Overview
ISO/IEC 20802-2:2016 specifies the OData JSON Format (Open Data Protocol v4.0) as an extension of the core OData protocol. It defines how OData requests and responses are represented using JSON, including the structure of payloads, HTTP headers, metadata annotations and control information. The standard enables consistent, interoperable JSON representations for RESTful data services and was adopted from the OASIS OData JSON Format specification.
Key Topics and Requirements
- JSON Format design: normative rules for representing entities, properties and collections in JSON.
- Request/response representations: how to structure payloads and use the HTTP Content-Type header.
- Control of metadata: query parameter odata.metadata options - minimal, full, none - to control the amount of control information returned.
- Annotations and control information: standardized JSON annotations such as odata.context, odata.type, odata.count, odata.nextLink, odata.deltaLink, odata.id, odata.etag, odata.editLink, odata.readLink, and media-related annotations (e.g., odata.media*).
- Payload constraints: rules on ordering, relative URLs in payloads, and representation of numbers.
- Entity and property models: support for primitive values, complex values, collections (primitive/complex), navigation properties (links, expanded properties), deep inserts and bind operations.
- Streaming and media entities: representation of stream properties and media entities for binary content.
- Service and metadata integration: interplay with the OData metadata model (CSDL) and service document structure.
Practical Applications and Who Uses It
- API designers and implementers building RESTful OData services that need a standardized JSON wire format for interoperability.
- Client developers and SDK authors consuming OData services (automatic parsing of annotations such as odata.nextLink for paging or odata.deltaLink for synchronization).
- Data integration and BI platforms that ingest structured data across heterogeneous systems, relying on consistent metadata and entity representations.
- Enterprise architects and data stewards seeking standard-driven data exchange, discoverability, and versioning support (e.g., via ETags and metadata).
- Use cases include public open data portals, enterprise APIs, IoT data feeds, and middleware that transform or proxy OData payloads.
Related Standards
- ISO/IEC 20802-1 (OData v4.0 Part 1: Protocol) - core protocol semantics.
- OData v4.0 parts: URL Conventions, Common Schema Definition Language (CSDL), and related OASIS OData specifications (Atom format, ABNF, vocabularies, XML schemas).
Keywords: ISO/IEC 20802-2:2016, OData JSON, OData v4.0, Open Data Protocol, JSON format, odata.metadata, odata.nextLink, odata.deltaLink, RESTful APIs, interoperability.