Metadata Access (IOMI Interface)

Identifying Metadata

The documentation refers to "general, identifying information" about a metadata object. This phrase refers to the object's Id= and Name= attributes.

Each metadata object in a repository, such as the metadata for a particular column in a SAS table, has a unique identifier assigned to it when the object is created. Each object also has a name. For example, here is the Id= and Name= for a SAS table column, as returned by the GetMetadata method.

  <Column Id="A2345678.A3000001" Name="New Column"/>

Id=

refers to the unique identifier assigned to a metadata object. It has the form reposid.instanceid. For example, in the previous example, the Id= for the Column object is A2345678.A3000001.

The reposid is assigned to a metadata repository by the SAS Metadata Server when the repository is created. A reposid is a unique character string that identifies the metadata repository that stores the object.

The instanceid is assigned to a metadata object by the SAS Metadata Server when the object is created. An instanceid is a unique character string that distinguishes one metadata object from other metadata objects of the same metadata type.

Name=

refers to the user-defined name of the metadata object. An object name is a non-null value up to 60 characters. The name cannot start or end with a white space character, or contain /, \, or control characters. Names can contain Unicode characters, subject to the previously noted restrictions. In the previous example, the Name= value of the table column is New Column.

Note: Because different repository systems use different ID formats, do not make assumptions about the internal format of the Id= attribute. [cautionend]

CAUTION:: Do not attempt to assign Id= values in a client application.
Let the SAS Metadata Server assign identifiers to new objects.

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