To read or write a metadata
object, you must pass a string of properties that describe the object
to the SAS Metadata Server. This property string is passed to the
server in the INMETADATA parameter of the method call.
A metadata object is
described by the following:
-
-
attributes that are specific to
the metadata object, such as its ID, name, description, and other
characteristics
-
its associations with other metadata
objects
The SAS Open Metadata
Interface supports the following XML elements for defining a metadata
property string:
identifies the SAS
Metadata Model metadata type that you want to read or write, enclosed
in angle brackets. See the
SAS Metadata Model: Reference for information about supported metadata types. The following example
shows the XML element representing the PhysicalTable metadata type:
<PhysicalTable></PhysicalTable>
A shorthand method of specifying this XML element is as follows:
<PhysicalTable/>
specifies the attributes
of the metadata type as XML attributes (enclosed in the angle brackets
of the metadata type). The following example shows the PhysicalTable
metadata type with "NE Sales" as the Name attribute.
<PhysicalTable Name="NE Sales"/>
association name and associated metadata type subelements
describe the relationship
between the metadata object in the main XML element and one or more
other metadata types as nested XML elements. For example:
<PhysicalTable Name="NE Sales"/>
<Columns>
<Column/>
</Columns>
</PhysicalTable> The SAS Metadata Model
defines the association names that are supported for every metadata
type, as well as the associated metadata types that are valid for
each association name. In this example, the first nested element,
Columns, is the association name subelement. The association name
is a label that describes the relationship between the main XML element
and the associated object subelement.
The second nested element,
Column, is the associated object subelement. The associated object
subelement specifies the associated metadata type that you are interested
in. The Columns association name supports associated objects of the
metadata types Column and ColumnRange. By specifying Column in the
property string, you indicate to the SAS Metadata Server that you are interested
only in associated objects of this metadata type.
The attributes that
you specify in the input metadata property string depend on the method
in which it will be used. For example, a metadata property string
that is submitted to the AddMetadata method would not specify the Id
attribute, as the server assigns a value for this attribute when the
metadata object is created. The main element in a metadata property
string for the UpdateMetadata and GetMetadata methods must specify
the Id attribute.
CAUTION:
To meet
XML parsing rules, the metadata type, attribute, association, and
associated metadata type names that you specify in the metadata property
string must exactly match those published in the metadata type documentation.