[zxienin]

OData. That’ll surely take them far within developers. Maybe SAP brainwashed devs, who are willing to bear any level complexity SAP throws out. Not beyond.

Why position “zero SAP knowledge required” and then throw odata in?

> This is part of a bigger initiative to standardize data across Microsoft, Adobe, and SAP

I doubt it. You’re referring to ODI [1], which seems unrelated to this.

[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/open-data-initiative

[GordonS]

I've worked with SAP way too much - it's at least as horrible as you imply.

But I've also worked with both OData and GraphQL at lot, and I don't understand your beef with OData, and certainly don't get your claim that it's more complex than GrahpQL. IMO, OData is quite a lot simpler than GraphQL, and I actually prefer it.

[zxienin]

can't seem to reply to your comment below (no 'Reply' option for me, likely HN feature to avoid too deep nested threads)

> Not sure if I've misinterpreted your comment then?

Yes, misinterpreted. Refer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22807146

[GordonS]

Sorry, but I still don't get what you're trying to say - I've read the comment you linked to, and I understand it as an implication that OData is problematic somehow.

In another comment in reponse to someone complaining about OData, you also said:

"Had the same sentiments. They take good step forward and then chose OData (bummer)"

Stil scratching my head about what I'm misinterpreting here.

[zxienin]

where is GraphQL v/s OData above?

[GordonS]

Not sure if I've misinterpreted your comment then?

The GP asked if these were GraphQL APIs, then you said:

"OData. That’ll surely take them far within developers. Maybe SAP brainwashed devs, who are willing to bear any level complexity SAP throws out"

and also:

"Why position “zero SAP knowledge required” and then throw odata in?"

[colinjoy]

Microsoft Graph is also based on OData [1].

I‘d say it is more about enterprise than just SAP.

Granted, SAP is strongly invested in OData. The SAPUI5 framework [2] has a ton of built in UI components and quite a few provide complex functionality „for free“* when bound to properly annotated OData models.

1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/overview

2: https://sapui5.hana.ondemand.com

* the cost and complexity is moved closer to the data layer, away from UI development. not free as in free beer.

disclosure: I work at SAP, but I am not involved with the topics discussed here.

[ntsplnkv2]

What exactly is the problem with OData, and what do you recommend instead? This is an area I'm unfamiliar with.

[zxienin]

If you've already spent time working with REST (or "REST like") APIs, either as API developer OR app dev consuming a one, best way to understand the problem, is now (try) to work with OData.

Search HN, there are enough discussions on this.

Outside SAP and Microsoft circles, it's easy to forget such a thing even exists.