GetMetadata

Gets specified attributes and associations for the specified metadata object.

Read methods

rc=GetMetadata(inMetadata,outMetadata,ns,flags,options);

The GetMetadata method gets specified attributes and associations for the specified SAS Metadata Model metadata object.

The method’s default behavior is to get attributes and associations that are specified in the INMETADATA parameter of the method call. As an alternative, you can set one or more flags that specify to get all attributes or all attributes and associations. For usage information, see Getting the Properties of a Specified Metadata Object.

In SAS 9.3, the method supports three new flags—OMI_FULL_OBJECT (2), OMI_UNLOCK (131072), and OMI_UNLOCK_FORCE (262144). The OMI_FULL_OBJECT flag instructs the SAS Metadata Server to use a type definition from the SAS type dictionary to identify the association names to expand when getting the specified object. The flag is effective only if the specified object is a PrimaryType subtype in the SAS Metadata Model, and only if it stores the name of a type definition in the PublicType attribute. The type definition internalizes information about the primary metadata type and associations that will be retrieved so that clients do not need to know the details of the object’s logical metadata definition. For more information, see GetMetadata and Logical Type Definitions and Using the OMI_FULL_OBJECT Flag.

Many resources and information assets are described in a SAS metadata repository by a set of associated SAS Metadata Model metadata types. The GetMetadata method has no concept of a logical metadata definition unless you set the OMI_FULL_OBJECT flag, or you specify a user-defined template that specifies association names to expand with the specified object. In SAS 9.3, the GetMetadata method supports an alternative template form that makes it easier to map a user-defined template to an object, and easier to control the scope of associated objects that are returned. For more information, see SAS 9.3 Template Changes and Creating Templates for the Get Methods. Templates are discussed in Getting Attributes and Associations of Associated Objects.

The OMI_UNLOCK and OMI_UNLOCK_FORCE flags release object locks set with the OMI_LOCK flag.

The GetMetadata method uses the US-English locale to format date, time, and datetime values. Set the OMI_NOFORMAT (67108864) flag to return these values as SAS floating-point values that you can format.

A GetMetadata method that requests associated objects and that is issued in a public repository (the foundation or a custom repository) returns associated objects from all public repositories. If you want to include associated objects that are in project repositories in a public GetMetadata request, set the OMI_DEPENDENCY_USED_BY flag.

The OMI_INCLUDE_SUBTYPES flag extends processing of user-defined templates to include associated metadata objects that are subtypes of the specified metadata object. This functionality is useful when you want to retrieve a common set of properties for multiple SAS Metadata Model metadata objects. For more information, see Using GetMetadata to Get Common Properties for Sets of Objects.

For more information about specifying GetMetadata flags, see Using IOMI Flags. For information about interdependencies between GetMetadata flags, see Combining GetMetadata Flags.

The following is an example of how to issue a GetMetadata method regardless of the programming environment. The request gets the Name, Description, and Column values of the PhysicalTable with an ID of A5345678.A5000001.

<!-- Create a metadata list to be passed to GetMetadata method -->

inMetadata= "<PhysicalTable Id="A5345678.A5000001" Name="" Desc="">
              <Columns/>
            </PhysicalTable>";
ns="SAS";
flags=0;
options="";

rc=GetMetadata(inMetadata, outMetadata, ns, flags, options);

<!-- outMetadata XML string returned -->
<PhysicalTable Id="A5345678.A5000001" Name="New Table" Desc="New Table added 
through API">
  <Columns>
    <Column Id="A5345678.A3000001" Name="New Column" Desc="New Column added 
through API"/>
    <Column Id="A5345678.A3000002" Name="New Column2" Desc="New Column2 added 
through API"/>
  </Columns>
</PhysicalTable>

The following is an example of an XML string that shows how to format the request in example 1 for the INMETADATA parameter of the DoRequest method.

<!-- XML string for inMetadata parameter of DoRequest method call -->

<GetMetadata>
  <Metadata>
    <PhysicalTable Id="A5345678.A500001" Name="" Desc="">
       <Columns/>
    </PhysicalTable>
  </Metadata>
  <NS>SAS</NS>
  <Flags>0</Flags>
  <Options/>
</GetMetadata>