SAP Annotations for OData Version 2.

Introduction
OData services provide a uniform interface for interacting with their resources, and in addition are self-describing:

The service document (located at the service root) lists the available top-level resources, and

The service metadata document (located at the address $metadata relative to the service root) describes the structure of all resources in
the service.

This structural metadata makes it easy to understand a service, and human-readable documentation can be directly embedded into the metadata
document, helping developers consume an OData service.

This alone is a huge benefit, yet metadata can be taken one step further by embedding machine-readable additional metadata that can be
leveraged by development tools, client libraries, and generic clients to better interact with the service.

One area are semantic annotations that tell which of the OData properties contain e.g. a phone number, a part of a name or address, or
something related to a calendar event or an analytic query. This is important for apps running on mobile devices that want to seamlessly integrate
into contacts, calendar, and telephony.

The next area are capability annotations that describe which of the possible interactions defined by OData's uniform interface are supported by
which parts of a concrete service. These annotations will e.g. tell whether an entity set allows inserts, updates, or deletes, whether it requires a
filter, and which properties can be used in filter expressions. They also advertise capabilities that go beyond the base set defined by OData, e.g.
whether an entity set allows free-text search via an SAP-defined query option.

Contents
Introduction
Contents
AtomPub Service Document
Element app:service
Element app:collection
Metadata Document
Element edm:Schema
Element edm:EntityContainer
Element edm:EntitySet
Attribute sap:semantics
Element edm:EntityType
Attribute sap:semantics
Element edm:Property
Attributes sap:unit and sap:precision
Attribute sap:field-control
Attribute sap:semantics
Attribute sap:filter-restriction
Attribute sap:aggregation-role
Attribute sap:parameter
Attribute sap:preserve-flag-for
Element edm:NavigationProperty
Element edm:FunctionImport
Element sap:value-constraint
Element edm:Parameter
Element edm:AssociationSet
Instance Annotations
Query Option search

AtomPub Service Document

AtomPub allows extending the service document with elements and attributes from XML namespaces other than AtomPub. The following sections
describe which elements of the service document (namespace prefix app) can be annotated with attributes and elements from the namespace http
://www.sap.com/Protocols/SAPData (namespace prefix sap) and from the namespace http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom (namespace prefix atom), and
what these annotations mean.
Element app:service
The app:service element can be annotated with two elements from the atom namespace:

<atom:link rel="self" href="..."/> contains the link to this service document, and

<atom:link rel="latest-version" href="..."/> contains the link to latest version of this service.

If the latest-version link deviates from the self link, a client may inspect the newer version of the service and decide (probably after asking its user)
to switch over to the newer service version.

Element app:collection
The app:collection element can be annotated with three elements:

<sap:member-title> contains the human-readable name or caption for a single member of the collection. This typically is the singular form
of the content of the <atom:title> element of this collection.

<atom:link rel="search" href="..."/> contains the link to an OpenSearch description document that describes how to use free-text search for
this collection. For those not familiar with OpenSearch: just append the SAP-specific query option search to the URL of the collection.

<atom:link rel=http://www.sap.com/Protocols/SAPData/rel#subscribe href="..."/> contains the link to the collection of the same service that
allows subscribing to content changes of the annotated collection. For more information see the HowTo Guides - Subscription &
Notification with SAP NetWeaver Gateway - Series.

It can also contain the attribute sap:addressable with the same value as for the corresponding entity set in the metadata document.

Metadata Document
OData's Conceptual Schema Definition Language (CSDL) allows annotating most model elements with XML attributes or elements from foreign
XML namespaces. The following sections describe which elements of the metadata document (namespace prefix edm) can be annotated with
attributes and elements from the namespace http://www.sap.com/Protocols/SAPData (namespace prefix sap), and what these annotations mean.
For binary attributes the meaning is desribed for the value "true".

Element edm:Schema
Schemas can be annotated with the following attributes. If not stated explicitly, consumers can assume them to have the default value listed in the
second column. This default value reflects the "normal" behavior.

Attribute Name Default Meaning

Value
schema-version 0000 A non-negative number indicating the version of the schema. This can be considered a sub/minor version of the
service version. It should be incremented whenever additive changes are made in a subsequent shipment of the
same service version, and it can be used by clients to detect whether the service meets their minimal data
provisioning needs.

