SQL Azure OData Service –Publish your data as service painlessly

SQL Azure OData Service is a beta project from SQL Azure Labs. You can sign up for free trial account from http://www.sqlazurelabs.com/

OData (Open Data Protocol) is Web protocol for querying and updating data that provides a way to unlock your data and free it from silos that exist in applications today. For more information about OData, please visit http://www.odata.org/ 

Step 1: After signing up, click on “SQL Azure OData Service” and then read and accept the terms of use and click “Register” to start

Step 2: To Configure OData service, provide the SQL Azure server name and credentials and click “Connect”

Step 3: Select Database which you want to publish using OData Service and click on “Enable OData”

 

Step 4: After selecting the database, select which users can access the data and whether Anonymous Access is allowed or not

Click “Add User” to add a new user

The users should be already added in SQL Azure Server and Database to enable access over OData

Once the user is added, a Unique OData link and Secret Key to access the database will be generated

To remove an existing User, click “Remove”

To provide read only access, please make sure to add a user who has only SELECT permissions is added in OData

To Enable Anonymous access, select the User account to be used for Anonymous acccess

Now you are ready to consume the Database using any OData client. Please see the below screenshot showing the data being browsed directly in Internet Explorer

You can access OData Service from .Net 3.5 or 4.0 or Silverlight 4.0 based application.

The following features are not available in SQL Azure OData Service at this point of time

1. Ability to control what tables to be published over OData service

2. Option to publish Views or Stored Procedures or Functions

This is a beta product, so don’t use this for production applications and also be aware of the data you are publishing with anonymous access, since anyone who with the URI can access the data.