When to use ODATA and MBO

[Former Member]

Hello Experts,

Can you tell me in which scenario i need to prefer ODATA and in which need to prefer MBO as for developer prescriptive..please differentiate it..?

[midhun_vp · Accepted solution]

From a developer standpoint in the case of odata based mobile applications you need to consume the OData services exposed from NW gateway, you need tp parse the XML (Odata) to show the data in the device. Odata apps can be developed with SUP ( In this case there will not be any development in SUP. SUP will be used only for security purpose )and without SUP.

Also the developer don't want to bother about what business logic is implemented in SUP to develop the mobile app. These are called Online mobile applications. There will not be any caching of data in CDB of SUP. SO if the requirement is for a native online application means we can go for it.

The MBO approach is for offline capabilities. There are APIs to perform the operation even the app is offline ( without connectivity ). If the requirement is to develop the app with offline capabilities means we can go for it. From the developer stand point the developer should have the knowledge on the business logic implemented in SUP ( Related keys, sync groups, cache grps etc ) to develop the mobile application.

Hope this helps you.

- Midhun VP

[former_member184247 · Accepted solution]

Hello Nilesh,

Midhun is right.

It all depends on how you want to deliver data to mobile devices. i.e, online and offline application types.

For online applications - we can use OData. Because there will not be any caching of data in CDB of SUP.

and For offline applications - we can use MBO. Because MBO supports data synchronization and allow the device to have its own copy of the application data, which will allow it to deliver value to its users even when there is no connection.

Regards

Sumeet S

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Midhun,

When we go for Hybrid App Development that time we can implement both OData and MBO. So which approach should we prefer.

I think OData uses XML or JSON format data exchange. So it must be a little faster then MBO.

So is there any advantage of OData over MBO or vice versa?

[david_brandow · Accepted solution]

Assuming you don't want offline support, both are entirely feasible.  I don't think I'd buy the argument that an XML/JSON data exchange format is an advantage from a performance perspective.

In the SMP 2.X timeframe, you will find MBO development substantially easier in terms of the amount of design-time support available.  From a longer term perspective, if you have no current investment in either technology, I think its appropriate to say that OData may be a better choice.

[midhun_vp · Accepted solution]

As David mentioned both the approaches are feasible since it is an online app. If you think of a native app you need to go for MBO approach ( OData offline support is going to be available in the very near future).

SAP preferred approach is Odata instead of MBO .

An interesting blog is here.

- Midhun VP

[david_brandow]

At a high level, I agree with Sumeet and Midhun.

It should be noted, however, that OData offline support is going to be available in the very near future, so I wouldn't consider this separation to be a permanent consideration.

[midhun_vp]

David, Thanks for your comment.

Can you please me know what is the reason SAP is giving more importance to Odata based apps when compared to MBO based apps.

Also in the pipeline SAP is going to come up with single data modelling that is Odata. In that case how the data modeling going to happen in SUP ? Whether MBO exist?

- Midhun VP

[david_brandow]

I'm afraid I can't, or rather shouldn't, answer those questions. Hopefully you can get an answer from Stan, Jens, Tony or others.

[midhun_vp]

Ok. Thanks a lot David. I will follow them.

- Midhun VP