Element edm:EntityContainer
Entity containers can be annotated with the following attributes. If not stated explicitly, consumers can assume them to have the default value
listed in the second column. This default value reflects the "normal" behavior.

Attribute Name Default Meaning

Value
supported-formats atom A white-space separated list of format shortnames. Possible list items:
json
atom
json
xlsx

The default is sap:supported-formats="atom json".

use-batch false Wrap all requests to resources of this service in batch requests; only the service document and the metadata
document can be accessed unwrapped.This av oids exposing sensitive data in URLs (even with HTTPS URLs
can be visible in log files)
Element edm:EntitySet
Entity sets can be annotated with the following attributes. If not stated explicitly, consumers can assume them to have the default value listed in
the second column. This default value reflects the "normal" behavior that can be expected from any OData service.

Attribute Name Default Meaning

Value
label - Description, will also be used as atom:title in the service document

creatable true New entities can be created in this set

updatable true Entities in this set can be updated. Must not be present if updatable-path is present.

updatable-path - Entities in this set can be updated or not depending on their state. The value of this attribute is a path expression th
at identifies a Boolean property in the context of the entity type of the entity set. The value of this property indicates
whether the entity can be updated or not. Must not be present if updatable is present.
The combined meaning of the annotations updatable and updatable-path is

If an entity set is neither annotated with updatable nor updatable-path, its entities can be updated
If an entity set is annotated both with updatable and updatable-path, the service is broken and the client should
assume that entities in this set cannot be updated
If an entity set is annotated with updatable=true, its entities can be updated
If an entity set is annotated with updatable=false, its entities cannot be updated
If an entity set is annotated with updatable-path, its entities can be updated depending on the value of the
Boolean property identified with this path expression:
If updatable-path points to a property that does not exist, the service is broken and the client should assume
that the entity cannot be updated
If updatable-path points to a property that does not have the type Edm.Boolean, the service is broken and the
client should assume that the entity cannot be updated
If updatable-path points to a property of type Edm.Boolean that exists, and this property has the value true, the
entity can be updated
If updatable-path points to a property of type Edm.Boolean that exists, and this property has the value false,
the entity cannot be updated
If updatable-path points to a property of type Edm.Boolean that exists, and this property has the value null, the
service does not know whether the property can be updated. Semantically such a service is broken and the
client should assume that the entity cannot be updated

The same rules apply to the combination of deletable and deletable-path on entity sets and the combination of
creatable and creatable-path on navigation properties.

deletable true Entities can be deleted from this set. Must not be present if deletable-path is present.

deletable-path - Entities in this set can be deleted or not depending on their state. The value of this attribute is a path expression tha
t identifies a Boolean property in the context of the entity type of the entity set. The value of this property indicates
whether the entity can be deleted or not. Must not be present if deletable is present.
See notes in updatable-path for combined meaning of deletable and deletable-path.

searchable false Supports custom query option search

pageable true Supports system query options $top and $skip

topable true Supports system query option $top

countable true Supports system query option $inlinecount=allpages and path suffix /$count

addressable true Use “false” if this entity set can only be accessed within its containing entity, e.g. Conditions within SalesOrders
through SalesOrders(4711)/Conditions. Direct access to non-addressable entity collections will result in a 4xx
response code. The set may however allow access to single entities identified by their key properties values, e.g.
SalesOrderConditions(OrderID=4711,ConditionID=3)

requires-filter false Use “true” if this set cannot be queried without providing a $filter expression. If accessed without a filter expression,
it will respond with a human-readable error message explaining which kinds of filter expressions are required as a
minimum

change-tracking false Changes to entities of this set can be tracked. Consumers can subscribe by adding an HTTP Prefer header
odata.track-changes to the request. The response will then include a delta link for requesting information about
changes in the future.

maxpagesize - Maximum number of entities returned in an OData response. If more entities are included in the result of an OData
request, the service applies server-driven paging.
 delta-link-validity - The maximum duration in seconds a delta link in an OData response remains valid. Afterwards, resources
associated with the change tracking subscription may be cleaned up and will be no longer available.

semantics - See table below

Attribute sap:semantics
This attribute can take the following values in the context of an entity type:

Value Meaning
aggregate The entities of this set are automatically aggregated if the query option $select is specified. Each property listed in $select is treated
according to its aggregation role, see description of attribute sap:aggregation-role below

timeseries The entities of this set are snapshots of data that changes over time. One of the key properties represents the temporal dimension.

