OData SDK Overview

The OData SDK is for building native mobile applications. It consists of a collection of runtime libraries and classes.

The OData SDK supports Android, BlackBerry and iOS platforms and it is based on the native device SDKs of the platforms. There is an implementation for each platform. Native applications installed on the devices allow the client application to leverage the support provided by the given platform, for example:

Adapt to each device’s form factor (for example, automatic layout)
Exploit different input methods (for example, touch screen, keyboard or trackball)
Cache data in native device data stores for better performance
Tightly integrate with the features of the device

The general description of the SDK components follows. For detailed platform specific descriptions, see the respective chapters on Android, BlackBerry and iOS.

OData for SAP® Products

OData stands for "Open Data Protocol" and is a resource-based web protocol for querying and updating data. It is released by Microsoft under the Open Specification Promise to allow anyone to freely interoperate with OData implementations. OData defines operations on resources using HTTP verbs (GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE), and it identifies those resources using a standard URI syntax. Data is transferred over HTTP using the Atom or JSON format.

OData for SAP Products provide SAP Extensions to the OData protocol that enable users to build user interfaces for accessing the data published via OData. The interfaces require human-readable, language-dependent labels for all properties and free-text search within collections of similar entities and across (OpenSearch).

Applications running on mobile devices also require semantic annotations to tell the client which of the OData properties contain a phone number, a part of a name or address, or something related to a calendar event, thus seamlessly integrating with the contacts, calendar, and telephony of the mobile device. The OData standard's metadata document contains information about the model. It will define what information is searchable, which properties may be used in filter expressions, and which properties of an entity will always be managed by the server.

For the sake of simplicity, "OData for SAP" is abbreviated to "OData" throughout this Guide.