SAS provides the IOMI server interface and SAS Java Metadata
Interface for reading and writing metadata. The IOMI server interface
and SAS Java Metadata Interface create and manipulate specific instances
of SAS Metadata Model metadata types.
Most
resources and information assets that are managed in a SAS Metadata
Repository are described by a set of SAS Metadata Model metadata types,
rather than by just one metadata type. For example, a SAS table is
described by the PhysicalTable, Column, Index, UniqueKey, and ForeignKey
metadata types. The set of metadata types that describe a resource
or information asset is referred to as the object’s
logical metadata definition. A logical metadata definition
typically includes a primary metadata type and several associated
secondary metadata types.
When using the SAS Open Metadata Interface or SAS Java
Metadata Interface to create metadata, it is your responsibility to
define an object’s logical metadata definition. You do this
by examining the SAS Metadata Model, and then selecting the metadata
types that best describe the components of the resource or information
asset that you are defining. Then, you make one or more requests to
the SAS Metadata Server that define the objects and associations between
the objects to create the logical metadata definition.
A SAS Open Metadata Interface and SAS
Java Metadata Interface query method gets a specific SAS Metadata
Model object instance, or it gets all object instances of a specified
SAS Metadata Model metadata type, and it gets specified attributes
and associations. In the past, if you wanted to get an entity’s
full logical metadata definition in a query method request, you had
to create and submit templates that identified the association names
and secondary metadata types, which compose the logical metadata definition,
in the request.
The SAS Metadata Model is structured to distinguish PrimaryType
subtypes from SecondaryType subtypes to facilitate the metadata type
selection process for creating logical metadata definitions.
Beginning in SAS 9.2,
SAS took steps to improve consistency in the look and feel of SAS
applications through the introduction of the SAS Folders tree and
a SAS type dictionary. The SAS Folders tree is a feature of SAS Management
Console, SAS Data Integration Studio, SAS OLAP Cube Studio, and other
SAS applications.
In order for an object
to appear in the SAS Folder tree, it must be of an object type that
is registered in the dictionary. For object types that are persisted
in metadata, an aspect of the dictionary is that it standardizes the
primary metadata type and association names used to retrieve their
logical metadata definition, and makes it easier to retrieve a logical
metadata definition.
This section describes
the dictionary and how it affects Read and Write operations with the
interfaces described in this book.