Element edm:EntityType
Entity types can be annotated with the following attributes:

Attribute Name Meaning

label Description, will also be used as sap:member-title in the service document

semantics See table below

Attribute sap:semantics
This attribute can take the following values in the context of an entity type:

Value Meaning
vcard Entities of this type contain contact information following the vCard standard, see values for sap:semantics on property level

vevent Entities of this type contain event/appointment information following the iCalendar standard , see values for sap:semantics on
property level

vtodo Entities of this type contain todo/task information following the iCalendar standard , see values for sap:semantics on property
level

parameters This entity type represents parameters for another entity type to which it has a collection-valued association

aggregate Entity sets with this type return result feeds with aggregated values for properties annotated with sap:aggregation-role="measure".
The aggregation takes into account the dimension properties specified in the $select system query option of the request. See also
description of annotation sap:aggregation-role.

variant This entity type represents query selection variants bundling parameter selections and filter expressions for obtaining specific
query results

Element edm:Property
The annotation sap:label is required for properties. All other annotations are optional.

Attribute Name Default Meaning

Value
label - A short, human-readable text suitable for labels and captions in UIs

heading - A short, human-readable text suitable for column headings in UIs

quickinfo - A human-readable text suitable for tool tips in UIs

semantics - See table below

creatable true Values for this property can be chosen by client when creating an instance. “False” if value is
always set by the server, e.g. document number from number range.

updatable true Values of this property can be changed. Must be “false” if it is “false” at entity set level. If
updatability can change per entity or based on the entities' state, do not use this static
annotation and use sap:field-control instead.

sortable true Can be used in $orderby system query option.

filterable true Can be used in $filter system query option.

required-in-filter false Must be used in $filter system query option.

filter-restriction - See table below

text - A path expression that identifies a property in the context of the entity type containing a
human-readable text for the value of this property.

unit - A path expression that identifies a property in the context of the entity type containing the
currency code or unit of measure for a numeric value.

precision - A path expression that identifies a property in the context of the entity type containing the
number of significant decimal places for a numeric value.

visible true Values of this property are typically visible to end users. If visibility can change per entity or
based on the entities' state, do not use this static annotation and use sap:field-control instead.

field-control 3 A path expression that identifies a property containing a numeric value that controls visibility:

0 = hidden,
1 = read-only,
3 = optional,
7 = mandatory

See section below for details

validation-regexp - Values for this property have to match the specified regular expression. The regular expression
is a JavaScript Regular Expression.

display-format - There are currently three possible values:

“Date” indicates that only the date part of an Edm.DateTime value is relevant
"NonNegative" indicates that only non-negative numeric values are provided and persisted,
other input will lead to errors. Intended for Edm.String fields that are internally stored as
NUMC
"UpperCase" indicates that uppercase values are provided and persisted, lowercase input
will be converted

value-list - A string indicating whether this property has a value list attached:

fixed-values - there is a short list of allowed field values that rarely changes over time
standard - no restriction on number and volatility of allowed field values

The list of allowed values is provided as a separate entity set that can be found by interpreting
the V4-style annotation Common.ValueList on the same property.

lower-boundary - A property holding the upper boundary of a value range includes this attribute. The value of
this attribute is always the name of another property in the same type. It points to the property
holding the related lower boundary.

upper-boundary - A property holding the lower boundary of a value range includes this attribute. The value of this
attribute is always the name of another property in the same type. It points to the property
holding the related upper boundary.

aggregation-role - See table below

super-ordinate - If values of this property are meaningful (unique) only in the context provided by the value of
another property, then this attribute holds the name of the context-providing property. The
value of this attribute is always the name of another property in the same type.
 attribute-for - A property representing an attribute of another property includes this attribute. The value of this
attribute is always the name of another property in the same type. It points to the property for
which this property is an attribute.

hierarchy-node-for - A property holding node IDs for a hierarchy structure of values of some other property includes
this attribute. The value of this attribute is always the name of another property in the same
type. It points to the property for whose values the hierarchy is defined.

hierarchy-node-external-key-for - A property holding the external key of a hierarchy node includes this attribute. The external key
is a human-readable identification of a node. The value of this attribute is always the name of
another property in the same type. It points to the related property holding the hierarchy node
ID.

