Accessing metadata

Complete metadata access is provided by reading the dictionary using corresponding Property and Value functions. Metadata objects as being described in Reference documentation/ODABA Model reference. When, however, using metadata within an application, metadata is converted into interval format, which is linked with appropriate access handles. Using metadata access handles is simpler in many cases and provides also additional run-time metadata information.

One may request type definitions directly from the dictionary (Dictionary::typeDefinition()) or from a property handle or value (Property::typeDefinition(), Value::typeDefinition()).

Since metadata forms a hierarchy, metadata object provide access to other metadata objects:

    PropertyDefinition

        typeDefinition (1)

        subset (n)

        superset (n)

    TypeDefinition

        propertyDefinition (n)

        enumeratorDefinition (n)

        keyDefinition (n)

        indexDefinition (n)

    EnumeratorDefinition

        enumeratorDefinition (n)

    IndexDefinition

        keyDefinition (n)

Key definitions are returned as type definitions and do not create a separate metadata object type. Subset and super set are property definitions, again.