resulting in
richer experiences, simpler interfaces and faster development times.”
Additional information:
OASIS OData Technical Committee:
https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/odata/
OData 4.0 OASIS Standard:
https://www.oasis-open.org/standards#odatav4.0
OData JSON Format 4.0 OASIS Standard:
https://www.oasis-open.org/standards#odatajsonv4.0
About
OASIS:
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international
consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open
standards for the global information society. OASIS promotes industry
consensus and produces worldwide standards for cloud computing,
security, privacy, M2M, IoT, content technologies, business
transactions, emergency management, and other applications. OASIS open
standards offer the potential to lower cost, stimulate innovation, grow
global markets, and protect the right of free choice of technology.
OASIS members broadly represent the marketplace of public and private
sector technology leaders, users and influencers. The consortium has
more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and
individual members in 100 countries.
http://www.oasis-open.org.
Contacts:
Carol Geyer, OASIS Senior Director of Communications, +1
941-284-0403
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org