The OData protocol is comprised of a set of specifications
for representing and interacting with structured content. The core specification
for the protocol is in [OData-Protocol]. The OData Atom Format specification
extends the former by defining representations for OData requests and responses
using an Atom format.
An OData payload may represent:
·
a
service document describing
the top-level resources exposed by the service
·
a
single entity (a
structured type with an identity)
·
a
resource reference
·
a
collection of entities
·
a
single primitive or complex
type value
·
a
collection of primitive or
complex type values
·
a
media resource
·
a
collection of changes
·
a
single link to a related entity
·
a
collection of links to related entities
·
an
error document
·
an
xml document describing the entity model exposed by the service
·
a
batch of requests to be executed in a single request
·
a
set of responses returned from a batch request
For a description of the xml format for describing an entity
model, see [OData-CSDL]. For a description of
batch requests and responses, see [OData-Protocol]
.
The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL
NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
This document references the following related documents:
[GML] Portele, C., Ed., "OpenGIS Geography Markup
Language (GML) Encoding", August 2007. http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=20509.
[OData-ABNF] OData
ABNF Construction Rules Version 4.0.
See link in “Related work” section on cover page.
[OData-CSDL] OData
Version 4.0 Part 3: Common Schema Definition Language (CSDL).
See link in “Related work” section on cover page.
[OData-MetaXML] OData
Metadata XML Schema.
See link in “Additional artifacts” section on cover page.
[OData-Protocol] OData Version 4.0 Part1: Protocol.
See link in“Related work” section on cover page.
[OData-URL] OData
Version 4.0 Part 2: URL Conventions.
See link in "Related work" section on cover page.
[OData-VocCap] OData Capabilities
Vocabulary.
See link in "Related work" section on cover page.
[RFC2119] Bradner,
S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels”, BCP 14, RFC
2119, March 1997. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt.
[RFC3986] Berners-Lee,
T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, “Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic
Syntax”, IETF RFC3986, January 2005. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt.
[RFC3987] Duerst,
M. and M. Suignard, “Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs)”, RFC 3987,
January 2005. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3987.txt.
[RFC4287] Nottingham,
M., Ed., and R. Sayre, Ed. “The Atom Syndication Format”, RFC 4287, December
2005. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4287.txt.
[RFC5023] Gregorio,
J., Ed., and B. de hOra, Ed., “The Atom Publishing Protocol”, RFC 5023, October
2007. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5023.txt.
[RFC5646] Phillips,
A., Ed., and M. Davis, Ed., “Tags for Identifying Languages”, BCP 47, RFC 5646,
September 2009. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5646.
[RFC6721] Snell, J., "The Atom 'deleted-entry' Element",
RFC 6721, September 2012, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6721.
Keywords defined by this specification use this monospaced font.
Normative source code uses this paragraph style.
Some sections of this specification are illustrated with
non-normative examples.
Example 1: text describing an example uses this paragraph style
Non-normative
examples use this paragraph style.
All examples in this document are non-normative and informative
only.
All other text is normative unless otherwise labeled.
The Atom Syndication Format [RFC4287]
defines an XML-based format for describing feeds made up of individual entries.
The Atom Publishing Protocol [RFC5023] defines an
application-level protocol based on HTTP transfer of Atom-formatted
representations.
OData builds on [RFC4287] and [RFC5023] by defining additional conventions and
extensions for representing and querying entity data, e.g. OData collections
are represented as Atom feeds, with one Atom entry for each entity within a collection.
As specified in [RFC4287] and [RFC5023] processors that encounter foreign markup MUST
NOT stop processing and MUST NOT signal an error. This includes additional elements or attributes in any
namespace, including elements and attributes in the OData Data and Metadata namespaces, e.g. values for properties not
declared in $metadata,
and annotation
that are not defined in
the version of the payload being returned.
OData defines meaning for elements and attributes defined in
the following namespaces.
Atom elements and attributes are defined within the Atom
namespace, see [RFC4287]:
http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom
In this specification the namespace prefix atom is used to represent the Atom Namespace, however the
prefix name is not prescriptive.
Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub) elements and attributes
are defined within the AtomPub namespace, see [RFC5023]:
http://www.w3.org/2007/app
In this specification the namespace prefix app is used to represent the AtomPub Namespace, however
the prefix name is not prescriptive.
2.1.3 Atom Tombstone
The deleted-entry
element is defined within the Atom Tombstone namespace, see [RFC6721]:
http://purl.org/atompub/tombstones/1.0
In this specification the namespace prefix atom-tombstone is used to represent the Atom Tombstone
Namespace, however the prefix name is not prescriptive.
2.1.4 OData Data
Elements that describe the actual data values for an entity
are qualified with the OData Data Namespace:
http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/data
In this specification the namespace prefix data is used to represent the OData Data Namespace,
however the prefix name is not prescriptive.
2.1.5 OData Metadata
Attributes and elements that represent metadata (such as
type, null usage, and entry-level etags) are defined within the OData Metadata
Namespace:
http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata
Custom elements or attributes MUST NOT use this namespace.
In this specification the namespace prefix metadata is used to represent the OData Metadata
Namespace, however the prefix name is not prescriptive.
This specification contains a normative XML schema for the OData Metadata namespace, see [OData-MetaXML].
It only defines the shape of well-formed OData metadata, but
is not descriptive enough to define what correct OData metadata is. This
specification document defines additional rules that correct OData metadata
MUST fulfill. In case of doubt on what makes OData metadata correct the rules
defined in this specification document take precedence.
3
Requesting the Atom Format
The OData Atom format MAY be requested using the $format query option in the request URL with the MIME type
application/atom+xml, or the case-insensitive
abbreviation atom which MUST NOT be followed by
format parameters.
Alternatively, this format MAY be requested using the Accept header with the MIME type application/atom+xml.
If specified, $format overrides
any value specified in the Accept header.
The service document MAY
additionally be requested with the more specific MIME type application/atomsvc+xml using either $format or Accept.
All resources MAY additionally be requested with the less
specific MIME type application/xml using either $format or Accept, or the
case-insensitive abbreviation xml using $format.
Services SHOULD advertise the supported MIME types by
annotating their entity container with the term Capabilities.SupportedFormats defined in [OData-VocCap].
The Content-Type header for Atom
responses MUST use the most specific MIME type for the requested resource that
is indicated as acceptable by the client.
Requests using the $format query
option with the abbreviation atom MUST receive the
MIME type
·
application/atomsvc+xml for
the service document,
·
application/atom+xml for
entities and collections of entities, references, or changes,
·
application/xml for
all other resources.
Requests using $format or an Accept header with value application/atom+xml
MUST receive the MIME type
·
application/xml for the service document,
·
application/atom+xml for
entities and collections of entities, references, or changes,
·
application/xml for
all other resources.
Requests using $format or an Accept header with value application/xml
or $format with the abbreviation xml MUST receive the MIME type application/xml
for all resources.
Data modification requests for entities or collections of
entities MUST specify a Content-Type header with a
value of either application/atom+xml or application/xml. Data modification requests for all other
resources MUST specify a Content-Type header with a
value of application/xml.
Each message body MUST be represented as an XML document
with a single root element. This element is either the representation of an entity, an entity reference, a primitive value, a complex type instance, a collection of primitive values, a collection of complex values, a collection of entities, or a collection
of items that represent changes to a previous result.
Client libraries MUST retain the order of XML elements in
document order for ATOM and XML responses.
OData does not impose any ordering constraints on XML
attributes within XML elements.
4.3 Relative URLs
OData payloads MAY use relative references as defined in [RFC3986]
by specifying the xml:base attribute to define a base URL for
relative references defined within the scope of the element containing the xml:base
attribute.
If no xml:base attribute is
present in the context of a relative reference, relative URLs are relative to
the request URL. This also applies to relative URLs in the xml:base attribute.
