New javascript oData library (from MSFT) compared to jQuery

Question

What is the advantage of the new javascript OData library using jQuery?

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astoriateam/archive/2011/02/08/new-javascript-library-for-odata-and-beyond.aspx

Answer 1

jQuery is very good at what it does, and datajs does not try to duplicate any of its functions, so it is difficult to answer the question in these terms.

datajs currently provides extensive support for OData, including several formats, support for parsing conceptual models, the ability to improve results with known metadata, batch processing, etc.

jQuery supports the use of JSON, but it really is a coding issue - there is no support for any OData-specific behavior. If you are talking to an OData server, you would be better off using datajs, and then you can use jQuery for everything else: animations, document creation, controls, templates, etc.

Answer 2

This is what they say about the library:

Over time, we plan to turn datajs into an extensive library that can be used to develop rich data-oriented web applications. It is designed to ... provide functionality for structured queries, synchronization, data modification, and interactions with various cloud services, including Windows Azure .

This is a fairly narrow set of features compared to jQuery. It looks like Microsoft is not trying to compete with jQuery here, but is creating an alternative data access library that interacts with the server using the OData protocol. Indeed, as far as I can tell, jQuery is already doing all this, so it seems like it's just a way to access smart data calls without using the entire jQuery library.

Answer 3

This library has nothing to do with jQuery.

It makes specialized AJAX and JSONP requests for OData feeds.

Answer 4

Usually you will use them together, as datajs speaks well with the OData service, and jQuery - for comprehensive DOM manipulation and convenient AJAXing. As such a tool, you can implement a conversation with an ODATA endpoint using jQuery, but this is a huge job - in the end, this is what datajs is, and it is a source of more than 300K.

If you want jQuery to simplify your life (free API, simple intuitive facade) in the field of working with ODATA, I would recommend checking out JayData - "jQuery in data processing".