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Managing and Manipulating Metadata in Commerce Foundation

Management of the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation metadata consists of managing the Commerce Server metadata and managing the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation Metadata Repository. The management of the Commerce Server metadata is performed by using the Commerce Server tools provided out-of-the-box:

  • Commerce Server Manager

  • Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager

  • Customer and Orders Manager

Since one of the main design goals for the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation metadata is to allow all the Commerce Server provided metadata to flow through the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation and become available through the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation Metadata object model, most of the metadata management is done in the Commerce Server itself using the tools and the techniques provided by the Commerce Server. To make the Commerce Server metadata available in the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation you will list the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation Commerce Entities and their mappings to the Commerce Server types in the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation Metadata Repository.

The Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation Metadata Repository is an XML file and can be edited by using any XML editing tool, and is enforced using the Metadata Repository schema (MetadataDefinitions.xsd) file which can be deployed your Visual Studio XML\Schemas subfolder of the folder, or it may be specified in the catalog.xml file.

The Metadata Repository file can be deployed to any server where it can be accessed by the Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation service. The metadataRepositoryPath attribute of the Site node specifies the Metadata Repository file location.

For example:

<ServiceConfiguration>
  <Sites>
    <Site sitename="SampleSite" 
    metadataRepositoryPath=".\SampleSiteMetadataDefinitions.xml">
    <!-- Content removed for brevity -->
    </Site>
  </Sites>
    <!-- Content removed for brevity -->
</ServiceConfiguration>

See Also

Other Resources

Working with Metadata in Commerce Foundation

Commerce Foundation Metadata

Commerce Foundation Metadata Repository Design

Commerce Foundation Metadata Flow Through Rules

Commerce Foundation Metadata API Reference

Commerce Foundation Property Metadata