Clients
that receive relative URLs in response payloads SHOULD use the same relative
URLs, where appropriate, in request payloads (such as bind
operations and batch requests) and in system query options (such as $id).
AtomPub defines the concept of a service document to
represent the set of available collections. OData uses the service document to
describe the entity sets, singletons, and parameterless function imports
published by the service.
Example 2:
<app:service
xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app"
xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
xml:base="http://host/service/"
metadata:context="$metadata"
metadata:metadata-etag="W/"MjAxMy0wNS0xM1QxNDo1NFo="">
<app:workspace>
<atom:title
type="text">Data</atom:title>
<app:collection
href="Orders">
<atom:title
type="text">Orders</atom:title>
</app:collection>
<app:collection
href="OrderItems">
<atom:title
type="text">Order Details</atom:title>
</app:collection>
<metadata:function-import href="TopProducts">
<atom:title>Best-Selling Products</atom:title>
</metadata:function-import>
<metadata:singleton
href="Contoso">
<atom:title>Contoso
Ltd.</atom:title>
</metadata:singleton>
<metadata:service-document href="http://host/HR/">
<atom:title>Human Resources</atom:title>
</metadata:service-document>
</app:workspace>
</app:service>
The root of a service document is a single app:service element. The app:service
element MUST contain exactly one app:workspace elements.
An app:service element MUST have
a metadata:context attribute,
defined in the OData Metadata namespace,
whose value is the URL that returns the metadata document of the service.
For more information on the format of the metadata document,
see [OData-CSDL].
An app:service element MAY have
a metadata:metadata-etag attribute to specify an
ETag that can be used to determine the current version of the service's
metadata document.
For details on how ETags are used, see [OData-Protocol].
OData represents the entity
container of a service (see [OData-CSDL])
as an app:workspace element. An app:workspace element contains zero or more app:collection
elements, one for each entity set published by the container, zero or more metadata:function-import
elements, one for each function import published by the container, zero or more
metadata:singleton
elements, one for each singleton published by the container, and zero or more metadata:service-document
elements, one for each related service document.
As defined in [RFC-5023],
the app:workspace element MUST
contain an atom:title element containing the human-readable description
of the workspace. This value may be different from the name of the entity
container.
OData represents entity sets
that are not marked with IncludeInServiceDocument="false"
(see [OData-CSDL]) as app:collection
elements contained within the app:workspace element.
Example 3:
<app:collection href="OrderItems">
<atom:title type="text">Order
Details</atom:title>
</app:collection>
The app:collection element MUST
contain an href attribute which represents a URL
that can be used to retrieve the members of the entity set.
The metadata:name attribute MUST
contain the name of the entity set.
It MAY be omitted if its value is identical the the value of
the href attribute, which is the case if the
service uses relative URLs following the OData
URL conventions described in [OData-URL].
As defined in [RFC-5023],
the app:collection
element MUST contain an atom:title element. The atom:title
element SHOULD contain a human-readable description of the entity set which MAY
be the name of the entity set.
5.4 Element metadata:function-import
OData represents function imports that are marked with IncludeInServiceDocument="true" (see [OData-CSDL]) as metadata:function-import
elements contained within the app:workspace element.
The metadata:function-import
element MUST contain an href attribute which
represents a URL that can be used to retrieve the function import result.
The metadata:name attribute MUST
contain the name of the function import.
It MAY be omitted if its value is identical the the value of
the href attribute, which is the case if the
service uses relative URLs following the OData
URL conventions described in [OData-URL].
The metadata:function-import element MUST contain an atom:title
element. The atom:title element SHOULD contain a
human-readable description of the function import which MAY be the name of the function
import.
5.5 Element metadata:singleton
OData represents singletons as metadata:singleton elements contained within
the app:workspace
element.
The metadata:singleton element MUST contain an href attribute which represents a URL that can be used to
retrieve the singleton.
If the href attribute
of a metadata:singleton
element contains a relative URL that follows the
conventions described in [OData-URL], the metadata:name
attribute can be ommited. Otherwise the metadata:name
attribute MUST be specified and MUST contain the name of the singleton.
The metadata:singleton element MUST contain an atom:title
element. The atom:title element SHOULD contain a
human-readable description of the singleton which MAY be the name of the singleton.
5.6 Element
metadata:service-document
OData represents related
service documents as metadata:service-document
elements contained within the app:workspace element.
Example 4:
<metadata:service-document
href="http://host/HR/">
<atom:title>Human Resources</atom:title>
</metadata:service-document>
The metadata:service-document
element MUST contain an href attribute which
represents a URL that can be used to retrieve the related service document.
The metadata:service-document
element MUST contain an atom:title element. The atom:title element SHOULD contain a human-readable
description of the related service document.
Entities, whether individual or within an Atom feed, are
represented as atom:entry
elements.
Example 5:
<entry
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
xmlns:data="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/data"
xml:base="http://host/service/"
metadata:context="$metadata#Customers/$entity"
metadata:metadata-etag="W/"MjAxMy0wNS0xM1QxNDo1NFo="">
<id>http://host/service/$metadata#Customers('ALFKI')</id>
<title />
<summary />
<updated>2012-03-30T07:11:05Z</updated>
<author>
<name />
</author>
<link rel="edit" title="Customer" href="Customers('ALFKI')"
/>
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Orders"
type="application/atom+xml;type=feed"
title="Orders" href="Customers('ALFKI')/Orders" />
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Supplier"
type="application/atom+xml;type=entry"
title="Supplier" href="Customers('ALFKI')/Supplier" />
<category term="#ODataDemo.Customer"
scheme="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/scheme" />
<content type="application/xml">
<metadata:properties>
<data:ID>ALFKI</data:ID>
<data:CompanyName>Alfreds Futterkiste</data:CompanyName>
<data:ContactName>Maria Anders</data:ContactName>
<data:ContactTitle>Sales Representative</data:ContactTitle>
<data:Phone>030-0074321</data:Phone>
<data:Fax>030-0076545</data:Fax>
<data:Address>
<data:Street>Obere Str. 57</data:Street>
<data:City>Berlin</data:City>
<data:Region metadata:null="true" />
<data:PostalCode>D-12209</data:PostalCode>
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Country"
type="application/atom+xml;type=entry"
title="Country of residence"
href="Customers('ALFKI')/Address/Country" />
</data:Address>
</metadata:properties>
</content>
</entry>
This section defines the elements and attributes within an atom:entry element that are assigned meaning in OData.
6.1 Element atom:entry
An atom:entry
element is used to represent a single OData entity, which is an instance of a
structured type with an identity.
The atom:entry element MAY
contain a metadata:etag attribute, representing an
opaque string value that can be used in a subsequent request to determine if
the value of the entity has changed. For details on how ETags are used, see to [OData-Protocol].
6.1.2 Attribute metadata:context
If the root of the response is an atom:entry
element, or the entity set cannot be determined from the context URL
of the feed, the atom:entry
element MUST have a metadata:context
attribute, defined in the OData Metadata
namespace, whose value is the context URL that describes the entity
represented by the atom:entry.
For more information on the context URL, see [OData-Protocol].
If the root of the response is an atom:entry element, it MAY have a metadata:metadata-etag
attribute to specify an ETag that can be used to determine the current version
of the service's metadata document.
For details on how ETags are used, see [OData-Protocol].
6.2 Element atom:id
The atom:id element MUST contain
the entity-id; see [OData-Protocol]. By convention
the entity-id is identical to the canonical URL of the entity, as defined in [OData-URL].
If the entity is transient (i.e. cannot be read or updated),
the atom:id SHOULD follow the pattern odata:transient:{some-generated-unique-identifier-to-not-break-atom-parsers}.
Clients MAY assume that an entity with an atom:id that matches the transient pattern cannot be
compared to other entities, reread, or updated.
An OData entry MUST contain a single atom:category
element with a scheme attribute equal to
http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/scheme
to identify the entity type of the entry.