hierarchy-level-for - A property holding level numbers for a hierarchy structure of values of some other property
includes this attribute. The value of this attribute is always the name of another property in the
same type. It points to the related property holding the hierarchy node ID. A property holding
level numbers has an integer data type. The root node of the hierarchy is at level 0.

hierarchy-parent-node-for - A property holding parent node IDs for a hierarchy structure of values of some other property
includes this attribute. The value of this attribute is always the name of another property in the
same type. It points to the related property holding the hierarchy node ID. For the root node of
the hierarchy the parent node ID is null.

hierarchy-parent-navigation-for - A navigation property for accessing the parent entity of a node. It offers an alternative method
for accessing the parent node ID, if the entity type does not have a dedicated property for that.

hierarchy-drill-state-for
- A property holding the drill state of a hierarchy node includes this attribute. The drill state is
indicated by one of the following values: collapsed, expanded, leaf. The value of this attribute
is always the name of another property in the same type. It points to the related property
holding the hierarchy node ID. For an expanded node, its children are included in the result
collection. For a collapsed node, the children are included in the entity set, but they are not part
of the result collection. Retrieving them requires a relaxed filter expression or a separate
request filtering on the parent node ID with the ID of the collapsed node. A leaf does not have
any child in the entity set.

hierarchy-node-descendant-count-for
- A property holding the descendant count for a hierarchy node includes this attribute. The
descendant count of a node is the number of its descendants in the hierarchy structure of the
result considering only those nodes matching any specified $filter and $search. The value of
this attribute is always the name of another property in the same type. It points to the related
property holding the hierarchy node ID. A property holding descendant counts has an integer
data type.

parameter - See table below

is-annotation false Represents an instance annotation.

updatable-path - If a property can be updated or not depending on the state of its entity, it can be annotated with
this attribute. The value of this attribute is always a path expression that identifies a Boolean
property in the context of the entity type. This related property indicates whether the annotated
property can be updated for the containing entity or not.

Note: if used in addition to the more expressive field-control annotation, the values of the two
must be in sync.

preserve-flag-for - See below

filter-for - A property whose value is a $filter expression includes this attribute. The $filter expression
must be valid for the entity type specified in this attribute.

Attributes sap:unit and sap:precision

Amounts in a currency or absolute measures MUST be represented as simple properties with an appropriate numeric Edm type, preferably Edm.D
ecimal. These numeric properties SHOULD refer to a string property containing the ISO currency or unit of measure with the sap:unit attribute.
They MAY refer to a numeric property containing the (non-negative) number of decimal places to be used for displaying the amount or measure
with the sap:precision attribute.
Example in metadata document:

<Property Name="OrderedQuantity" Type="Edm.Int16 " sap:unit="OrderedUnit" />

<Property Name="OrderedUnit" Type="Edm.String " sap:semantics="unit-of-measure" />
<Property Name ="Price" Type ="Edm.Decimal" Precision="10" Scale ="3" sap:unit ="Currency"
sap:precision="DisplayScale" />
<Property Name="DisplayScale" Type ="Edm.Byte" />
<Property Name="Currency" Type ="Edm.String" sap:semantics="currency-code" sap:text="CurrencyText" />
<Property Name="CurrencyText" Type="Edm.String" />

Example in Atom entry:

<d:OrderedQuantity>50</d:OrderedQuantity>
<d:OrderedUnit>KGM</d:OrderedUnit>
<d:Price>86.9</d:Price>

<d:DisplayScale>2</d:DisplayScale>
<d:Currency>EUR</d:Currency>
<d:CurrencyText>Euro</d:CurrencyText>

Using a reference attribute instead of predefined complex types like Measure or Money with amount and unit properties allows several amounts to
share the same unit. Transporting the amounts as “raw” numeric values instead of preformatted strings allows clients to format them according to
device-specific settings (that may well differ from the server-side user settings) or process them on the client (if e.g. the client is Excel).

Attribute sap:field-control
Whether a property can or must contain a value may depend on the state of its entity, so it is impossible to express this up-front via metadata
annotations. In these cases the "edit state" of the property can be expressed via a separate "field control" property, and the link between data
properties and their field-control properties is expressed with the sap:field-control attribute.

