SAS Namespace Submodels

Resource Submodel

The Resource submodel contains the metadata types that are used to describe physical objects such as files, directories, SAS libraries, SAS catalogs, and catalog entries.

Metadata Types

The following metadata types, relevant to the Resource submodel, are categorized as Container, Content, and Other. Click on a metadata type to display its attributes and associations.

	AnalyticContext
	ArchiveEntry
	ArchiveFile
	ContentLocation
	ContentType
	DeployedDataPackage
	Device
	DeviceType
	Directory
	File
	Memory
	RelationalSchema
	Report
	SASCatalog
	SASCatalogEntry
	SASFileRef
	SASLibrary
	Stream
	Text
	TextStore

Container Types

The AnalyticContext, Directory, SASLibrary, SASCatalog, RelationalSchema and TablePackage metadata types describe containers for data and are subtyped from the metadata type DeployedDataPackage. TablePackage is the supertype for all data containers that contain relational tables. The DatabaseCatalog, DatabaseSchema and OLAPSchema metadata types are also subtyped from DeployedDataPackage, but these metadata types are contained in the Relational and Analysis submodels, respectively (see Relational Submodel and Analysis Submodel).

Content Types

The content metadata types describe physical location and are subtyped from the ContentLocation metadata type. These include file metadata types, text metadata types, and other location metadata types.

Text Metadata Types

The text metadata types are supertypes for the content metadata types and represent a physical container for data. Unfortunately, the name "text" is a misnomer for these metadata types, because binary as well as textual information might be represented by the Text metadata type. Metadata types that represent files, SAS catalogs, and URLs as well as the TextStore metadata type, which contains data stored directly in the metadata repository, are all subtyped from the Text metadata type. The Document metadata type, which is used to represent a URI, is also subtyped from Text.

File Metadata Types

The file metadata types are File and ArchiveFile. An ArchiveFile can be a TAR or Zip file and acts as both a file and a container for ArchiveEntry metadata objects.

Entry Metadata Types

These metadata types describe objects that are an entry in some other physical object. SASCatalogEntry is an entry in a SASCatalog. ArchiveEntry is an entry in an ArchiveFile.

Device Metadata Types

The device metadata types represent other physical resources. They are Device, which is used to represent printers and terminals; Memory, which represents memory in a computer; and Stream, Connection, and Email, which represent ways of delivering information. The DeviceType metadata type represents information about supported devices, including display information.

Other Metadata Types

The SASFileRef metadata type is used specifically with SAS software to identify the physical location used by SAS software. The Report metadata type is a generic metadata type subtyped from the Classifier metadata type (refer to the Foundation Submodel) that is used to describe the result of transforming data into another representation such as a textual table or a graph.

Usage

The metadata types in the Resource submodel are used to define the location and type of data sources and how the data is to be delivered.

A file, for example, has a name and a physical location in a file system. The File metadata type is used with an associated Directory metadata object. In addition, this file may be referenced by a SASFileref metadata object.

A Zip file is considered an ArchiveFile. The ArchiveFile contains entries represented by an ArchiveEntry. There is also an associated Directory.

SAS applications may need to reference a SASCatalog metadata object. The SASCatalog also has associated SASCatalogEntry objects. A SASCatalog is located by a SAS application through the SASLibrary metadata object. For more information about defining a SASLibrary metadata object, see Usage Scenario: Creating Metadata for a SASLibrary.

A Report can have a location in a file system. If it does, there would be an associated File or Directory metadata object. A Report can also be delivered in other ways. For example, the Report can be sent directly to a printer Device or an Email account. A Report can also be a static item that is stored, or it could be created by a Transformation which is also defined in the metadata. The resulting report would be a ClassifierTarget of a ClassifierMap. For more information about defining transformations, see Usage Scenario: Creating Metadata for a Stored Process.

Data sources can be requested by a variety of devices. Each device has limitations on the content that can be displayed. The ContentType metadata type should be associated with any type of content to aid applications in determining whether the content can be used and the best way to use it.

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