An atom:category element
describing an OData entity type MUST have a term
attribute whose value is a URI indicating the type of the entity. The URI may
be an absolute or relative URL containing the
namespace-qualified or alias-qualified type name as a fragment, or may simply
contain the qualified type name prefixed with hash (#).
In the latter case, the type MUST be defined or referenced in the metadata
document defined by the current context URL.
Example 6: entity of type Model.VipCustomer
defined in the metadata document of the same service
<category rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/scheme"
term="#Model.VipCustomer"/>
Example 7: entity of type Model.VipCustomer defined in
the metadata document of a
different service
<category
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/scheme"
term="http://host/alternate/$metadata#Model.VipCustomer"/>
For more information on namespace-qualified and
alias-qualified names, see [OData-CSDL].
The entry MAY contain additional atom:category
elements with different scheme values; such atom:category
elements have no semantic meaning in OData.
Atom defines two types of links within an entry that
represent retrieve or update/delete operations on the entry:
·
atom:link elements with a rel attribute of self can
be used to retrieve the entity (via the URL specified in the href attribute).
·
atom:link elements with a rel attribute of edit can
be used to retrieve, update, or delete the entity (via the URL specified in the
href attribute).
An atom:entry element representing an OData entity MUST
contain an edit link if and only if the entity is updatable. It MUST contain a
self link if and only if the entity is read-only or the read link is different
from the edit link. Transient entities contain neither a self link nor an edit
link.
Clients MAY use the edit link to retrieve the entity if no
self link is present. They SHOULD NOT attempt to update an entity that does not
contain an edit link.
The atom:content element contains
the properties of the entity as a metadata:properties element unless
the entity is a media entity.
7.1
Primitive Value
OData Atom and XML payloads represent values of primitive
types following the rules of [OData-ABNF].
Geography and Geometry values are represented as defined in [GML].
Strings are represented according to the XML escaping rules
for character data.
Values of the other primitive types are represented
according to the appropriate alternative in the primitiveValue
rule of [OData-ABNF], i.e. Edm.Binary
as binaryValue, Edm.Boolean
as booleanValue etc.
Example 8:
<metadata:properties>
<data:NullValue metadata:null="true"/>
<data:TrueValue metadata:type="Boolean">true</data:TrueValue>
<data:FalseValue metadata:type="Boolean">false</data:FalseValue>
<data:BinaryValue metadata:type="Binary">T0RhdGE</data:BinaryValue
<data:IntegerValue metadata:type="SByte">-128</data:IntegerValue>
<data:DoubleValue metadata:type="Double"
>3.1415926535897931</data:DoubleValue>
<data:SingleValue
metadata:type="Single">INF</data:SingleValue>
<data:DecimalValue
metadata:type="Decimal">34.95</data:DecimalValue>
<data:StringValue>Say
"Hello",
then go!</data:StringValue>
<data:DateValue
metadata:type="Date">2012-12-03</data:DateValue>
<data:DateTimeOffsetValue
metadata:type="DateTimeOffset"
>2012-12-03T07:16:23Z</data:DateTimeOffsetValue>
<data:DurationValue
metadata:type="Duration"
>P12DT23H59M59.999999999999S</data:DurationValue>
<data:TimeOfDayValue
metadata:type="TimeOfDay"
>07:59:59.999</data:TimeOfDayValue>
<data:GuidValue
metadata:type="Guid"
>01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789abcdef</data:GuidValue>
<data:Int64Value
metadata:type="Int64">0</data:Int64Value>
<data:ColorEnumValue metadata:type="#org.example.Pattern"
>Yellow</data:ColorEnumValue>
<data:GeographyPoint
metadata:type="GeographyPoint">
<gml:Point>
<gml:pos>64.1 142.1</gml:pos>
</gml:Point>
</data:GeographyPoint>
</metadata:properties>
Note that the line break in the body of StringValue is intentional, it represents a line break.
The metadata:properties element
represents property values for an entity.
7.3 Element
data:[PropertyName]
Within the metadata:properties
element, individual entity properties are represented as elements where the
name of the element is the name of the entity property within the OData Data Namespace.
The data:[PropertyName] element
MUST include a metadata:type attribute to specify the type of a
primitive property whose type is not Edm.String or
the type of a complex property whose type is derived from the type specified in
the metadata document.
Example 9:
<data:Rating
metadata:type="Int32">4</data:Rating>
The data:[PropertyName] element
MUST be empty and MUST include a metadata:null attribute if the
primitive- or complex-typed instance has the null
value.
Example 10:
<data:Rating
metadata:null="true"/>
7.3.1 Attribute
metadata:type
If the type of the property is anything other than Edm.String, the property representation MUST contain a metadata:type attribute to specify the URI that
identifies the type of the property.
For built-in primitive types the value is the unqualified
name of the primitive type.
For non-built in primitive types, the URI may be an absolute
or relative URL containing the
namespace-qualified or alias-qualified type name as a fragment, or may simply
contain the qualified type name prefixed with hash (#).
In the latter case, the type MUST be defined or referenced in the metadata
document defined by the current context URL. For properties that represent a
collection of values, the fragment is the namespace-qualified or
alias-qualified type name prefixed with Collection
and enclosed in parentheses.
Example 11:
<data:Age
metadata:type="Int32">25</data:Age>
7.3.2 Attribute metadata:null
Null-valued properties are represented as empty elements
with the metadata:null="true" attribute.
The metadata:null attribute
distinguishes null values from other empty content (such as an empty string).
Example 12:
<data:Apartment
metadata:null="true"/>
The absence of the metadata:null
attribute is equivalent to specifying metadata:null="false".
7.4 Primitive
and Enumeration Property
For primitive properties, the content of the data:[PropertyName]
element represents the value of the property following the syntax for primitive values.
Example 13: string value
<data:Title>CEO</data:Title>
Example 14: enumeration value
<data:Pattern
metadata:type="#org.example.Pattern">Solid,Yellow</data:Pattern>
7.5 Complex Property
For complex properties, the content of the data:[PropertyName]
element consists of nested data:[PropertyName]
elements describing the properties of the complex type.
Example 15:
<data:ShipTo
metadata:type="#Model.Address">
<data:Street>Obere Str. 57</data:Street>
<data:City>Berlin</data:City>
<data:Region metadata:null="true"/>
<data:PostalCode>D-12209</data:PostalCode>
</data:ShipTo>
7.6 Primitive
and Enumeration Property Collection
For properties that represent a collection of primitive or
enumeration values, the URI fragment specified in the metadata:type
attribute is the namespace-qualified or alias-qualified element type prefixed with
Collection and enclosed in parenthesis.
Each item in the collection is represented as a metadata:element element in the OData Metadata namespace.
The value of each metadata:element
in the collection follows the syntax for primitive values.
An empty metadata:element
element with the metadata:null="true"
attribute value represents a null value within the collection.
Example 16:
<data:EmailAddresses
metadata:type="#Collection(String)">
<metadata:element>Julie@Swansworth.com</metadata:element>
<metadata:element>Julie.Swansworth@work.com</metadata:element>
</data:EmailAddresses>
7.7 Complex
Property Collection
For properties that represent a collection of complex types,
the URI fragment specified in the metadata:type attribute is the
namespace-qualified or alias-qualified element type prefixed with "Collection" and enclosed in parenthesis..
Each item in the collection is represented as a metadata:element element in the OData Metadata namespace.
The value of each complex-typed metadata:element
follows the syntax for complex-typed properties.
An empty metadata:element
element with the metadata:null="true"
attribute value represents a null value within the collection.
A metadata:element element MAY
include a metadata:type
attribute to specify the complex type of the represented instance. It MUST
include a metadata:type attribute if the instance
is of a type derived from the declared type of the property.
