WebApi (ApiController) vs OData (ODataController) in ASP.Net MVC

Question

Can anybody list out the difference between WebAPI and OData Controllers?

Answer 1

WebApi is an application type (maybe a framework) used to facilitate the applications intercommunications between different platforms (web, mobile, windows). OData is a communication protocol supported by the WebApi infraesctructure. The OData's goal is to provide an uniform way to create CRUD (create, retrieve, update and delete) operations.

In WebApi you are kinda limited to the HTTP verbs (GET, PUT, DELETE, POST) and the OData (ODataController) adds new endpoints to facilitate the datasets manipulation.