MVC 4 WebApi with PowerPivot?

Question

Does anyone know if MVC 4 WebApi can (or will) be consumable in power-pivot?

Web API can provide OData format feeds at this point but I think the heart of this specific question is if Excel PowerPivot will connect to it. The PowerPivot expects some kind of method list available at the Source URL when you setup your feed connection. WCF Data Services provides this OOTB but Web API does not. — Oliver Gray, Jan 10 '13 at 14:11

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 14 '13 at 16:14

2

Web API itself does not have built-in support for exposing endpoints in the OData format. We are planning on adding OData support via an add-on that will ship in the future.

edited Nov 14 '13 at 16:14

SteveC

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answered Jun 01 '12 at 01:25

marcind

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Any idea how soon this will ship? In the meantime, should WCF Data Services be used? – Shane Castle Aug 31 '12 at 20:50
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@ShaneCusson a preview version is available here: http://nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.OData/0.1.0-alpha-120815. More discussion about dates here: http://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/discussions/391903 or here: http://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/discussions/359229. – marcind Aug 31 '12 at 22:50

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 31 '12 at 13:08

1

I think if you expose an IQueryable<T>, it exposes it as a OData feed.

I found this.

http://codebetter.com/johnvpetersen/2012/03/22/bringing-odata-to-your-webapi-just-use-iqueryable/

answered May 31 '12 at 13:08

Daniel A. White

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My understanding is that exposing an IQueriable interface through a WebApi will enable you to use the OData URL convention's for query composition, but that wont necessarily enable PowerPivot – cmilhench May 31 '12 at 14:15
are you talking about the excel power pivot or the bi one? – Daniel A. White May 31 '12 at 16:16

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 14 '13 at 16:19

It works fine in Excel 2013 as a data source. In earlier versions e.g. Excel 2010 there is a workaround described here: http://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/workitem/820

Basically the default output is JSON and Excel didn't send the proper Accept header to receive XML. So you have to add this to your Web API's start-up Register function:

IList<ODataMediaTypeFormatter> odataFormatters 
                                   = ODataMediaTypeFormatters.Create();
var jsonFormatter = odataFormatters
       .First(f => f.SupportedMediaTypes
                    .Contains(MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse("application/json")));
odataFormatters.Remove(jsonFormatter);
odataFormatters.Add(jsonFormatter);
config.Formatters.InsertRange(0, odataFormatters);

MVC 4 WebApi with PowerPivot?

3 Answers3