Example 17:
<data:PhoneNumbers
metadata:type="#Collection(Model.PhoneNumber)">
<metadata:element>
<data:Number>425-555-1212</data:Number>
<data:Type>Home</data:Type>
</metadata:element>
<metadata:element
metadata:type="#Model.CellPhoneNumber">
<data:Number>425-555-0178</data:Number>
<data:Type>Cell</data:Type>
<data:Carrier>Sprint</data:Carrier>
</metadata:element>
</data:PhoneNumbers>
A navigation property is a
reference to zero or more related entities. It is represented as a navigation
link that MAY be immediately preceded by an association link.
8.1 Navigation Link
The navigation link is a URL that allows retrieving the
related entity or collection of entities. It is represented as an atom:link element.
Example 18: products related to
a category
<atom:link
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Products"
href="Categories(0)/Products"
type="application/atom+xml;type=feed"
title="Products"
/>
The related data for the relationship MAY be included in the
entity using a single child metadata:inline element.
8.1.1 Element atom:link
In the case where the atom:link element
describes a navigation link the attributes rel, href, type, metadata:context, and title
MUST be used as described in the following subsections.
The rel attribute MUST be
present and MUST contain the string
http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/
followed by the name of the navigation property on the
entity.
Note that the full name must be used; the use of relative
URLs in the rel attribute is not allowed.
The href attribute MUST be
present and specifies the URL that can be used to retrieve the related
entities. This URL may be relative or absolute.
For navigation properties declared by an entity type the URL
should be the canonical URL for the navigation property, i.e. the canonical URL
of the source entity followed by a forward slash and the name of the navigation
property, see Example 18.
For navigation properties declared by a complex type that is
used as a single value in an entity type, the URL should be the canonical URL
of the source entity, followed by a forward slash and the path to the
navigation property, see second atom:link in Example 5.
For navigation properties declared by a complex type that is
used in a collection of complex type values, the URL should be the canonical
URL of the target entity.
Example 19: country related to an address within a
collection
<data:Addresses
metadata:type="#Collection(Model.Address)">
...
<metadata:element>
...
<atom:link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Country"
href="Countries('DE')"
type="application/atom+xml;type=entry"
title="Country" />
</metadata:element>
...
</data:Addresses>
The type attribute MUST be
present and determines whether the cardinality of the related end is a single
entity or a collection of entities. The value "application/atom+xml;type=entry"
represents a single entity and the value "application/atom+xml;type=feed"
an collection of entities.
The metadata:context attribute
MUST be present if the navigation property is not defined in metadata. The
value of the metadata:context attribute, defined in
the OData Metadata namespace, specifies
the context URL that describes the type of the related entity or entities.
For details on the context URL, see [OData-Protocol].
The title attribute SHOULD be
present and equal to the name of the navigation property, and provides
human-readable, possibly language-dependent, and not necessarily unique
information about the link.
8.2 Association Link
The association link is a URL that allows retrieving the
reference or collection of references to the related entity or entities. It is
represented as an atom:link element. If the URL
follows conventions, i.e. is the navigation link with /$ref
appended, the association link MAY be omitted.
Example 20: products related to a category
<atom:link
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/relatedlinks/Products"
href="Categories(0)/Products/$ref"
type="application/xml"
title="Products"
/>
A collection of relationship links is represented by an atom:link element. The attributes rel,
href, type, and title MUST be used as described in the following subsections.
The rel
attribute MUST be present. The value MUST contain the string
http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/relatedlinks/
followed by the name of the
navigation property of the entity.
Note that the full name must be used; the use of relative
URLs in the rel attribute is not allowed.
The href attribute MUST be
present and MUST specify the URL that represents the collection of relationship
links. This URL may be relative or absolute.
The type attribute MUST be
present with the string "application/xml"
as value.
The title attribute SHOULD be
present and be set to the name of the navigation property. The title attribute provides human-readable, possibly
language-dependent, and not necessarily unique information about the link.
8.3 Expanded Navigation Property
An expanded navigation property MUST be represented as a
single metadata:inline child element of the atom:link element representing the navigation link. The value of the metadata:inline element MUST be the correct
representation of the related entity or collection of entities.
It is valid to include the metadata:inline
element in only a subset of the entries within a feed.
If at most one entity can be related, the value is the
representation of the related entity, or the metadata:inline
element is empty if no entity is currently related.
If a collection of entities can be related, it MUST be
represented as an atom:feed.
An empty collection of entities (one that contains no entity type instances)
MUST be represented as an empty atom:feed.
Each entity MUST be represented as an atom:entry element or as an entity reference.
Example 21:
<atom:link
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Products"
href="Categories(0)/Products"
type="application/atom+xml;type=feed"
title="Products"
>
<metadata:inline>
<atom:feed>
...
</atom:feed>
</metadata:inline>
</atom:link>
When inserting a new entity with a POST
request, related new entities MAY be specified using the same representation as
for an expanded navigation property.
Deep inserts are not allowed in update operations using PUT or PATCH requests.
Example 22: inserting a new order for a new customer with
order items related to existing products
<entry ...>
...
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Customer"
type="application/atom+xml;type=entry"
title="Customer" href="Orders(11643)/Customer">
<metadata:inline>
<entry>
...
<content type="application/xml">
<metadata:properties>
<data:ID>ANEWONE</data:ID>
...
</metadata:properties>
</content>
</entry>
</metadata:inline>
</link>
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Items"
type="application/atom+xml;type=feed"
title="Details" href="Orders(11643)/Items">
<metadata:inline>
<feed>
<entry>
...
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Product"
href="http://host/service/Products(28)"
type="application/atom+xml;type=entry"
title="Product"/>
<content type="application/xml">
<metadata:properties>
...
</metadata:properties>
</content>
</entry>
...
<entry>
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Product"
href="http://host/service/Products(29)"
type="application/atom+xml;type=entry"
title="Product"/>
<content
type="application/xml">
<metadata:properties>
...
</metadata:properties>
</content>
</entry>
...
</feed>
</metadata:inline>
</link>
<content type="application/xml">
<metadata:properties>
<data:ID
metadata:type="Int32">11643</data:ID>
...
</metadata:properties>
</content>
</entry>
8.5 Bind Operation
When inserting or updating an
entity, relationships of navigation properties MAY be inserted or updated via
bind operations.
If at most one entity can be related, the bind operation
MUST be represented as a navigation link whose href
attribute MUST contain the id of the entity to
be related.
For update operations a bind operation on a collection
navigation property MUST be represented as a navigation link with an inlined
collection of entity references. The referenced entities are added as
additional related entities, and existing relationships are not updated or
deleted.
For insert operations collection navigation property bind
operations and deep insert operations MAY be combined by inlining an atom:feed
that contains atom:entry
elements and metadata:ref
elements.
Example 23: assign a product to an existing category
<atom:link
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Category"
href="http://host/service/Categories(6)"
type="application/atom+xml;type=entry"
title="Category"
/>
An entity or complex type instance MAY have one or more
stream properties (for example, a photo property of an employee entity).
Properties that represent streams have a type of Edm.Stream.
OData uses the atom:link element
to represent a stream property.
Example 24: read link of stream property Thumbnail
<atom:link
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/mediaresource/Thumbnail"
type="image/jpeg" title="Photo"
href="Products(0)/Thumbnail"
/>
Example 25: edit link of stream property Thumbnail
<atom:link
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/edit-media/Thumbnail"
type="image/jpeg" title="Photo"
href="Products(0)/Thumbnail"
/>
The attributes rel, href,
type, metadata:etag,
and title are to be used as described in the
following subsections.
The rel attribute MUST be
present and MUST be made up of the string http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/mediaresource/,
followed by the name of the stream property on the entity.
The rel attribute for an atom:link
element that can be used to change a stream property value is made up of the
string http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/edit-media/,
followed by the name of the stream property on the entity.
In both cases the full name must be used; the use of
relative URLs in the rel attribute is not allowed.
The href attribute MUST be
present and MUST contain the URL that can be used to read, or write, the
stream, according to the rel attribute. This URL
may be relative or absolute.