Example in metadata document:

<Property Name="Street" Type="Edm.String" sap:field-control="Address_fc" />

<Property Name="City" Type="Edm.String" sap:field-control="Address_fc" />
<Property Name="Address_fc" Type="Edm.Byte" />

The field-control property can be in the same type as shown above, or it can be in a nested complex type, or in an entity type that is associated
1:1. This allows separating field-control data from "real" data. If for example the field-control property is contained in a complex property or
navigation property named fc, the attribute value is a path relative to the parent of the annotated property, e.g. sap:field-control="fc/Address".

The possible values for a field-control property are:

Value Meaning
7 Mandatory - property must contain a value

3 Optional - property may contain a null value

1 Read-only - property cannot be changed

0 Hidden - property should not be visible on user interfaces

Attribute sap:semantics
The possible values in the context of a property are:

Value Meaning
tel Telephone number

tel;type=cell,work Work cellphone number; see explanation below table for more values

tel;type=fax Fax number

email Email address

email;type=pref Preferred email address

url Web URL

name Formatted text of the full name

givenname First name or given name of a person

middlename Middle name of a person

familyname Last name or family name of a person

nickname Descriptive name given instead of or in addtion to the one marked as "name"

honorific Title of a person (Ph.D., Dr., ...)

suffix Suffix to the name of a person

note Supplemental information or a comment that is associated with the vCard

photo URL of a photo of a person

city Address: city

street Address: street

country Address: country

region Address: state or province

zip Address: postal code

pobox Address: post office box

org Organization name

org-unit Organizational unit

org-role Organizational role

title Job title

bday Birth date

summary Calendar: summary of a calendar component

description Calendar: description of a calendar component, detailing the summary

categories Calendar: comma-separated list of categories for a calendar component

dtstart Calendar: the date and time that a calendar component starts

dtend Calendar: the date and time that a calendar component ends

duration Calendar: duration as an alternative to dtend, see xs:duration

due Calendar: the date and time that a to-do is expected to be completed

completed Calendar: the date and time that a to-do was actually completed

priority Calendar: the relative priority for a calendar component, 0 for undefined, 1 for highest, ... 9 for lowest

class Calendar: access classification for a calendar component

status Calendar: overall status or confirmation for the calendar component

percent-complete Calendar: percent completion of a to-do., ranging from 0 to 100 (integer)

contact Calendar: contact information or alternatively a reference to contact information associated with the calendar component

location Calendar: the intended venue for the activity defined by a calendar component

transp Calendar: defines whether or not an event is transparaent to busy time searches

fbtype Calendar: free/busy time type, see [ iCalendar, Section 3.2.9 ]

wholeday Calendar: "true" or "false, depending on whether an event is scheduled for an entire day

year Calendar: year as string following the regex pattern (-?)YYYY(Y*) consisting of an optional minus sign for years B.C.
followed by at least four digits

yearmonth Calendar: year and month as string following the regex pattern (-?)YYYY(Y*)MM consisting of an optional minus sign for
years B.C. followed by at least six digits, the last two digits are a number between 01 and 12 representing the months
January to December
 yearmonthday Calendar: year, month and day as string following the logical pattern (-?)YYYY(Y*)MMDD consisting of an optional minus
sign for years B.C. followed by at least eight digits, where the last four digits represent the months January to December
(MM) and the day of the month (DD). The string matches the regex pattern
-?([1-9][0-9]{3,}|0[0-9]{3})(0[1-9]|1[0-2])(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]) The regex pattern does not reflect the additional constraint for
"Day-of-month Values": The day value must be no more than 30 if month is one of 04, 06, 09, or 11, no more than 28 if
month is 02 and year is not divisible by 4, or is divisible by 100 but not by 400, and no more than 29 if month is 02 and year
is divisible by 400, or by 4 but not by 100

from Mail: author of message, see [ RFC5322, section 3.6.2 ]

sender Mail: mailbox of agent responsible for actual transmission

to Mai: comma-separated list of primary recipients, see [ RFC5322, section 3.6.3 ]

cc Mail: carbon copy, comma-separated

bcc Mail: blind carbon copy, comma-separated

subject Mail: topic of the message

body Mail: message body

keywords Mail: comma-separated list of important words and phrases that might be useful for the recipient

received Mail: DateTime the message was received

geo-lon Geolocation: longitude

geo-lat Geolocation: latitude

currency-code ISO currency code

unit-of-measure Unit of measure, preferably ISO

count Aggregation: the number of unaggregated entities that have been aggregated into the response entity (count(*) in SQL).
Only valid for one property of an entity type that is annotated with sap:semantics="aggregate".

