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Use a browser with REST data services

The eXtreme Scale REST data service creates ATOM feeds by default when using a web browser. The ATOM feed format may not be compatible with older browsers or may be interpreted such that the data cannot be viewed as XML. The following topics provide details on how to configure Internet Explorer Version 8 and Firefox v3 to display the ATOM feeds and XML within the browser.

The eXtreme Scale REST data service creates ATOM feeds by default when using a web browser. The ATOM feed format may not be compatible with older browsers or may be interpreted such that the data cannot be viewed as XML. For older browsers, we will be prompted to save the files to disk. Once the files are downloaded, use the favorite XML reader to look at the files. The generated XML is not formatted to be displayed, so everything will be printed on one line. Most XML reading programs, such as Eclipse, support reformatting the XML into a readable format.

For modern browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer v8 and Firefox v3, the ATOM XML files can be displayed natively in the browser. The following topics provide details on how to configure Internet Explorer v8 and Firefox Version 3 to display the ATOM feeds and XML within the browser.

Procedure

Configure Internet Explorer v8

• To enable Internet Explorer to read the ATOM feeds that the REST data service generates use the following steps.:

  1. Click Tools > Internet Options

  2. Select the Content tab

  3. Click the Sets button in the Feeds and Web Slices section

  4. Uncheck the box: "Turn on feed reading view"

  5. Click OK to return to the browser.

  6. Restart Internet Explorer.

Configure Firefox v3

• Firefox does not automatically display pages with content type: application/atom+xml. The first time a page is displayed, Firefox prompts you to save the file. To display the page, open the file itself with Firefox...

  1. From the application chooser dialog box, select the "Open with" radio button and click the Browse button.

  2. Navigate to the Firefox installation directory. For example: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

  3. Select firefox.exe and hit the OK button.

  4. Check the “Do this automatically for files like this…” check box.

  5. Click the OK button.

  6. Next, Firefox displays the ATOM XML page in a new browser window or tab

• Firefox automatically renders ATOM feeds in readable format. However, the feeds that the REST data service creates include XML. Firefox cannot display the XML unless you disable the feed renderer. Unlike Internet Explorer, in Firefox, the ATOM feed rendering plug-in must be explicitly edited. To configure Firefox to read ATOM feeds as XML files, follow these steps:

  1. Open the following file in a text editor: <firefoxInstallRoot>\components\FeedConverter.js. In the path, <firefoxInstallRoot> is the root directory where Firefox is installed.

     For Windows operating systems, the default directory is: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox.

  2. Search for the snippet that looks...

     // show the feed page if it wasn't sniffed and we have a document,
     // or we have a document, title, and link or id
     if (result.doc && (!this._sniffed ||
         (result.doc.title && (result.doc.link || result.doc.id)))) {
     

  3. Comment out the two lines that begin with if and result by placing // (two forward slashes) in front of them.

  4. Append the following statement to the snippet: if(0) {.

  5. The resulting text should look...

     // show the feed page if it wasn't sniffed and we have a document,
     // or we have a document, title, and link or id
     //if (result.doc && (!this._sniffed ||
     //    (result.doc.title && (result.doc.link || result.doc.id)))) {
     if(0) {
     

  6. Save the file.

  7. Restart Firefox

  8. Now Firefox can automatically display all feeds in the browser.

• Test the setup by trying some URLs.

Example

This section describes some example URLs that can be used to view the data that was added by the getting started sample provided with the eXtreme Scale REST data service. Before using the following URLs, add the default data set to the eXtreme Scale sample grid using either the sample Java™ client or the sample Visual Studio WCF Data Services client.

The following examples assume the port is 8080 which can vary. See section for details on how to configure the REST data service on different application servers.

• View a single customer with the id of "ACME":

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/Customer('ACME') 
  

• View all of the orders for customer "ACME":

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/Customer('ACME')/orders 
  

• View the customer "ACME" and the orders:

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/Customer('ACME')?$expand=orders 
  

• View order 1000 for customer "ACME":

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/Order(orderId=1000,customer_customerId='ACME') 
  

• View order 1000 for customer "ACME" and its associated Customer:

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/
  Order(orderId=1000,customer_customerId='ACME')?$expand=customer
  

• View order 1000 for customer "ACME" and its associated Customer and OrderDetails:

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/
  Order(orderId=1000,customer_customerId='ACME')?$expand=customer,orderDetails 
  

• View all orders for customer "ACME" for the month of October, 2009 (GMT):

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/
  Customer(customerId='ACME')/orders?$filter=orderDate 
  ge datetime'2009-10-01T00:00:00' 
  and orderDate lt datetime'2009-11-01T00:00:00' 
  

• View all the first 3 orders and orderDetails for customer "ACME" for the month of October, 2009 (GMT):

  http://localhost:8080/wxsrestservice/restservice/NorthwindGrid/
  Customer(customerId='ACME')/orders?$filter=orderDate 
  ge datetime'2009-10-01T00:00:00' 
  and orderDate lt datetime'2009-11-01T00:00:00'
  &$orderby=orderDate&$top=3&$expand=orderDetails
  

Parent topic:

REST data services sample and tutorial

Related concepts

Enable the REST data service

Related tasks

Configure application servers for the REST data service

Use a Java client with REST data services

Related reference

Directory conventions

Visual Studio 2008 WCF client with REST data service

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