The type attribute MAY be
present and specifies the MIME-type of the stream.
The metadata:etag attribute MAY
be present and specifies an etag value that can be used in an if-match header to conditionally write
to the stream property as described in [OData-Protocol].
The title attribute MAY be
present and provides human-readable, possibly language-dependent, and not
necessarily unique information about the link.
Media entities (in AtomPub: media link entries, see [RFC5023]) are entities that describe and link to a media
resource.
Example 26:
<entry
...>
<id>http://host/service/Employees(6)</id>
...
<link rel="edit-media" title="Employee"
href="Employees(6)/$value"/>
<content type="image/jpeg"
src="Employees(6)/$value"/>
<metadata:properties>
<data:ID metadata:type="Int32">6</data:ID>
...
</metadata:properties>
</entry>
A media entity MAY contain an atom:link
element with a rel attribute of "edit-media" to specify a URL that can be used to
write to the BLOB associated with the entity. The attributes rel and href MUST be used as
described in the following subsections.
The rel attribute MUST be
present and MUST have the string “edit-media” as
value.
The href MUST be present and its
value MUST specify the URL that can be used to write the stream. This URL may
be relative or absolute.
For media entities the atom:content
element MUST be empty. Properties of the media entity are represented by the metadata:properties
element as a sibling to, rather than a child of, the atom:content
element.
The atom:content element MUST
contain a src attribute and the value of the src attribute MUST be a URL that can be used to retrieve
the content of the media resource.
The atom:content element MUST
specify a type attribute that SHOULD contain the
MIME type of the media resource.
A valid OData payload may consist of a single primitive or complex
value, or of a collection of these.
A single-valued property that has the null
value does not have a representation, see [OData-Protocol].
11.1 Single Scalar
Value
Example 27: string value
<value
xmlns="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
context="http://host/service/$metadata#Edm.String">CEO</value>
Example 28: primitive null
value:
<metadata:value
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
metadata:context="http://host/service/$metadata#Edm.Date"
metadata:null="true" />
Example 29: complex value
<metadata:value
metadata:type="#Model.Address"
metadata:context="http://host/service/$metadata#Model.Address"
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
xmlns="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/data">
<Street>Obere Str. 57</Street>
<City>Berlin</City>
<Region metadata:null="true"/>
<PostalCode>D-12209</PostalCode>
</metadata:value>
11.1.1 Element metadata:value
Single scalar values are represented as a metadata:value root element that contains the
representation of the scalar value. The attributes metadata:type
and metadata:null MUST be used as described in the
following subsections.
The metadata:value
element MUST have a metadata:context
attribute, defined in the OData Metadata
namespace, whose value is the context URL that describes the element.
For more information on the context URL, see [OData-Protocol].
The metadata:value
element MAY have a metadata:metadata-etag attribute
to specify an ETag for the service's metadata document. It can be used to
determine whether the client's cached copy of the metadata document is outdated.
For details on how ETags are used, see [OData-Protocol].
If the type of the scalar value being specified is anything
other than Edm.String the metadata:type
attribute MUST be present and specify the namespace - or alias - qualified type
of the value.
The metadata:null attribute distinguishes null values from
other empty content (such as an empty string).
Null-values are represented as an empty metadata:value element with a metadata:null="true"
attribute.
11.2 Collection of
Scalar Values
A valid OData payload MAY consist of a collection of
primitive or complex properties.
Example 30: collection of strings
<metadata:value
metadata:context="http://host/service/$metadata#Collection(Edm.String)"
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
>
<metadata:element>(203)555-1718</metadata:element>
<metadata:element>(203)555-1719</metadata:element>
</metadata:value>
Example 31: collection of complex values
<metadata:value
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
metadata:context="http://host/service/$metadata#Collection(Model.BaseAddress)"
xmlns="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/data"
>
<metadata:element>
<Street>Obere Str. 57</Street>
<City>Berlin</City>
<PostalCode>D-12209</PostalCode>
</metadata:element>
<metadata:element metadata:type="#Model.Address">
<Street>12345 Grant Street</Street>
<City>Taft</City>
<Region>Ohio</Region>
<PostalCode>OH 98052</PostalCode>
</metadata:element>
</metadata:value>
A collection of scalar values is represented as a metadata:value root element that contains a metadata:element child element for each item of the
collection whose content is an individual primitive or complex value as defined
above.
The metadata:value element MUST
NOT contain a metadata:null attribute. The
attribute metadata:type MUST be used as described
in the following subsection.
The metadata:value
element MUST have a metadata:context
attribute, defined in the OData Metadata
namespace, whose value is the context URL that describes the element.
For more information on the context URL, see [OData-Protocol].
The metadata:value element MAY have a metadata:metadata-etag
attribute to specify an ETag for the service's metadata document. It can be
used to determine whether the client's cached copy of the metadata document is
outdated.
For details on how ETags are used, see [OData-Protocol].
The attribute metadata:type MUST
be present and specify the collection type according to the rules described in
section 7.3.1.
For collections of complex scalar values this attribute
specifies a collection type for the base type of the collection. Individual
elements of a derived type MUST specify their derived type with a metadata:type attribute on the metadata:element
element.
11.3 Element atom:link
The metadata:value
element MAY contain a next link to indicate the presence of additional
items that belong to the collection.
A next link is represented as an atom:link
with a rel="next" attribute and an href attribute containing a URL that can be used to
retrieve the next set of results.
Example 33: next link
<atom:link
rel="next"
href="http://host/service/Suppliers('S01')/Addresses?$skiptoken=1237"/>
The contents of the href
attribute SHOULD be treated as an opaque URL that can be used to fetch the next
set of results and should not be modified other than resolving a relative URL.
Collections of entities are represented in Atom as an atom:feed
element.
12.1 Element atom:feed
Collections of entities are represented using an atom:feed Element, where each entity is represented as an
atom:entry
or metadata:ref element.
12.1.1 Attribute metadata:context
If the root of the response is an atom:feed element, it MUST have a metadata:context attribute, defined in the OData Metadata namespace, whose value is the
context URL that describes the entity set represented by the feed.
For more information on the context URL, see [OData-Protocol].
The metadata:metadata-etag attribute
MAY appear in an atom:feed in
order to specify an ETag that can be used to determine the current version of
the service's metadata document.
For details on how ETags are used, see [OData-Protocol].
The atom:id element MUST
uniquely identify the collection from which the feed was generated.
12.3 Element metadata:count
The atom:feed element MAY
contain a metadata:count element to specify the
total count of entities in the result to the request. This MAY be greater than
the number of entries in the feed, if server-side paging has been applied, in
which case the feed MUST include a next results link.
Example 32:
<feed
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
metadata:context="http://host/service/$metadata#Customers" >
<metadata:count>42</metadata:count>
...
<atom:link rel="next"
href="http://host/service/Customers?$skiptoken=1237"/>
</feed>
The atom:feed element MAY contain a self link to allow
reread the feed.
The atom:feed
element MAY contain a next link to indicate the presence of additional
entities that belong to the collection.
The atom:feed element
representing the final page of results MAY contain a delta link that can
be used to fetch subsequent changes (deltas) to the result.
All three cases are distinguished from another by the value
of the rel attribute as described in the following subsection.
In a valid OData Atom
response Payload the atom:link element representing a next link or a delta
link MAY be positioned after the last atom:entry or metadata:ref element.
This defines an exception to the Atom Specification [RFC4287].
A self link is represented as an atom:link
with a rel="self" attribute. The href attribute MUST contain the request URL that produced
this collection.
A next link is represented as an atom:link with a rel="next"
attribute and an href attribute containing a URL
that can be used to retrieve the next set of results.
Example 33: next link
<atom:link
rel="next"
href="http://host/service/Customers?$skiptoken=1237"/>
The contents of the href
attribute SHOULD be treated as an opaque URL that can be used to fetch the next
set of results.
