OData support

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am wondering to what extend OData is supported by Qlik. I can't try it out because apparently I need a customer or partner account to download the Qlik Web Connector. Is there any possibility to get a trial for this web connector? I have the following questions about the OData connector:

• What OData version does it support? The documentation here: https://help.qlik.com/en-US/connectors/Subsystems/Web_Connectors_help/Content/Data-Source-Connectors...‌ seems to refer to OData v3 but my service is OData v4.
• To what extent does Qlik make use of the OData service? Does it recognize relationships defined in the metadata document of the service? Does it push down filters defined by users to the service (by calling the service URL with $select, $expand, $filter etc..)?

Looking forward to any help, thanks

[stevedark]

Hi Edward,

The latest download can be retrieved from here:

https://da3hntz84uekx.cloudfront.net/WebConnectors/2.28.7/2/_MSI/QlikWebConnectorsNovember2017Patch2...

As OData is a Premium connector you will need to get a trial licence to be able to give this a go.  You should look to find a local Qlik Partner who should be able to provide this for you.  If you are in the UK please get in touch.

Cheers,

Steve

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply Steve. Do you know if the web connector only supports OData v3? If so applying for a trial license would be kind of pointless. Otherwise I'll start looking into getting a trial license.

[stevedark]

Hi  Edward,

I'm afraid I don't have a service I can connect to to test - unless you are aware of an open endpoint I can test for you?

The last entry in the change log for the version I have is for October 2016.  There may be a subsequent one though - as I am due an upgrade.

Getting a trial licence is not a big issue, and it is relatively quick to set-up and test.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Hi Steve, thank you for your time. An open v4 endpoint is the TripPin service which can be found at: http://services.odata.org/V4/(S(uvirdrvfpbph5stgebkebtf2))/TripPinServiceRW/

That entry is quite promising then as OData v4 was released 2 years before it.

Edward

[stevedark]

I've not put long into trying, but it doesn't seem to be playing ball:

It looks like it is always expecting authentication - which I suppose is a reasonable assumption that there will be some.

bal‌ or bam‌ may be able to help you out as to whether OData v4 is possible with the connector.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Little update on this, I've since gotten my hands on a license for the OData connector. It is possible to connect to OData v4 sources but it looks like the connector only accepts XML return values.

System query options can be used in the connector but sub queries seem to be ignored (for example $expand=something($select=Name)). And using the $expand options returns a table which adds the expanded entities as new rows, see here: Working with OData relational data. I'm not sure why this happens but it makes working with the data a hassle.

[stevedark]

I've not yet encountered an API that doesn't have quirks.

When working with REST sources different hierarchical levels of data are all returned in a single table, with columns returning null when the row is not at the level that column is for.  You need to pull the whole grouped table into a temporary table in Qlik and then do a number of resident loads, where a column in each hierarchy is non-null, to split into the constituent tables.

It sounds as if the OData connector may be doing something similar?

Glad you got a trial licence and can connect.  Hope you can make it work for what you require it to do.

[PreranaLH]

Hi,

i am facing the same issue. as my service is OData v4 , and whenever i put OData query option with $Select/$Filter its not working as expected.

 should i go with OData or  REST connector?