Overview

We are introducing a completely new metadata model that transfers the control over how and what information is captured from the hands of developers back to you – system administrators. This model is based on the premise of simplifying the metadata structure by flattening it. This approach allows us to represent the metadata as relatively simple database table which can be queried both from within Earthlight EVO as well as via database reporting software e.g.: SQL Server Reporting Service, Crystal Reports, BOARD and many others.

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You can see that the configuration interface is very similar to Aurora AutoForm creator. We found the Aurora AutoForm creator to have an easy learning curve thus enabling users to build complex forms after a very short time. We wanted to replicate this experience with the metadata editor and this is why we opted for this familiar interface.

Definitions

Types

1. Tab – this type controls grouping of metadata fields in metadata editor. It is used exclusively for metadata editor purpose and has no representation in the metadata table.
   1. MetadataField – this type defines the actual metadata field – its name, control type, label, initial value, etc. Each simple MetadataField is represented by a metadata table column. Complex MetadataFields, just like Tabs, have no representation in the metadata table.

The specifics of simple and complex metadata fields are covered in the next section.

Controls

There are six simple control types and one complex type of controls. Below is a list of available control types with a short description of each of them.

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There was a lot of Composite containers and we set the Max items count on each of them at 5. This means 5 Points of Contact, 5 Resource Locators, 5 Responsible Parties, 5 Temporal Extents, 5 Geographic Bounding Boxes, etc. We ended up with a metadata table just shy of 200 columns. You could think it’s a lot but it is not a problem for the modern relational database management systems (RDBMS).

Creating a model

If you want to create new metadata model, please go to METADATA (1) tab. If no other metadata model is open you can start creating your model straight away. If there is already a model open please click Create (2) to clear the workspace.

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First you should add a tab by clicking Add new tab (3) so your controls are grouped together. When a Tab entry is on the list please select it (4) and start adding fields via Add new field (5) button. If you wish to delete a field or a tab, just select it on the list and click Delete (6). You can also change field ordering by selecting a field on the list and clicking Change Order (7). You can also see that this is a brand new model as both the Table and Last synchronisation (8) read: N/A.

Modifying an existing model

You can use Open tool if you wish to modify an existing metadata model. Upon executing this tool a new window will show up presenting you with all metadata models created and saved previously. When you click an entry on the list, this model will be opened and the structure of fields and tabs will be shown.  You will also be able to see the name of the database table that embodiments the model as well as the date of last synchronisation between the model and the table.

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