A delta link is represented as
an atom:link element with a rel
attribute of " http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/delta"
and an href attribute containing a URL that can be
used to retrieve subsequent changes.
Example 34: delta link
<atom:link
rel=" http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/delta"
href="http://host/service/Customers?$deltatoken=1234"/>
The contents of the href should
be treated as an opaque URL that can be used to fetch subsequent changes.
The delta link MUST only appear on the last page of results.
A page of results MUST NOT have both a delta link and a next link.
An entity reference (see [OData-Protocol])
MAY take the place of an entity in an Atom payload,
based on the client request. The id may be absolute or relative.
Example 35: entity reference to order 10643
<metadata:ref
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
metadata:context="http://host/service/$metadata#$ref"
id="http://host/service/Orders(10643)" />
Example 36: collection of entity references
<feed
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
metadata:context="http://host/service/$metadata#Collection($ref)"
>
<metadata:ref id="http://host/service/Orders(10643)" />
<metadata:ref id="http://host/service/Orders(10759)" />
</feed>
13.1 Element metadata:ref
A reference to an entity or one of its properties is
represented in Atom using a metadata:ref
element.
If the metadata:ref
element is the root element of a response, it MUST have a metadata:context attribute, defined in
the OData Metadata namespace, whose value
is the context URL that describes the reference. If it is part of an Atom feed,
the attribute is optional.
For more information on the context URL, see [OData-Protocol].
The id
attribute MUST be present. For entities the id
attribute MUST be the atom:id of the referenced entity. It may be relative or absolute.
The non-format specific aspects of the delta handling are
described in the section “Requesting Changes” in [OData-Protocol].
Responses from a delta request are returned as an atom:feed.
The feed MUST contain all added, changed, or deleted entities, as well as added or deleted links
between entities, and MAY contain additional, unchanged entities.
All added, changed, or deleted entities and links, including
related entities, are returned as direct children of the atom:feed
element.
Entities that are not part of the entity set specified by
the metadata:context attribute in the atom:feed element MUST include a metadata:context attribute in the atom:entry element to specify the
entity set of the related entity.
If the delta response contains a partial list of changes, it
MUST include a next link for the client to retrieve the
next set of changes.
The last page of a delta response SHOULD contain a delta link for retrieving subsequent changes once
the current set of changes has been applied to the initial set.
If the response from the delta link contains a metadata:count element, the
returned number MUST include all added, changed, or deleted entities, as well
as added or deleted links.
Example 37: delta response with five changes, in order of
occurrence
·
ContactName for customer 'BOTTM' was changed to "Susan
Halvenstern"
·
Order 10643 was removed from customer 'ALFKI'
·
Order 10645 was added to customer
'BOTTM'
·
The shipping information for order 10643 was updated
·
Customer 'ANTON' was deleted
<feed
xml:base="http://host/service/"
xmlns:data="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/data"
xmlns:metadata="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:at="http://purl.org/atompub/tombstones/1.0"
metadata:context="$metadata#Customers/$delta">
<title
type="text">Customers</title>
<id>http://host/service/Customers</id>
<updated>2012-11-27T15:38:25Z</updated>
<metadata:count>5</metadata:count>
<entry>
<id>http://host/service/Customers('BOTTM')</id>
<title
type="text" />
<updated>2012-11-17T15:38:22Z</updated>
<author><name
/></author>
<link
rel="edit" title="Customer" href="Customers('BOTTM')"/>
<category
term="#Model.Customer"
scheme="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/scheme"/>
<content
type="application/xml">
<metadata:properties>
<data:ContactName>Susan Halvenstern</data:ContactName>
</metadata:properties>
</content>
</entry>
<metadata:deleted-link
metadata:context="$metadata#Customers/$deleted-link"
source="http://host/service/Customers('ALFKI')"
relationship="Orders"
target="http://host/service/Orders(10643)"/>
<metadata:link
metadata:context="$metadata#Customers/$link"
source="http://host/service/Customers('BOTTM')"
relationship="Orders"
target="http://host/service/Orders(10645)"/>
<entry
metadata:context="$metadata#Orders/$entity">
<id>http://host/service/Orders(10643)</id>
<title type="text" />
<updated>2012-11-27T15:38:24Z</updated>
<author><name/></author>
<link rel="edit" title="Order"
href="Orders(10643)" />
<category term="#Model.Order"
scheme="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/scheme" />
<content type="application/xml">
<metadata:properties>
<data:ShippingAddress>
<data:Street>23
Tsawassen Blvd.</data:Street>
<data:City>Tsawassen</data:City>
<data:Region>BC</data:Region>
<data:PostalCode>T2F 8M4</data:PostalCode>
</data:ShippingAddress>
</metadata:properties>
</content>
</entry>
<at:deleted-entry
metadata:context="$metadata#Customers/$deleted-entry"
ref="http://host/service/Customers('ANTON')"
when="2012-11-27T15:38:25Z"
metadata:reason="deleted"/>
<link
rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/delta"
href="http://host/service/Customers?$expand=Orders&$deltatoken=8015"/>
</feed>
14.1 Added/Changed
Entity
Added or changed entities within a delta response are
represented as atom:entry
elements.
Added or changed entities MUST NOT include inline content.
Added entities MUST include all selected properties and MAY
include additional, unselected properties. Collection-valued properties are
treated as atomic values; any collection-valued properties returned from a
delta request MUST contain all current values for that collection.
Added entities MUST include navigation
links.
Changed entities MUST include all selected properties that
have changed and MAY include additional properties.
Entities whose set cannot be determined from the context URL
of the feed MUST include the metadata:context attribute in the atom:entry
element to specify the set that the entity belongs to.
14.2 Deleted
Entity
A deleted entity within a delta response is represented as
an atom-tombstone:deleted-entry
element, defined within the Atom Tombstone
namespace, as defined in [RFC6721].
The ref and a
when attribute MUST be present,
the metadata:reason attribute MAY be present. All
attributes have to be used as described in the following subsection.
As defined in [RFC6721], the ref attribute MUST be present. The value of the ref attribute MUST specify the atom:id
of the deleted entry. It may be relative or
absolute.
As defined in [RFC6721], the when attribute MUST be present to
specify the time at which the entity was deleted. This attribute is not used in
OData and MAY be set to the time the delta response was generated if the
service does not track when deletions occur. OData clients MUST NOT assume any
semantics around this value.
The metadata:reason
attribute MAY be present. The value of the metadata:reason
attribute MUST specify the string value "deleted",
if the entity was deleted (destroyed), or "changed"
if the entity was removed from membership in the result (i.e., due to a data
change).
14.3 Added Link
14.3.1 Element metadata:link
A link within a delta response is represented by a metadata:link element.
A delta response MUST contain a metadata:link for each added link that corresponds to a $expand path in the initial request.
The source, relationship, and target attribute MUST be present. All
attributes have to be used as described in the following subsection.
The source
attribute MUST be present and specify the atom:id of the entity from which
the link originates. It may be relative or
absolute.
The relationship
MUST be present and specify the name of the navigation property on the source entity for which the link
exists.
The target
attribute MUST be present and specify the atom:id of the related entity. It may
be relative or absolute.
14.4
Deleted Link
14.4.1 Element metadata:deleted-link
A deleted link within a delta response is represented as a metadata:deleted-link element.
Delta responses MUST contain a metadata:deleted-link for each deleted link that corresponds
to a $expand path in the initial
request, unless either of the following is true:
·
The
source or target
entity has been deleted.
·
The
maximum cardinality of the related entity is one and there is a subsequent metadata:link that
specifies the same source and relationship.
The service MAY return a metadata:deleted-link
where one of the entities has also been deleted, or where there is a subsequent
metadata:link with the same source and relationship
and a maximum cardinality of one for the related end.
The source, relationship and target attribute MUST be present. All
attributes have to be used as described in the following subsection.
The source
attribute MUST be present and specify the atom:id of the entity from which
the link originates. It may be relative or
absolute.
