Yesterday I found myself looking into sharepoint 2010′s OData integration features, and I stumbled upon some articles posted by Alex James, Program Manager at Microsoft. OData (Open Data Protocol) is an open protocol for sharing data. It 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 a way that is far more powerful than currently possible, enabling more applications to make sense of a broader set of data. Every producer and consumer of data that participates in this ecosystem increases its overall value.
As you might know, ADO.NET Data Services 1.5 and SharePoint 2010 allow developers to write applications against SharePoint Lists using the familiar Data Services Client programming model. In order to use Data Services with SharePoint 2010, ADO.NET Data Services 1.5 must be installed on your server. From there on, you should fint your Data Services endpoint and add a service reference to your project, using the location of the Data Service that exposes SharePoint data. You will then have CLR classes representing the types in each list, and you will have a strongly typed Data Service Context that allows you to access the data.
Here are some articles I followed during yesterday’s reading.
Using Data Services over SharePoint 2010 – Part 1 – Getting Started
