How do I query the OData/REST API in 2013 effectively using JavaScript?

Question

I want to use the improved OData/REST API in Sharepoint 2013 but it's hard to find good examples. As I see it, the OData-endpoint is of little use without a dedicated OData client library. With plain jQuery there's so much boilerplate I'd might as well just use JSOM and CAML.

So far I've found data.js, a low level library and JayData and Breeze.js, both depend on data.js. I have yet to find any code samples with any of these libraries being used in the context of Sharepoint.

Does anyone else have any know how on the subject?

Answer 1

This article on MSDN shows some examples of using jQuery.ajax calls:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj164022.aspx

Here is a good blog as well:

http://blog.concentra.co.uk/2013/02/06/odata/

The only gotcha at all with calling the SharePoint 2013 REST API is that if you are doing anything other than GET, you have to add the custom X-RequestDigest header for security, and the If-Match for concurrency checking. Both are covered in the blog article.