The relationship
attribute MUST be present and specify the name of the navigation property on
the source entity for which the
link is deleted.
The target
attribute MUST be present and specify the atom:id of the related entity. It
may be relative or absolute.
Zero or more functions MAY be bound to a collection of
entities or an entity.
The functions associated with a particular collection of
entities or an entity MAY be described using metadata:function
elements that are direct children of the feed or entry to which the functions
can be bound.
Example 38: a function bound to an entry:
<atom:entry>
...
<metadata:function
metadata="#Model.RemainingVacation"
target="http://host/service/Employees(2)/RemainingVacation"
title="Remaining Vacation"
/>
...
</atom:entry>
Example 39: a function bound to a feed:
<atom:feed>
...
<metadata:function
metadata="#Model.RemainingVacation"
target="http://host/service/Managers(22)/Employees/RemainingVacation"
title="Remaining Vacation"
/>
...
</atom:feed>}
15.1 Element metadata:function
Each function is represented as a metadata:function
element that MUST be a child of the atom:feed or atom:entry
element representing the collection of entities or the entity on which the
function exists.
The metadata attribute MUST be
present and specify the namespace-qualified or alias-qualified name of the
function, preceded by a #.
A function may have multiple overloads with different
parameters. If function overloads exist that cannot be bound to the current
entity type, the metadata attribute SHOULD address
a specific function overload by appending the parentheses-enclosed,
comma-separated list of non-binding parameter names, see rule qualifiedFunctionName in Error! Reference source not
found.. If the URL in the target attribute of the metadata:function element cannot be used to invoke all
overloads for the function, then it MUST further be distinguished by appending
the parentheses-enclosed, comma-separated list of non-binding parameter names.
Example 40:
<metadata:function
metadata="#Model.RemainingVacation(Year)"
target="http://host/service/Employees(2)/RemainingVacation(Year=@Year)"
title="Remaining vacation from year..."
/>
15.1.2 Attribute target
The target
attribute MUST be present and specify the URL to GET from in order to invoke
the function.
The first parameter of the function MUST be a binding
parameter that is bound to the feed or entity on which the function is
specified, and MUST NOT be provided as a separate parameter by the client when
invoking the function.
The title attribute MUST be
present and contain a human-readable, possibly language-dependent, and not
necessarily unique name for the function, commonly used by clients to describe
the function to a user.
Zero or more actions MAY be bound to a collection of
entities or an entity.
The actions associated with a particular collection of
entities or an entity MAY be described using metadata:action
elements that are direct children of the feed or entry to which the actions can
be bound.
Example 41: action bound to an entity
<atom:entry>
...
<metadata:action
metadata="#Model.Approval"
target="http://host/service/LeaveRequests(2)/Approval"
title="Approve
Leave Request"
/>
...
</atom:entry>
Example 42: action bound to a feed
<atom:feed>
...
<metadata:action
metadata="#Model.Approval"
target="http://host/service/Managers(22)/Inbox/Approval"
title="Approve All Leave Requests"
/>
...
</atom:feed>
16.1 Element metadata:action
Each action is represented as a metadata:action
element that MUST be a direct child of the atom:feed or atom:entry
element representing the the collection of entities or the entity on which the
action exists.
The metadata attribute MUST be
present and specify the namespace-qualified or alias-qualified name of the
action element describing the action, preceded by a #.
The target attribute MUST be
present and specify the URL to POST to in order to invoke the action.
The first parameter of the action MUST be a binding
parameter that is bound to the feed or entity on which the action is specified,
and MUST NOT be provided as a separate parameter by the client when invoking
the action.
The title attribute MUST be
present and contain a human-readable, possibly language-dependent, and not
necessarily unique name for the action, commonly used by clients to describe
the action to a user.
Action parameter values in the request body MUST be encoded
as an individual complex scalar value with
the name parameters and no metadata:type
attribute for the parameters element.
Each non-binding parameter value specified MUST be encoded
as an individual primitive or complex scalar value. The name of the scalar
value is the name of the parameter. The value is the parameter value in the XML
representation appropriate for its type.
Any parameter values not specified in the request body MUST
be assumed to have the null value.
Example 43:
<parameters>
<param1>42</param1>
<param2 metadata:type="#Model.Address">
<Street>One Microsoft Way</Street>
<Zip>98052</Zip>
</param2>
<param3>
<element>1</element>
<element>42</element>
<element>99</element>
</param3>
<param4 metadata:null="true"/>
<!-- <param5/> not specified, has null value -->
<parameters>
Annotations MAY be applied to an instance of a feed, entry, entity reference, complex
scalar value, property, navigation property, function, action, added link, deleted link,
or error within an Atom payload.
18.1 Element
metadata:annotation
An instance annotation in Atom is represented as an XML
element with the name Annotation in the metadata namespace.
The value of the annotation is specified according to the Annotation
Value, described below.
18.1.1 Attribute target
The target attribute MAY be used
to specify the annotation target. If the target
attribute is not specified the target of the annotation is the element
represented by the direct parent of the metadata:annotation
element.
The metadata:annotation element MUST
have a term attribute that
specifies the namespace-qualified or alias-qualified name of the term being
applied.
18.1.3 Attribute metadata:type
If the type of the annotation value being specified is
anything other than Edm.String the metadata:annotation
element MUST contain a metadata:type attribute to
specify the appropriate type of the annotation value.
Null-valued annotations are represented as empty metadata:annotation elements with the metadata:null="true" attribute.
The metadata:null attribute
distinguishes null values from other empty content (such as an empty string).
The absence of the metadata:null
attribute is equivalent to specifying metadata:null="false".
An instance annotation value may be specified as a primitive value, collection
value, or structured
value.
18.2.1 Primitive Value
When specified in the content of an annotation element
representing a primitive value, the content MUST be formatted as per Primitive Types in Atom. If the type of the
annotation value is anything other than Edm.String,
then the annotation element MUST contain the metadata:type attribute specifying
the appropriate primitive type.
Example 44:
<entry ...>
<id>Customers('ALFKI')</id>
<content>
<metadata:properties>
<data:ID>ALFKI</data:ID>
<data:CompanyName>Alfreds Futterkiste</data:CompanyName>
</metadata:properties>
</content>
<metadata:annotation
term="com.contoso.display.highlight"
metadata:type="Boolean">true</metadata:annotation>
</entry>
18.2.2 Collection Value
The content of an element representing a collection-valued
annotation MUST be the individual elements of that collection formatted as
direct child elements of the metadata:annotation element as
described in Collections of Primitive
or Collection of Complex Scalar Values.
For collection-valued annotations, the annotation element
MUST contain the metadata:type
attribute specifying the appropriate collection type.
Example 45:
<entry>
<id>Customers('ALFKI')</id>
<content>
<metadata:properties>
<data:ID>ALFKI</data:ID>
<data:CompanyName>Alfreds
Futterkiste</data:CompanyName>
</metadata:properties>
</content>
<metadata:annotation term="com.contoso.PersonalInfo.PhoneNumbers"
type="Collection(String)">
<element>(203)555-1718</element>
<element>(203)555-1719</element>
</metadata:annotation>
</entry>
18.2.3 Structured Value
The content of an element representing a structured
annotation MUST be a single child element for each property of the annotation
type being specified, formatted as per properties
within an entity type.
For structural-valued annotations, the annotation element
MUST contain the metadata:type
attribute specifying the appropriate structural type.
