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MetadataObject Base Class

  • Article

MetadataObject class is the abstract base class of most Business Data Catalog classes.

Schema

All MetadataObject objects share the following characteristics.

Child Type Occurs Default Limits / Accepted Values Description

Name

Attribute (String)

1..1

Min. length: 1

Max. length: 250

(255 in administration)

Programmatic name of the metadata object. After metadata is in use, do not change the metadata object name or applications using the metadata object fail.

DefaultDisplayName

Attribute (String)

0..1

Min. length: 1

Max. length: 255

If there is no suitable LocalizedDisplayName, the UI displays DefaultDisplayName. If there is no DefaultDisplayName, the UI displays Name.

IsCached

Attribute (Boolean)

0..1

true

If false, the Business Data Catalog does not cache the metadata object in memory.

LocalizedDisplayNames

Element

0..1

100 localized names per metadata object

Container element for LocalizedDisplayName.

Properties

Element

0..1

50 properties per metadata object

Container element for Property.

LocalizedDisplayName

A localized display name is the string representation of a metadata object in a particular locale.

Example

<Entity Name="Customer">
  <LocalizedDisplayNames>
    <LocalizedDisplayName LCID="1033">Customer</LocalizedDisplayName>
    <LocalizedDisplayName LCID="1034">Cliente</LocalizedDisplayName>
  </LocalizedDisplayNames>
  . . .
</Entity>

Schema

Child Type Occurs Default Limits / Accepted Values Description

#text

Text

1..1

Min length: 1

Max length: 255

The string representation of a metadata object in the locale specified by the LCID attribute.

LCID

Attribute (String) should be int

1..1

String representation of a non-negative integer

Identifier of the locale to which the localized display name applies.

Property

Properties are typed values associated with metadata objects. Some properties control the behavior of the Business Data Catalog; others enhance features based on the Business Data Catalog such as business data Web Parts or business data in lists. Properties used by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 are documented under the relevant metadata object.

Important

Properties are case-sensitive.

Example

<Entity Name="Customer>
  <Properties>
    <Property Name="Title" Type="System.String">CustomerName</Property>
  </Properties>
</Entity>

Schema

Child Type Occurs Default Limits / Accepted Values Description

#text

Text

1..1

Min length: 1

Value of the property.

If the type is a DateTime value, the value is a string in the DateTimeFormatInfo.UniversalSortableDateTimePattern format.

If the type is a subclass of Enum, the value is the string representation of the enumeration value.

If the type is a GUID, the value is of the format "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX"

If the type is a "primitive" (Int16, Int32, Int64, Single, Double, Decimal, Boolean, String, Byte, and so on), the value is a string representation of the type (Business Data Catalog internally uses XmlReader.ReadElementContentAsString()).

If the type is any other serializable type, the value is a binary-formatted, base64-encoded string.

Name

Attribute (String)

1..1

Min length: 1

Max length: 250

Name must not collide with built-in property names.

Type

Attribute (String)

1..1

System.Int16

System.Int32

System.Int64

System.Single

System.Double

System.Decimal

System.Boolean

System.String

System.Byte

System.UInt16

System.UInt32

System.UInt64

System.Guid

System.String

System.DateTime

Any other serializable type (such as where Type.IsSerializable == true)

The Type of the property.