SAS/Warehouse Administrator Metadata Types

WHEXTATR

Metadata type for extended attributes

Category:

Extended Attribute Type

Parent
Overview
Properties
Using WHEXTATR
	Reading EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE

Parent

WHROOT

Overview

WHEXTATR models the metadata for the EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE property in SAS/Warehouse Administrator. Extended attributes store site-defined metadata that is not part of the standard metadata for that object.

For each object that supports the EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE property, you can enter one or more EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE records. Each EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE record has a field for NAME, DESCRIPTION, and VALUE. For example, here is an EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE record for a table that is named Sales Detail Data:

NAME:	Sales Detail Data Web Page
DESCRIPTION:	URL to Web doc for Sales Detail table
VALUE:	http://www.ourserver.com/warehouse1/tables/sales_dd.html

Note: Each EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE record for a given element must have a unique NAME. [cautionend]

Most SAS/Warehouse Administrator Explorer objects, some columns within objects, and all process objects in the Process Editor (Data Mappings, User Exits, Extractions, and so on) provide access to an EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE property.

In the SAS/Warehouse Administrator interface, to add extended attributes to an Explorer object or a process, display the property window for that object or process, select File Extensions from the pull-down menu, and enter the extended attribute.

In the SAS/Warehouse Administrator interface, to add extended attributes to a table column, display the property window for the table, go the Columns tab, select a column, then select Edit Column Extensions from the pull-down menu, and enter the extended attribute.

Properties

The following table lists all of the properties for WHEXTATR and indicates how you can use each property with metadata API methods.

In the table, you can specify properties with a Yes in the Indirect Add column when you indirectly add one object through another, as described in the documentation for the _UPDATE_METADATA_ method. Use this approach to add a new dependent object. For details, see Using _UPDATE_METADATA_.

You can pass properties with a Yes in the Update column to the _UPDATE_METADATA_ method, as described in the documentation for this method. Use this method to update properties of an existing object. For details, see Using _UPDATE_METADATA_.

* Req indicates that the property is required; you must provide a value for this property when you use a given method. * Default indicates that the system will provide a default value for that property if you do not provide one. * Auto supplied means that the property is automatically supplied; any value that you specify for such a property is ignored.

Properties with a Yes in the Read Method Expand Parm column are valid with the expand parameter of the _GET_METADATA_ method. This method enables you to get detailed metadata about a property and its associated objects through a single method call.

Properties	Type	Indirect Add	Update Method	Read Method Expand Parm.
CValue	C	Yes	No	No
Desc	C	Yes	Yes	No
Extended Attributes	L	No	No	No
Id	C	* Auto supplied	* Req	No
Metadata Created	C	* Auto supplied	No	No
Metadata Updated	C	* Auto supplied	No	No
Name	C	Yes	No	No
Note	L	Yes	No	No
NValue	N	Yes	No	No
Object	L	* Auto supplied	No	No
Type	C	* Default (defaults to "C")	No	No
Value	C	Yes	Yes	No

New Properties for WHEXTATR are as follows:

OBJECT

specifies an SCL list of general identifying information about the object that owns this extended attribute.

TYPE

represents the one-character string that indicates whether the extended attribute is numeric or character.

N -- numeric type extended attribute (not supported in this release).

C -- character type extended attribute.

VALUE

represents the 200-character string that contains the extended attribute text (such as a URL or file path).

Using WHEXTATR

Add	Update	Delete
No	No	Yes

WHEXTATR is a dependent type.

You can add, update, or delete the EXTENDED ATTRIBUTES property from any type under WHROOT that supports the appropriate method (_ADD_METADATA, and so on).

The EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE property behaves like the COLUMN property list does on the WHTABLE type. You can pass the EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE property with the _ADD_METADATA method that adds the owning object. After the owning object exists, you can add new attributes by using the _UPDATE_METADATA method on the owning object.

To update an existing attribute, send the _UPDATE_METADATA method to the attribute itself. To remove an attribute from an owning object, send the _DELETE_METADATA method to the attribute itself.

Reading EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE

If the _GET_METADATA_ method is called on an API object that has an extended attribute, the VALUE property of the extended attribute will be returned even when the expand parameter is set to 0 for the _GET_METADATA_ call.

In general, it is good practice to use the SCL UPCASE or LOWCASE functions to read text values, as with the _GET_METADATA_ method. This is especially useful in reading the NAME, DESCRIPTION, and VALUE fields in the EXTENDED ATTRIBUTE property. The text in these fields is stored as the user entered them, and it can be in mixed case.

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