Example 46:
<entry>
<id>Customers('ALFKI')</id>
<link rel="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/related/Orders"
href="Customers('ALFKI')/Orders"
type="application/atom+xml;type=feed"
title="List of Orders">
<metadata:annotation
term="com.contoso.display.style"
metadata:type="#com.contoso.display.styleType">
<data:order metadata:type="Int32">2</data:order>
</metadata:annotation>
</link>
<content>
<metadata:properties>
<data:CustomerID>ALFKI</data:CustomerID>
<data:CompanyName>Alfreds
Futterkiste</data:CompanyName>
<metadata:annotation term="com.contoso.display.style"
target="CompanyName"
metadata:type="#com.contoso.display.styleType">
<data:title
metadata:type="Boolean">true</data:title>
<data:order
metadata:type="Int32">1</data:order>
</metadata:annotation>
</metadata:properties>
</content>
<entry>
18.3 Instance
Annotation Target
Instance annotations MAY target model elements represented
by a feed, entry,
complex scalar value, property, navigation property, function, action, or error within an
Atom payload.
18.3.1 Feed
When annotating a feed, annotation elements MUST be direct
children of the atom:feed
element, and they MUST appear in a group at the beginning of the feed or
(another) group at the end of the feed, depending on whether they are needed
beforehand to understand the feed content, or can only be computed after
serializing the feed content.
18.3.2 Entry
When annotating an entity, the annotation element MUST be a
direct child of the atom:entry element representing the entity.
When annotating an entity reference, the annotation element
MUST be a direct child of the metadata:ref element.
When annotating an instance of a complex type, the annotation element MUST be a
direct child of the metadata:value
element representing the complex-typed value.
When annotating a property, the annotation element MUST be a
direct child of the metadata:properties element, or a direct child of
the element representing a complex type in the
case of annotating the property of a complex type. The value of the target
attribute MUST specify the name of the property being annotated. The
annotation elements MUST immediately precede the target property element.
Instance annotations are not supported when serializing
single primitive properties in XML as described in Individual Primitive or Complex Scalar Values.
When annotating a navigation property, stream property, or
other element represented by an atom:link element, the annotation
element must be a direct child of the atom:link
element.
18.3.7 Function or Action
When annotating a function or action, the annotation element
must be a direct child of the metadata:function or metadata:action
element.
18.3.8
Added Link or Deleted Link
When annotating an added or deleted link in a delta
response, the annotation element must be a direct child of the metadata:link
or metadata:deleted-link
element.
When annotating an error, the metadata:annotation
element MUST be a direct child of the metadata:error element. The
annotation element MAY have a target attribute value of "code", "message", or "innererror". If the target attribute is not specified,
then the annotation is applied to the error itself. The annotation elements
MUST follow the other child elements of the error element.
In the case of an error being generated in response to a
request specifying an Accept header of application/xml or
application/atom+xml, or that does not specify an
Accept header, the service MUST respond with an error formatted as XML.
When formatting error responses as XML, services SHOULD
include a Content-Type response header with the
value "application/xml".
19.1 Element
metadata:error
Errors formatted as XML MUST have a root metadata:error element. The metadata:error
element MUST have at least two child elements: metadata:code and metadata:message.
In addition, errors may be annotated using custom annotations.
Example 47:
<error xmlns="http://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/ns/metadata">
<code>501</code>
<message>Unsupported functionality</message>
<target>query</target>
<details>
<detail>
<code>301</code>
<message>$search query option not
supported</message>
<target>$search</target>
</detail>
</details>
</error>
The metadata:error element MUST
contain one metadata:code element specifying a
service-defined string. This value MAY be used to provide a more specific
substatus to the returned HTTP response code.
The metadata:error element MUST
contain a metadata:message element specifying a
human readable, language-dependent message describing the error. The Content-Language header MUST contain the language code
from [RFC5646] corresponding to the language in
which the value for message is written.
The metadata:error element MAY
contain a metadata:target element to specify the
target of the error (for example, the name of the property in error).
19.5 Element metadata:details
The metadata:error element MAY
contain a metadata:details element containing one
or more metadata:detail elements specifying detail
about the error.
The metadata:detail element specifies
information about an individual error detail.
The metadata:detail element MUST
contain one metadata:code element specifying a
service-defined string. This value MAY be used to provide a more specific
substatus to the returned HTTP response code.
The metadata:detail element MUST
contain a metadata:message element specifying a
human readable, language-dependent message describing the error.
The metadata:detail element MAY
contain a metadata:target element to specify the
target of the error.
The metadata:error element MAY
contain a metadata:innererror element containing
service specific debugging information that might assist a service implementer
in determining the cause of an error.
The metadata:innererror element
SHOULD only be used in development environments in order to guard against
potential security concerns around information disclosure.
Implementations MAY add custom content anywhere allowed by [RFC4287], Section 6, “Extending Atom”, and [RFC5023], Section 6.2 “Document Extensibility”. However, custom
elements and attributes MUST NOT be defined in the OData
Data Namespace nor the OData Metadata
Namespace, and SHOULD not be required to be understood by the receiving
party in order to correctly interpret the rest of the payload as the receiving
party MUST ignore unknown foreign markup according to [RFC4287].
This specification raises no security issues.
This section is provided as a service to the application
developers, information providers, and users of OData version 4.0 giving some
references to starting points for securing OData services as specified. OData
is a REST-full multi-format service that depends on other services and thus
inherits both sides of the coin, security enhancements and concerns alike from
the latter.
For ATOM-relevant security implications please cf. the
relevant sections of [RFC4287] (8. Security
Considerations), [RFC5023] (15. Security
Considerations) and for the deleted-entry element: see [RFC6721]
(7. Security Considerations) as starting points.
Conforming clients MUST be prepared to consume a service
that uses any or all of the constructs defined in this specification. The
exception to this are the constructs defined in Delta
Response, which are only required for clients that request changes
In order to
be a conforming consumer of the OData ATOM format, a client or service:
1.
MUST
be prepared to receive all data types (section 7.1)
a.
defined
in this specification (client)
b.
exposed
by the service (service)
2.
MUST
be prepared to receive custom annotations (section 18)
3. MUST be prepared to
receive additional constructs not defined in this version of the specification
(section 20)
In addition, in order to conform to the OData Atom format, a
service:
4.
MUST comply with one of the conformance levels defined in [OData-Protocol]
5.
MUST
support the application/atom+xml, application/xml and application/atomsvc+xml media types in the Accept header (section 3)
6.
MUST
include the next link in feeds containing
partial results (section 12.4)
7.
MUST
return service documents as Atom service
documents (section 5)
8.
MUST
return XML responses in well formed XML according to this OData Atom specification
9.
MUST
return well-formed Atom payloads with the exceptions for the next link and the
delta link
(section
12.4)
10. MUST support entity
instances with external metadata (section 6.1.2)
11. MUST support
properties with externally defined data types (section 11.1.1.3)
12.
MUST
NOT violate any other aspects of this OData Atom specification
13. SHOULD support the $format system query option
(section 3)
The contributions of the OASIS OData Technical Committee members,
enumerated in [OData-Protocol], are gratefully
acknowledged.
|
Revision
|
Date
|
Editor
|
Changes Made
|
|
Working Draft 01
|
2012-08-22
|
Michael Pizzo
|
Translated Contribution to OASIS format/template
|
|
Committee Specification Draft 01
|
2013-04-26
|
Martin Zurmuehl
Ralf Handl
Michael Pizzo
|
Expanded error information
Added enumerations
Fleshed out descriptions and examples and addressed
numerous editorial and technical issues processed through the TC
Added Conformance section
|
|
Committee Specification Draft 02
|
2013-07-01
|
Martin Zurmuehl
Ralf Handl
Michael Pizzo
|
Improved metadata:type
Improved entity references
Simplified delta responses
GML for Geo types
Improved description of primitive value representation
Improved examples, aligned with JSON format specification
Aligned terms across specifications
|
|
Committee Specification 01
|
2013-07-30
|
Martin Zurmuehl
Ralf Handl
Michael Pizzo
|
Non-Material Changes
|
|
Committee Specification Draft 03
|
2013-10-03
|
Martin Zurmuehl
Ralf Handl
Michael Pizzo
|
Next link for collections of complex and primitive types
Null elements in collections of complex and primitive
types
Binary values are base64url-encoded
|
