An open protocol which allows the creation and consumption of queryable and interoperable RESTful APIs
| Standardization | OData is a standardized protocol that is supported by many platforms, programming languages, and tools. This means that developers can use OData to create data APIs that are easily discoverable and accessible by standard web clients. |
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| Flexibility | OData provides a flexible way to expose, consume, and manipulate data using a standard set of query and filter options. This allows developers to create data APIs that support a wide range of scenarios, from simple queries to complex data manipulations. |
| Scalability | OData supports features like paging, sorting, filtering, and batching to help manage large datasets efficiently. This makes it easier to build data APIs that can handle large amounts of data and provide high-performance access to that data. |
| Security | OData supports standard authentication and authorization mechanisms, such as OAuth and OpenID Connect. This means that developers can build secure data APIs that require authentication and authorization to access data. |
| Interoperability | OData can be used to access a wide range of data sources, including databases, file systems, and web services. This makes it easier to build data APIs that can be used by a variety of systems and platforms. |
| Cost-effectiveness | OData can help reduce development costs by providing a standardized way to expose data as a service. This means that developers can create data APIs more quickly and with fewer resources than if they were building a custom solution. |
In computing, Open Data Protocol (OData) is an open protocol that allows the creation and consumption of queryable and interoperable Web service APIs in a standard way. Microsoft initiated OData in 2007. Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 are released under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise. Version 4.0 was standardized at OASIS, with a release in March 2014. In April 2015 OASIS submitted OData v4 and OData JSON Format v4 to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for approval as an international standard. In December 2016, ISO/IEC published OData 4.0 Core as ISO/IEC 20802-1:2016 and the OData JSON Format as ISO/IEC 20802-2:2016.
The protocol enables the creation and consumption of HTTP-based Web APIs, which allow Web clients to publish and edit resources, identified using URLs and defined in a data model, using simple HTTP messages. OData shares some similarities with JDBC and with ODBC; like ODBC, OData is not limited to relational databases.