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