For “tel” the type values are (see [vCard, section 6.4.1]):

"home" to indicate a telephone number associated with a residence

"work" to indicate a telephone number associated with a place of work
“pref" to indicate a preferred-use telephone number
"text" to indicate a telephone number supporting text messages (SMS)
"voice" to indicate a voice telephone number
"fax" to indicate a facsimile telephone number
"cell" to indicate a cellular telephone number
"video" to indicate a video conferencing telephone number
"pager" to indicate a paging device telephone number
"textphone" to indicate a telecommunication device for people with hearing or speech difficulties

For “email” the type values are:

"home" to indicate an email address associated with a residence

"work" to indicate an email address associated with a place of work
“pref" to indicate a preferred-use email address

For “url” and constituents of an address the type values are:

"home" to indicate an address associated with a residence

"work" to indicate an address associated with a place of work
“org" to indicate an address associated with the organization
“pref” to indicate a preferred address “other” to indicate some other address

These type values can be specified as a value list (like "type=work,pref").

Attribute sap:filter-restriction
A property can be annotated with this attribute, if filter restrictions exist. The attribute can take the following values:

Value Meaning
single-value Only a single “eq”clause is possible.
 multi-value Several “eq” clauses, separated by or, are possible.

interval At most one “ge” and one “le” clause, separated by “and”, alternatively a single “eq” clause.

Attribute sap:aggregation-role
A property can be annotated with this attribute, if it has an aggregation role. The attribute can take the following values:

Value Meaning
dimension The property represents the key of a dimension. Only valid for properties of an entity type that is annotated with
sap:semantics=“aggregate“.

measure The property represents a measure whose values will be aggregated according to the aggregating behavior of the
containing entity type. Only valid for properties of an entity type that is annotated with sap:semantics=“aggregate“.

totaled-properties-list The property value is a comma-separated list of totaled dimension property names.

Attribute sap:parameter
A property can be annotated with this attribute, if it represents a parameter. The attribute can take the following values:

Value Meaning
mandatory A value must be supplied for this parameter.

optional A value for this parameter can be left out by specifying an empty string (applicable only for parameter properties of type
Edm.String). A value for this parameter can be left out by specifying an empty string (applicable only for parameter properties of
type Edm.String). For parameters of other types, the default value conveyed in the metadata should be assigned, if the parameter
shall be omitted.

Attribute sap:preserve-flag-for
A property holding the preservation state for another property includes this attribute.
The preservation state is a Boolean flag indicating whether or not the value of a named entity property is protected against updates causedby
side-effects of updates to the entity set.
Example:
Consider an entity set holding order items with unit price, quantity, and total amount. All three properties supports preservation, as shown
here for the unit price:
<Property Name="UnitPrice" Type="Edm.Decimal" />
<Property Name="UnitPricePreserveFlag" Type="Edm.Boolean" sap:preserve-flag-for="UnitPrice" />

For a given order item, a consumer can set the preservation flag for the total amount and update the unit price. This would instruct the
provider to recalculate the quantity instead of the total amount.

Element edm:NavigationProperty
Attribute Default Meaning
Name Value
creatable true New related entities can be created

creatable-path - Related entities can be created or not depending on the state of the source entity. The value of this attribute is a path
expression that identifies a Boolean property in the context of the source entity type. The value of this property
indicates whether related entities can be created or not.

See notes in updatable-path for entity sets for combined meaning of creatable and creatable-path.

filterable true Can be used as a path segment for properties in $filter system query option

Element edm:FunctionImport
 Attribute Name Meaning
action-for Value is the qualified name of an entity type in scope. Indicates that the function or action operates on instances of that
entity type. The function import MUST have a required parameter for each key property of that entity type. Parameter name
and type must be identical to the name and type of the corresponding key property.

applicable-path Value is a path to a Boolean property in the entity type named in the action-for attribute. The property indicates whether the
function import can be invoked for the entity. The path can be the name of a Boolean property, or the name of a complex
property followed by a forward slash and the path to a Boolean property in the complex type.

label Description

planning-function This function processes or generates plan data that may be exposed by entity sets of aggregate entity types in the same
service. Its logic may have side-effects on these entity sets.

