DATABASEMETADATA()
Contents
Purpose
Function to return the current database's metadata as a character string
Syntax
DATABASEMETADATA([<cDatabase>])
See Also
ACLASS(), ADDPROPERTY(), ALTER DATABASE, AMEMBERS(), COLUMNMETADATA(), COMPOBJ(), CREATE DATABASE, CREATEOBJECT(), DEFINE CLASS, DISPLAY CLASSES, DODEFAULT(), FOREACH, JSON_DECODE(), JSON_DECODE_FILE(), JSON_ENCODE(), LIST CLASSES, LOADOBJECT(), METADATA_DECODE(), METADATA_ENCODE(), METADATA_FINDTYPE(), NEWOBJECT(), OBJECT(), PRINT_JSON(), PRINT_HTML(), PRINT_R(), PRINT_XML(), REMOVEPROPERTY(), REQUIRE_ONCE(), SAVEOBJECT(), SQL SELECT, SOCKET_CLOSE(), SOCKET_LASTERROR(), SOCKET_OPEN(), SOCKET_PEEK(), SOCKET_READ(), SOCKET_SERVER(), SOCKET_WRITE(), TABLEMETADATA(), TABLEMETADATAVERSION(), WITH, XML_DECODE_FILE()
Description
The DATABASEMETADATA() function returns the current database's metadata as a character string. If the optional <cDatabase> database name character string is specified, DATABASEMETADATA() operates on the specified database.
Database metadata can be defined using the MetaData Editor in the Data workspace or using the CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE SQL commands.
Database metadata is stored in the <database-basename>.cad file in the database's directory.
Example
// Current database open database southwind ? databasemetadata() // Specified database close database ? databasemetadata("southwind") // Name value pairs for use with the MetaData Editor alter database southwind metadata "company=Lianja Inc.;contact=sales@lianja.com" open database southwind ? databaseMetaData() // --> 'company=Lianja Inc.;contact=sales@lianja.com' // Assignments are not cumulative alter database southwind metadata "purpose=Sample Database" open database southwind ? databaseMetaData() // --> 'purpose=Sample Database' // Specifying an empty string clears the metadata alter database southwind metadata "" open database southwind ? databaseMetaData() // --> '' // JSON string alter database sw2 metadata '{"purpose":"Documentation Test Database","owner":"Yvonne Milne"}' open database sw2 ? databasemetadata() // --> '{"purpose":"Documentation Test Database","owner":"Yvonne Milne"}'