Connect to OData Services in Ruby

The CData ODBC Driver for OData makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live OData services in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to OData services, executes a query, and displays the results.

Getting Started

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Create an ODBC Connection to OData Services

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid OData user credentials. In addition, specify a URL to a valid OData server organization root or OData services file.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to OData Services

Create a new Ruby file (for example: ODataSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData OData Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT Orders.Freight, Customers.ContactName FROM Customers INNER JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerId=Orders.CustomerId")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
 print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
 (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
 print row[n], "\t"
 end
 puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your OData services with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby ODataSelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to OData allows you to quickly and easily incorporate OData services into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!