Example: a function import that allows approving a leave request. The LeaveRequest entity type has a single key property ID and a complex
property ControlData with a Boolean property NeedsApproval that controls the applicability of two alternative actions, approval and rejection:

<FunctionImport Name="LeaveRequestApproval"
ReturnType="ThisModel.ApprovalResult"
m:HttpMethod="POST"
sap:label="Approve"
sap:action-for="ThisModel.LeaveRequest"
sap:applicable-path="ControlData/NeedsApproval">
<Parameter Name="ID" Type="Edm.Guid" Mode="In" />
</FunctionImport>

<FunctionImport Name="LeaveRequestRejection"
ReturnType="ThisModel.ApprovalResult"
m:HttpMethod="POST"
sap:label="Reject"
sap:action-for="ThisModel.LeaveRequest"
sap:applicable-path="ControlData/NeedsApproval">
<Parameter Name="ID" Type="Edm.Guid" Mode="In" />
<Parameter Name="Reason" Type="Edm.String" Mode="In" />
</FunctionImport>

A function import can optionally include an annotation with an sap:value-constraint element.

Element sap:value-constraint
This element describes a dependency of function import parameters to key properties of an entity set, comparable to a referential constraint.
Example: For a function import with two parameters for country and region, the possible arguments can be determined via some Regions entity
set.

<sap:value-constraint set="Regions">
<sap: parameter-ref name="Country" />
<sap:parameter-ref name="Region" />
</sap:value-constraint>

It has a set attribute that identifies the entity set containing the list of allowed parameter value combinations.

Nested sap:parameter-ref elements link the function import parameters specified with the name attribute to a key property of the entity type of the
specified entity set. The sequence of sap:parameter-ref elements matches the sequence of the edm:PropertyRef elements of the Key element.

Element edm:Parameter

Attribute Name Meaning

label Description

Element edm:AssociationSet

Attribute Name Default Value Meaning

 creatable true Relations can be created

updatable true Relations can be changed

deletable true Relations can be deleted

Instance Annotations
An annotation of an element in the OData metadata document adds information at the structural level of the service. Sometimes extra pieces of
information are needed in the OData response for individual entities and their properties. To distinguish these two cases the former are called
metadata annotations, while annotations of the entities in the OData response are called instance annotations.
Metadata annotations add information to the model structure. They are fully described by adding the appropriate AnnotationElement or
AnnotationAttribute to a model element.
For instance annotations, this is different, because it must be possible to add different annotation values for every entity or every entity property,
respectively. Therefore, if instance annotations are relevant for instances of some entity type, the structure of the entity type gets extended by
properties specifically added for the purpose of holding annotation values in the result entities. These extra properties are also annotated with
sap:is-annotation=”true” to identify them as
annotation holders and separate them from the other properties of the entity type.
A single entity can have multiple instance annotations, for each of which an extra property gets added to the underlying type:

Zero or more for the entity itself.

Zero or more for every property contained in the entity.

Properties representing instance annotations are always introduced by AnnotationAttributes in the metadata document. The following sections
describe the possible occurrences.
Example:

<Property Name="Street" Type="Edm.String" Nullable="true" sap:field-control="Address_FC" />

<Property Name="City" Type="Edm.String" Nullable="true" sap:field-control="Address_FC" />
<Property Name="Address_FC" Type="Edm.Byte" Nullable="true" sap:is-annotation="true" />

Query Option search

Modern user interfaces typically feature a search box for entering a free-text search term, and how exactly this search term is used to find
"matching" things is up to the application. The custom query option search is intended exactly for passing such a free-text search term to the
backend and let the backend decide against which properties of each entity in the entity set the term is matched, and how. It may also be
matched against properties of related entities, e.g.
GET ~/Orders?search=blue
to find all orders with items that refer to a blue product. Service implementations using SAP NetWeaver Gateway OData Channel will receive the
search term in the parameter IV_SEARCH_STRING of method GET_ENTITYSET, see http://help.sap.com/saphelp_gateway20sp06/helpdata/en/7
b/7ea4676342455c99072ce8815f799d/frameset.htm for details.
Note that search works similar to $filter: it will return a subset of the entities that are returned when no search term is specified. And it combines
with $filter, returning only entities that fulfill both conditions.