DATABASEMETADATA()

Purpose

Function to return a 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 Editor, 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"}'